Recently, a grand celebration in Mumbai commemorated the 60-year-long journey of FFFAI. Alongside, on 13th December 2022, another momentous day was celebrated by CBIC as the Customs Act, 1962 completed its 60 years.
The event took place at the Press Information Burea, Delhi with Shri Rajiv Talwar, Member, Customs delivering the welcome address and with the Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman and the Union Minister of State for Finance, Shri Pankaj Chaudhary presiding as the Chief Guest and Guest of Honour, respectively.
Drawing an analogy from the Indian cultural traditions, Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharamanremarked compared the event with Shashtipurti and looked back at the 60-year-long journey made. Most importantly, she talked about the robustness of the act during the pandemic times and how it helped facilitate individuals, companies, and consignments – big or small. She also hinted at the upcoming challenges and placed her trust in the customs officers in handling them proactively in a seamless and efficient manner.
In addition, MoS Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary talked about the history of Customs and Customs duty, drawing examples from Kautilya’s Arthshastra. He also commended the people behind the Turant Customs which has increasingly helped people to facilitate trade through its faceless, paperless, and contactless assessments. Besides, he appealed to everyone to be ready to welcome technology as a friend and be prepared to tackle the challenges together in the upcoming days. Other notable speakers at the event included Revenue Secretary Shri Sanjay Malhotra who stressed on introspection of the past events and Chairman of CBIC Shri Vivek Johri who highlighted the issues on Trade-based money laundering and talked about the promising projects pertaining to e-commerce, 3D printing, Cryptocurrency, etc… Apart from this, one of the major issues spoken about was the smuggling and leakage of revenue and how can it be tackled aggressively.
The occasion also saw the release of Officer Hans as the mascot for Indian Customs, symbolizing purity and knowledge. This event was also taken as an opportunity to release a medallion depicting the dedication of the Customs – whether sea, air, or land, in empowering the nation and effective implementation of the EXIM trade practices.
