Arun Jaitley asks tax officials to become ‘trade facilitator’ for easing business

New Delhi, January 28: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reiterated that the government aims to provide an easy environment for doing business in India. He appealed the officers to perform the role of trade facilitator to cut down costs, time and bring efficiency to the system.

The Finance Minister said that there are two major challenges before the Customs Administration today which include that of trade facilitation and sharp detection & enforcement to avoid any tax evasion.

Jaitley said that there is also a challenge to keep a balance between these two dichotomic functions where the experiences of tax authorities come to their rescue. He expressed confidence that CBEC would take necessary steps to ensure that India’s ranking in trade across borders would improve substantially.

He said, the role of customs in terms of detection has changed a lot. The credibility and integrity of CBEC is necessary.

On the occasion, the Finance Minister, FM Jaitley also released two IT tools of the Customs Department i.e. ICETRAK, and ICETAB, developed by the CBEC to provide an easy way for trade to track their consignments and for providing other important information and updates.