Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
NEW DELHI: Govt will soon undertake “comprehensive” reforms of Customs to make it more transparent and ease compliance, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Saturday.“There are quite a few things to do. There is the complete overhaul of the Customs area. We need to have a lot more simplified Customs department for people to feel that it is not tiresome and cumbersome for them to comply with the expectations in the rules, to make it more transparent,” Sitharaman said at an event here.The FM said govt had undertaken reforms of the Income Tax Act and ensured that income tax is no longer seen as a “tiresome exercise”. She said measures had been taken to ensure transparency, faceless assessment had been introduced and reforms in tax administration had been undertaken.“Now the same virtues have to be brought to Customs…” she said, adding that the aim was to introduce technology to scan and clear goods with minimal interference of officials and end “discretion”.“We are looking at it in that sort of way comprehensively… We have brought down Customs duties over the last two years steadily, but in those few items where we are still considered to be over the optimal rate, we will bring them down as well. So, Customs is my next big cleaning up assignment if I can say,” Sitharaman said when asked about the next “big bang” reforms that govt was planning to undertake.
