Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, on Monday, revealed new IT initiatives “ICEDASH and ATITHI”- for improved monitoring and pace of Customs clearance of imported goods and facilitating the arrival of international passengers by the electronic filing of Customs baggage and currency declarations.

While praising the measures taken by Central Board of Indirect Tax & Customs (CBIC) to leverage technology for providing better taxpayer services the Finance Minister said, “The work being done in the Network Operation Centre and Security Operation Centre is appreciable.”

Further, she said, “The significant improvement in India’s global ranking in the Trading Across Border is in no small measure on account of the IT and other reforms carried out by the CBIC.”

ICEDASH to boost the Logistics Business

ICEDASH, an Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) monitoring dashboard of the Indian Customs will help see the daily Customs clearance times of import cargo at various ports and airports.

The new digital platform has already helped Indian customs take a lead globally by helping them compare different clearance times across ports and plan logistics accordingly.

While expressing optimism the minister said, “Both ICEDASH and ATITHI would be key drivers for further improvement especially as they reduce interface and increase the transparency of Customs functioning”

The occasion was attended by Minister of State, Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur, Secretary (Revenue), along with senior officials of CBIC and members of trade and industry.

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