India 2018

252 India 2018
Social Media
The Department has stepped into Publicity campaigns through Social Media
channels since December, 2015 as per the approved Social Media policy. Social
Media activities are also being regularly undertaken through the official Twitter
account i.e. @IncomeTaxIndia. The twitter account of the Department has more
than 1,00,000 followers.
Central Board of Excise and Customs
Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) deals with formulation of policy
concerning levy and collection of Customs, Central Excise duties and Service
Tax, prevention of smuggling and evasion of duties and all administrative
matters relating to Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax formations. The
main objectives of CBEC are to collect indirect tax revenues, improve tax payer
services, to improve compliance for fair trade and enforcement of border controls
and promote efficiency and transparency and develop human resources for
such purposes. The CBEC consists of a Chairman and 6 members.
Dispute Settlement and Appeal: The Officers of Customs, Excise and Service Tax
have powers to adjudicate cases under the Customs Act, 1962, the Central Excise
Act, 1944 and Service Tax laws (Finance Act, 1994). The appellate machinery
comprising the Commissioners (Appeals) deals with appeals against the orders
passed by the officers lower in rank than Commissioner of Customs and Central
Excise. The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, CESTAT (earlier
Customs Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal) is an independent forum
to hear the appeals against orders and decisions passed by the Commissioners
of Customs and Excise under the Customs Act, 1962, Central Excise Act, 1944
and a Second appellate forum against orders passed by Commissioner
(Appeals).
Customs
The Indian customs EDI system (ICES) is an EDI based work flow application
which enables (i) electronic filing and processing of import and export
declarations/manifests (ii) system appraisal of select goods (iii) messaging with
custodians and other agencies concerned with cargo clearance. Implemented
at 214 locations, ICES cover more than 98 per cent of the country's international
trade consignment wise and 90 per cent value wise. With more than 200 crore
hits annually, the e-commerce web portal, Indian Customs EDI Gateway
(ICEGATE), is the single point of interaction between ICES and Partners in the
Customs community and provides such services as registration, e-filing, e-
payment, document status and helpdesk as well as data exchange between
customs and various regulatory and licensing authorities and facilitation of
compliant trade ( with concomitant reduction in transaction costs and cargo
dwell time) and targeting of non-compliant or risky transactions is achieved
through the risk management system. In 2016, CBEC launched single window
interface for facilitating trade (SWIFT) at all customs EDI locations with six
major participating government agencies(PGAs), as a single point interface for