Customs Directorate to be set up in Mumbai to manage RMS

Bangalore, Aug 9 (UNI) A separate Customs Directorate, with headquarters in Mumbai, will be set up soon to manage Risk Management System (RMS) throughout the country, Director General (Systems) V Sridhar announced today.

Speaking at the introduction of RMS at Air Cargo Complex and Inland Container Depot here, he said the system, already introduced in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, had shown successful results with the significant enhancement of facilitation levels. Implementation of this initiative had resulted in Indian Customs being on par with international best practices and creating a climate of voluntary tax compliance.

Mr Sridhar said the main objective of introducing the RMS was to promote voluntary tax compliance, reduce dwell time and transaction cost. The rationale behind it was the rapid growth of trade by leaps and bounds year-on-year. The department had processed over five million documents last year on import and export sector. While the trade growth was rapid, the availability of human resources was limited. Keeping this in view, the system was introduced, which also allowed random checks. Over 40 per cent to 50 per cent of imported items would pass through this system, he pointed out.

He said the Department was also in the process of executing several major initiatives, including consolidation of computerised infrastructure in a single data centre with disaster recovery system. It would be launched before the end of this fiscal and connected across the country through a Wide Area Network, he added.

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