International Customs Day (ICD) is annually celebrated across the globe on 26th January to recognize the contributions and roles of the customs officials and agencies in maintaining border security.
- Objective – To boost leadership, guidance and also increase support in working conditions and challenges that customs officers face in their jobs.
- Theme – ‘Scaling up Customs Digital Transformation by Embracing a Data Culture and Building a Data Ecosystem’. The theme for 2022 was chosen by the World Customs Organisation (WCO).
Note – The Theme of 2021 was ‘Customs bolstering Recovery, Renewal and Resilience’.
Efforts by WCO:
i.The WCO Secretariat has conducted events to support Custom organisation like conducting awareness-raising seminars organised by several committees and working groups with the the data-related topics given by WCO, development of e-learning modules, drafting a Capacity Building Framework for Data Analytics which was adopted by the WCO Council in December 2020, issuing practical publications and published articles in the WCO News Magazine.
- A community of experts has been established, under the name of BACUDA (BAnd of CUstoms Data Analysts), which brings Customs and data scientists to work together towards developing data analytics methodologies.
Background:
i.World Customs Organization (WCO) instituted International Customs Day (ICD) by commemorating the day in 1953 when the inaugural session of the Customs Cooperation Council (CCC) was held in Brussels, Belgium.
- The CCC’s inaugural session was attended by representatives from 17 European countries.
ii.CCC was renamed as World Customs Organisation (WCO) in 1994 and it currently comprises 183 member states from all parts of the world.
About Custom Administration:
i.Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (erstwhile Central Board of Excise & Customs) is a part of the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It deals with the tasks of formulation of policy concerning levy and collection of Customs, Central Excise duties, Central Goods & Services Tax and IGST, prevention of smuggling and administration of matters relating to Customs, Central Excise, Central Goods & Services Tax, IGST and Narcotics to the extent under CBIC’s purview.
ii.The Board is the administrative authority for its subordinate organizations, including Custom Houses, Central Excise and Central GST Commissionerates and the Central Revenues Control Laboratory.
Recent related news:
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes (CBIC) has notified the Customs (Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty) Amendment Rules, 2021 to boost trade facilitation. It amends the Customs ((Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty), 2017 (IGCR, 2017).
About World Customs Organisation (WCO):
WCO is the only International body exclusively dedicated to International Customs and Border Control with its members responsible for managing around 98 % of world trade.
Headquarters – Brussels, Belgium
Secretary -General – Kunio Mikuriya
Members – 183 Members
