The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) on November 01, 2024, issued the Guidelines for Customs field formations in maintaining ease of doing business while engaging in investigation into tax evasion cases in import or export.
The following has been stated:
• Within the jurisdiction of the Commissionerate, the Commissioner is responsible for developing and approving any intelligence, investigation and its completion. Each investigation must be initiated only after the approval of the Commissioner. A CI case investigation must reach the earliest conclusion which is normally not more than 1 year.
• Before initiating investigation, the intelligence inputs and relevant aspects related to Cl matters need to be appropriately analyzed. This includes cross check with reference to available data, technical literature, prevalent industry practice, judicial pronouncements, extant legal framework, precedence etc. It is desirable to undertake as complete an analysis as feasible, before the actual investigation is initiated. This would also enable seeking holistic information/record/documents related to an issue in the first instance, which is an important factor in minimizing interface with the importer/exporter.
[Notification No 27/2024-Customs]
