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Nirmla Sitharaman chaired the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Conclave that was attended by top tax and customs officials NEW DELHI: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday told taxmen to make the Goods and Services Tax registration process easier, seamless, and more transparent with the use of technology and risk-based parameters.
NEW DELHI: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday told taxmen to make the Goods and Services Tax registration process easier, seamless, and more transparent with the use of technology and risk-based parameters.
Addressing a conclave of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Sitharaman told officials to prepare an action plan to improve various parameters such as GST registration, processing of refunds, and handling taxpayers' grievances.
The conclave was attended by principal chief commissioners, chief commissioners and director generals and field formations of the CBIC in New Delhi.
During the conclave, CBIC highlighted the performance of customs and CGST zones on key indicators such as grievance redressal, refunds, audit and enforcement. The average time for grievance disposal has been reduced to just nine days, significantly better than the stipulated 21-day timeline, the finance ministry said in a statement.
On refunds, 85% of claims were processed within the statutory 60-day limit, it said. GST audit coverage went up from 62.21% in 2022–23 to 88.74% in 2024–25. Detection of GST evasion had improved to ₹2,23,170 crore in 2024–25, with voluntary payments totalling ₹28,909 crore. The number of taxpayers repeated for audit more than once in three years is zero, it said.
In the area of enhanced trade facilitation, facilitation of cargo through the risk management system (RMS) has steadily increased, with 86% of cargo being facilitated in 2025, up from 82% in 2022. Similarly, in 2024-25, 2140.35 kgs of seized gold were disposed of by handing it over to SPMCIL, it said.
The finance minister also directed the Central GST (CGST) formations to launch targeted awareness campaigns among taxpayers, trade associations, and industry bodies regarding the mandatory documentation required for GST registration, particularly those related to the principal place of business, it said.
This would help reduce rejections and delays in registration and enable faster processing of applications, she said. The minister also directed CGST zonal heads to have a dedicated helpdesk for GST registrations to facilitate the taxpayers in the application process.
Sitharaman highlighted the need to ensure that GST ‘seva kendras' and customs ‘turant suvidha kendras' are well-staffed, accessible, and properly maintained, so that taxpayers receive timely and quality assistance.
Emphasising taxpayer trust, she called for a targeted and sustained focus on grievance redressal, ensuring the timely resolution of queries and complaints through improved systems and accountability.
Sitharaman also called for the speedy closure of investigations for Customs and CGST cases, and stressed the need to seek solutions to reduce the gap between detection and recovery. At the same time, the minister emphasised the need for preventing tax evasion and wrongful Input Tax Credits (ITC) claims.
Sitharaman also released the fifth edition of the National Time Release Study -- NTRS 2025. According to the report, India has seen significant improvement in the average cargo release time in all four categories -- seaports, inland container depots (ICDs), integrated check posts (ICPs) and air cargo complexes (ACCs).
The time release study (TRS) is a performance measurement tool that provides a quantitative assessment of the time taken for cargo release, helping to evaluate the efficiency of the clearance process. Since 2019, TRS has been conducted at 15 major locations, including seaports, ACCs, ICDs, and ICPs.
In the import segment, average release time (ART) has declined between 2023 and 2025 across seaports by about six hours, ACCs by about five hours, and ICPs by approximately 18 hours. There has been an increase of about 12 hours in the case of ICDs, a finance ministry statement said, citing the report.
A key strength of India's TRS lies in its use of accurate and reliable data sourced directly from the customs automated system, operated by the Directorate General of Systems and Data Management in the CBIC, the statement said.
Over the years, the scope of TRS has significantly expanded. What began as a report measuring release time across select gateway ports now includes other areas of considerable importance, such as transit cargo, courier shipments, and commodity-specific assessments, it added.
The fifth edition also adopted advanced methodologies to enable stage-wise and process-specific evaluations. This edition marked another milestone by widening its geographical coverage to three additional ports -- Kochi seaport, Garhi Harsaru ICD and Jaigaon land customs station (LCS).
Source: HindustanTimes
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