Revised Guidelines For Reporting Arrests, Smuggling & Commercial Frauds

New Delhi: The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has revised the guidelines for reporting of arrests, smuggling and commercial frauds by Customs officers.

The Chief Commissioner/Director Generals of a Customs zone would now be required to send the arrest report through email to CBIC within 24 hours after an individual is apprehended.

The changes are aimed at enhancing risk-based targeting to nullify fraud attempts by syndicates, reported PTI.

The Board wrote to field officers that reports of smuggling and commercial frauds are not being shared or sporadically shared with them and description/details in some cases are insufficient for enhanced risk profiling.

As per the guidelines, the arrest report would contain details of nationality and offence committed by the accused, details of goods seized in quantity as well as in terms of market value.

In cases where arrests have not been made by a Customs officer, a report related to smuggling and commercial fraud has to be sent by the jurisdictional Commissioner immediately to the CBIC.

CBIC observed that Customs commissioners should be updated with respect to smuggling and commercial fraud cases under their jurisdiction and the incident report should describe modus operandi, including flight/ voyage/cruise number, customs declaration document name, and country of origin of the goods and the duty involved.