ISO Certification to Ahmedabad Central Excise; first in India

Ahmedabad, May 4 (UNI) The Ahmedabad office of Central Excise Commissioner has become the first in the country under the Ministry of Finance, to receive an ISO certification.

Talking to media persons after receiving the ISO 9001:2000 Certificate, at a function organised to award the same, Gujarat Zone Customs and Central Excise Chief Commissioner Devendra Dutt said, the certificate proves beyond doubt that the organisation has established and applies a ''Quality Management System''.

Mr Dutt said, ''This achievement is part of the Finance Ministry's attempt to change attitudes, shape up to face new challenges and to give better services to the citizens of the country.'' He said, the benefit of the ISO certification to the public is that citizens are guaranteed correct decisions within a specified time frame.

Mr Dutt said, the Certificate ensures just, fair, equitable, effective and efficient manner of tax assessment, collection and recovery.

He said, ''It is improving our responsiveness to manufacturers, traders and business community at large so that we will always render ourselves fully transparent and accountable.

The achievement of this goal is certified by an indepedent, credible and reputed international body, TUV South Asia.

The Chief Commissioner said, ''We are following the guidelines of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram that our role has changed from tax-collectors to facilitators.'' When asked, he said, the Gujarat Zone has collected Rs 20,387.23 crore in year 2005-06, compared to previous year's Rs 17,563.29 crore. While in year 2003-04 it was Rs 15,203.86 crore.

These showed that there is a steady growth of Central Excise and Service Tax revenue in Gujarat during the last three years.

The contribution of Central Excise revenue from the two Central Excise Zones (Ahmedabad and Vadodara) in Gujarat to the All India Central Excise Kitty was 17.26 per cent in the financial year 2005-06, Mr Dutt added.

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