New Delhi: The government’s next major push will be to overhaul the customs duty system — much like it reformed the income-tax regime, said Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister, during her address at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit (HTLS 2025) on December 6, 2025.
Sitharaman recalled how the income-tax regime was once widely dreaded — often labelled “tax terrorism” due to burdensome administration and harassment — and highlighted the success of the shift toward a “faceless”, online income-tax system that made tax compliance easier.
She said the same virtues of simplicity, transparency and taxpayer-friendliness need to be extended to customs. “Now the same virtues will have to be brought to customs,” she said.
The minister acknowledged that smuggling and illicit import of contraband remains “a serious problem,” but argued that brings greater urgency to rationalising customs duty, reducing trade-barriers and improving transparency at ports.
This statement builds on earlier work: since 2023, customs-duty rationalisation has been underway — with successive budgets reducing import duties and easing customs levies on critical sectors, to support domestic manufacturing and ease price burdens for citizens.
