In an e-session organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce, Pramod Kumar Agrawal, IRS, chief commissioner of Customs, Kolkata zone, observed that though the Covid pandemic has created serious dislocations in cross border trade and freight movements, it has also created fresh opportunities to leverage technology for efficient operations of the Customs.
He informed that the first phase of the faceless and contactless assessment process has been initiated in Chennai and Bengaluru and will soon begin in Kolkata as well.
Speaking about the other initiatives in Kolkata, the chief commissioner stated that 50,000 claims have been settled and Rs. 400 crore have been released to MSMEs as pending refunds.
Aligning with the Prime Minister’s Look East Policy, container cargoes have started to be shipped to Bangladesh via the river route, which is cheaper than road movements.
Mr Agarwal stated that the entire Customs team at Kolkata is very proactive in meeting the demands of the traders and are available 24×7 for resolving their problems. Responding to the problems faced by the importers on payment of hefty ground rate charges to container freight stations (CFS), he assured that he would certainly persuade the CFS and logistics companies to provide substantial relief.