Self-Assessment for Customs Duty Coming

The Finance Ministry may soon introduce a self-assessment system for customs duty purposes.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) would like to go in for self-assessment on the customs front as soon as both risk management systems (RMS) and post-clearance audits get stabilized, its Chairman, Mr. Sumit Dutt Majumder, said here today.

Self-assessment is already available to the trade and industry for both excise duty and service tax. “Now, we want to have self assessment for customs. Our vision is to have self assessment in customs as soon as possible. This will not only make our revenue system more efficient, it will also facilitate trade,” Mr. Majumder said at an event organized by the CBEC to celebrate the International Customs Day.

Later, Mr. Majumder told reporters that no timeline can be specified as to when self-assessment could become a reality on the customs side.

Revenues buoyant

Meanwhile, he said that customs revenues continue to be buoyant and registered a growth of 68 per cent up to mid-January this fiscal. Mr. Majumder also said that CBEC has completed the exercise of deciding from where the additional 7 per cent revenue mop up in indirect tax collections would come from.

“We have identified those commission rates that will help mobilize the revised targets. Out of the 7 per cent, the main emphasis will be on customs as this was showing the maximum buoyancy. There has also been an increase in targets for excise and service tax. The allocations for revised targets are complete, but the actual numbers cannot be shared for now,” he said.

The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, had recently asked the Revenue Department to increase its indirect tax collection targets for 2010-11 by 7 per cent.

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