Mangalore, Feb 4: International Customs Day – 2013 will be celebrated on February 5, marking the 50th year of Customs Act of 1962, at New Customs House in Panambur, with the theme 'Innovation for Customs Progress', announced Commissioner of Customs, Mangalore, D Purushotham.
Addressing media persons at a press conference here on Monday, he said that Deputy Inspector General of Coast Guard, Mangalore Rajmani Sharma will be the chief guest on the occasion and President of Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mohammed Ameen will be the guest of honour. Awards will be presented to best importers, exporters, Custom House agents and steamer agents. Commendation certificates for outstanding officers of the Mangalore Customs Commissionerate will be distributed. Retired officers will also be felicitated on the occasion, he said.
He said that the Mangalore Customs Commissionerate covering 17 districts of Karnataka, formed in 1997, had implemented services such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system for the implementation of trade facilitation, and 'Sevottam', a system to deliver quality services to tax payers, which is in its last phase of obtaining certification from Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The New Customs House being the headquarters of the Commissionerate also had a full-fledged Customs Laboratory to test samples of the goods that were imported through Mangalore Port, he said.
The revenue target fixed for the year 2012-13 was Rs 630 crore, and the customs department had collected Rs 447 crore till January 2013. The Preventive Units at Mangalore Headquarters and Karwar division has been operating to check smuggling of commodities, with sub-units at Malpe, Kundapur, Kumta and Bhatkal, which detected and booked three cases of offence involving a value of Rs 34.68 crores up to December 2012 in the current year, including seizure of cigarettes. In the month of January, Airport Customs officers detected and seized four instances of smuggled goods like cigarettes, saffron and gold, he said.
He said that the Government of India granted rewards to informers providing them with information leading to detection of duty evasion and seizure of smuggled goods, gold, currency or drugs. The maximum amount of reward to the informer can be as high as 20% of the value of the confiscated goods and penalty realised, he said.
Assistant Commissioners of Customs Krishna Kumar Prasad, B Shyam Prasad and B Shyam Sundar Rao and Superintendent of Customs Ramesh Chandra were present.
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