International Customs Day celebrated
SHILLONG: International Customs Day was celebrated on Wednesday under the theme “Digital Customs: Progressive engagement” where DD Ingty, Indian Revenue Service (IRS) retired, indicated that customs revenue is witnessing an exponential growth party due to the digitization of customs.
Speaking as Chief Guest, Ignty said, “98 per cent of entries are cleared digitally which does not take much time whereas things were different before the advent of digitization where there are now over 134 electronic powered custom houses where revenue is collected digitally.”
Commenting on the role of North East in India’s economic development, he said, “When India was born, North East was producing 90 per cent of India’s oil. India sustained under North East, we were the surrogate mother of India. Today, revenue-wise the North East is going down as there is no investment.”
Ingty further said that 99 per cent of Meghalaya borders are with foreign countries and he observed that the presence of border haats is irrelevant, while goods are going from North East to Kolkata, Mumbai and other cities.
Ingty said, “North East needs a change, to have a highway routed into the rest of the Asian countries, there is nothing to be proud of border haats where the thrust area is not being given prominence. What is our think-tank in the North East doing?”
Sharing anecdotes from his experience of staying abroad, he said that trucks in America go over to Canada, Venezuela or Chile.
“Trucks here in the Northeast are not even allowed to cross the border,” he said.
In this connection, he urged the Customs fraternity to take initiative to make their presence felt as Guardians of Economic Frontiers of the country.
“We may not defend the country’s security but we defend the economic security of the country,” Ingty said.
North East needs to make progress and the Government has to think broadly in this regard, he added.
Cultural programmes from various groups which include the tribal community of the region were performed during the programme besides the distribution of prizes.
