Customs Tableau in R'Day Parade 2012
A new attraction in the 2012 Republic Day parade will be the Customs tableau. It is a great honour to watch the magnificent Republic Day parade and it will be a great achievement to be part of the parade. Great world leaders like Nelson Mandela, Queen Elizabeth, Sukarno, Tito, Sirimavo Bandaranaike had witnessed the parade.
Next year, The Customs Act, 1962 will be completing 50 years and to celebrate this event, the Customs Department is most likely to figure in the Republic Day Parade. Though the present Customs Act is just fifty years old, its earlier version, the Sea Customs Act of 1878 is 133 years old and Customs Laws and Custom Houses existed in India much before these recent enactments.
In an interesting article in TIOL, When I met 'The Wall', the present Chairman of CBEC, Dutt Mazumder had recalled his exhilarating experience of seeing the Customs Wall in Palmyra on which the Customs Tariff was inscribed. Traders from Damascus to Baghdad and vice-versa were required to pay the taxes as per the rates on the wall. Establishment of engraved Customs Tariff in Palmyra was very much welcomed by Caravan traders, since it provided transparency of taxation and prevented arbitrary tariff fixing by the tax-farmers (present day tax collectors) – a measure of trade facilitation indeed. This tariff was dated 18 th April 137 AD and is declared by the WCO as the first Customs Tariff in the history of mankind.
But Mazumder does not readily accept the WCO declaration of Palmyra Tariff as the first Customs Tariff. He says, “during the Mauryan period (c. 350-283 B.C.), Chanakya's Arthasastra laid down in prolific detail the Customs Tariff on Import and Export of goods from the Mauryan Empire. Perhaps, lack of promotion or publicity is responsible for ignoring this important historical fact.”
Now the Customs Department is getting a chance to be on Centre Stage – let us hope they are able to project the glory of the Department and highlight its achievements in the tableau in the Republic Day parade.