{"id":429221,"date":"2025-12-06T17:22:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T17:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/429221\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T17:22:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T17:22:15","slug":"sitharaman-flags-complete-customs-revamp-as-next-big-reform-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/429221\/","title":{"rendered":"Sitharaman flags complete customs revamp as next big reform drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Delhi: Finance<\/a> and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman<\/a> on Saturday said that a full-scale overhaul of India\u2019s customs framework will be her next major reform push, signalling a significant clean-up effort in one of the country\u2019s most crucial trade interfaces.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the HT Leadership Summit, Sitharaman underscored the urgency to simplify customs procedures and make them more transparent. \u201cWe need to make them a lot more simplified for people to feel that it is not too tiresome, cumbersome for them to comply with the expectations and rules,\u201d she said. \u201cA complete overhaul of the customs area is on the cards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minister noted that India generally aligns its standards with the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and keeps pace with global benchmarks.
Customs authorities handle the collection of tariffs and regulate cross-border movement of goods \u2014 including vehicles, hazardous materials, animals, and personal belongings.<\/p>\n

Sitharaman said the government has steadily reduced customs duties over the past two years and will review the remaining items where tariffs remain above optimal levels. \u201cIn those few items where we are still considered to be over the optimal rate, we will have to bring them down as well. So customs is my next big cleaning-up assignment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"ETLive Events
Drawing a comparison to past tax reforms, the finance minister recalled how India\u2019s income-tax regime had once been plagued not by high rates but by the administrative burden, which had even given rise to the term \u201ctax terrorism.\u201d She emphasised that reforms such as faceless assessments have since made the system \u201ccleaner and less intimidating,\u201d and similar improvements must now be brought to customs.
However, she cautioned that the task involves a delicate balance \u2014 making processes smoother while ensuring strong safeguards against illicit or contraband goods. She suggested whether enhanced scanning technologies and reduced direct contact between consignments and customs officers could help minimise discretion and build trust. Reiterating the government\u2019s direction, Sitharaman said customs reform<\/a> remains a priority agenda in the broader economic reform pipeline.<\/p>\n

(with inputs from ANI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Delhi: Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that a full-scale overhaul of India\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":429222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,199585,79,525,199586,34898,199588,199589,67,132,68,199587],"class_list":{"0":"post-429221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-customs-reform","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-india-customs-overhaul","13":"tag-nirmala-sitharaman","14":"tag-tariff-reduction","15":"tag-trade-reforms-in-india","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-wco-standards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115673783398115617","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}