Customs - More Staff for Post Clearance Audit (PCA) work - PAC Comments and Board Directions
IN an instruction to the Chief Commissioners of Customs, the CBEC invites the attention of the Chief Commissioners to the Observation / Recommendation 9 of PAC (Twenty-Third Report of the Public Accounts Committee (16th Lok Sabha).
The Committee observes that shortage of staff is severely affecting the performance of the Customs Department. They note that CBEC had directed that the time On-site Post Clearance Audit (PCA) was made applicable to all categories of importers. Further, the percentage of B/Es selected for PCA at Customs House should be suitably enhanced to safeguard the interest of revenue.
The Committee understands that the concerned Chief Commissioners of Customs were supposed to review the staff position in their jurisdiction and reallocate more manpower of audit work as increased facilitation in terms of reduced examination had led to lesser requirement of staff for examination of goods. It was, therefore, imperative that excess staff should have been diverted for activities such as PCA and Special Investigation and Intelligence Branch (BSSIB) in Customs Houses.
However, the compilation of information on PCA activity received from field offices revealed that the Board's instructions to reallocate more manpower for PCA to increase scrutiny of RMS cases have not been followed in any location and showed increasing trend in pendency of cases in 8 of the 10 Custom locations for which data has been received. The Committee therefore recommends that more manpower be allocated to the field office for strengthening PCA and SIIB in Customs Houses .
First of all, see the highlighted sentences. Only God and Board will know how the Chief Commissioners will understand those sentences.
They note that CBEC had directed that the time On-site Post Clearance Audit (PCA) was made applicable to all categories of importers. Further the percentage of B/Es selected for PCA at Customs House should be suitably enhanced to safeguard the interest of revenue.
What is the meaning of that the time On-site Post Clearance Audit?
This is the Board's ‘copy and paste' gone awry.
What the Public Accounts Committee stated was,
"They note that CBEC had directed that till the time On-site Post Clearance Audit (PCA) was made applicable to all categories of importers , the percentage of BEs selected for PCA at a Customs House should be suitably enhanced to safeguard the interest of revenue."
Anyway, Board wants that the concerned competent authority may reconsider the staff position in their jurisdiction and reallocate additional manpower to enhance the performance of PCA and Special Investigation and Intelligence Branch (SIIB) in Customs Houses.
CBEC Instruction No. 18/2016-Cus., Dated April 12, 2016