Context: Recently, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has unveiled a Secure QR coded Shipping Bill that would be electronically sent to exporters after the Customs allows export.
Key Points

• The Secure QR coded Shipping Bill eliminates the requirement of the exporters having to approach the Customs officers for proof of export.
• It makes the end to end Customs export process fully electronic, from the filing of the Shipping Bill to the final order to allow export.
• The electronic transmission of the Shipping Bill would do away with the present requirement to take paper printout of these documents thereby promoting Green Customs.

Significance

• It is a step for fulfilling commitment to a Faceless, Paperless, and Contactless Customs under the umbrella of its Turant Customs programme.
• These reforms are based on enhanced use of digital technology to reduce the time and costs for the importers, exporters and other stakeholders.
• They are expected to improve India’s ranking in the World Bank’s Trading Across Borders parameter of its Doing Business Report.

About Turant Customs programme

• Turant Customs, launched by CBIC, is a mega reform for the ease of doing business.
• The programme has been launched at Bengaluru and Chennai to take a leap forward to take advantage of the technology for faster customs clearance of imported goods.
• With the initiation of the programme at Bengaluru and Chennai, it marks the first phase of the All India roll out which would get completed by 31st December 2020.
• Under the programme, importers will avail benefits with the elimination of routine interface with the customs officers, which will provide uniformity in assessment across the country.
• The customs officers located outside the port of import will clear the goods from customs after doing faceless assessment remotely.
• Under this programme, the goods imported at Chennai may be assessed by the customs officers located at Bengaluru and vice versa, as assigned by the customs’ automated system.

Road Ahead

• A better rank in ease of doing business and greater awareness about opportunities in Indian business sector would attract foreign investors to invest in India and will also bring advanced technologies to the country.
• However, it would be unwise to judge the state of the business activity by observing movements in the ease of doing business index as it is just the reflection of regulatory measures taken in two big cities of Delhi and Mumbai and that too on limited parameters.
• Therefore, more comprehensive measures must be taken, which would not only improve ease of doing business ranking, but also lead to a better business environment and greater prosperity for all.

About the Central Board of Indirect Taxes (CBIC)

• The CBIC was formerly known as the Central Board of Excise & Customs. The name was changed in 2018 after the introduction of the GST (which subsumed indirect taxes).
• The Central Board of Indirect Taxes (CBIC) is a part of the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
• The CBIC is the apex body for administering the levy and collection of indirect taxes of the Union of India.
• It deals with the tasks of formulation of policy concerning levy and collection of Customs, Central Excise duties, Central Goods & Services Tax and IGST, prevention of smuggling and administration of matters relating to Customs, Central Excise, Central Goods & Services Tax, IGST and Narcotics to the extent under CBIC’s purview.
• It is the administrative authority for its subordinate organizations, including Custom Houses, Central Excise and Central GST Commissionerates and the Central Revenues Control Laboratory.