ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2002

(Mumbai, 6th & 7th September, 2002)

THE ROLE - WE PLAY IN INDIAN ECONOMY

- V.B.Singh
Supdt, of Customs, Mumbai.

We, the Superintendents of Customs perform challenging and unique work in customs law enforcement. We are the protector of government revenue at the grass root level. We accepted this serious law enforcement challenge with daily personal and professional hazards when we entered into the service as preventive officers. When we became Group "B" gazetted officer on promotion, our role in the organisation has increased.

The land, sea, and air borders of India are our areas of operations. Our "ports of entry" are from the Arabian, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean coasts, to the long land borders with Pakistan, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar plus Andaman & Nicobar Islands. We are facing most of the economic and terrorist problems from our hostile neighbours.

Today, one of our primary duties is to increase the revenue collection, check smuggling of contraband items, prevent misuse of various trade friendly policies of government by unscrupulous importers and exporters, keep illegal drugs and arms out of our country. For the foreseeable future, much of our law enforcement efforts need to be focused on keeping dangerous and illegal drugs out of India, check smuggling of contrabands through land, sea and air.

In today's scenario of increased terrorism ours is a major law enforcement mission that involves not only prevent arms smuggling, drug interdiction but also a wide range of import/export inspection, collection of duties, and the inspection of personal goods being brought into the country. We have to see who are the operators of a fraud and whether money generated is going into right hands. We have to work closely with other agencies to ensure the overall security of our country.

The law enforcement and revenue collection role of our service is fundamentally very important to our nation. Our complex and highly diverse mission has matured and expanded to cover everything from trade fraud and money laundering, to drug and illegal weapons interdiction, to pornography. Recently cyber smuggling is on the rise and we all have to learn the use of the Internet to prevent the same.

Now with changing trends of smuggling and new modus operandi adopted to perpetrate Export Oriented Unit (EOU), DEEC, DEPB, DFRC, EPCG and Drawback frauds apart from under invoicing the value on import it has become important to all of us to know not only all sections of Custom Act but allied acts as well. Nowadays in all these areas and more, the superintendent plays a central arid critical role. It is both a challenging, investigative role and an enforcement role charged with excitement more in Central Intelligence Unit, Rummaging & Intelligence, SIIB (Import) and SUB (Export).

For a superintendent of Customs every day is different. Unlike other service our service requires us to investigate multiple types of criminal activity. We don't work in just a single area. One day it may be international narcotics smuggling, the next it could be a complex money laundering or fraud scheme. We need to be versatile men and women with sharp minds and curiosity, the ability to work independently or as part of intra-agency and multi-agency teams. With lot of allied laws to enforce, broad powers of search and seizure at .the border, and transnational authority, there is excitement every day in our complex series of duties.

Let us ponder for a moment whether we are really so and are worthy of our service. The expectation of the people in general and the government in particular from the Superintendent of Customs is very high and we have to fulfill that. It requires self-motivation, initiative, and enthusiasm to become a successful officer. We have to be a people's person and have a mature emotional balance in order to stay cool and make rapid decisions in volatile situations. We have to work for the country and not for ourselves. The media attention is on our service after various aberrations in the service were detected. Let us try to improve the image of our cadre in particular and of department in general.

Our service requires something extra ordinary and the expectations are to be fulfilled within the limited resources that government has provided to us. Let us take the occasional training seriously imparted to us by the department. We should not avoid training. Our career requires integrity and professionalism. Let there be no charge or allegation of connivance or criminal conspiracy against any superintendent.

Common sense is a requirement, and uncommon responsibility is a reward. We all share in the excitement of a major gold, drug, and currency seizure by our department. We all gain personal satisfaction in knowing that we are part of the frontline efforts to keep smugglers out off the streets of India. Every one of us has the opportunity of pursuing a career that makes a positive difference in the life; security, and economy of our nation.

Our career demands both physical stamina and mental discipline. Nearly all assignments require being on your feet for long hours, and many duties, particularly at airports, land borders and high seas, are physically demanding. The wide variety of ports, airports and land ports in which we operate means there is a great diversity in duties, with some entailing significantly greater law enforcement challenges than others. Ours is a tough career. The working hours are long and there is shift work at most of the places. We are paid overtime for this. One has to rummage train, cars, trucks, aircrafts, dhows, country crafts, fishing crafts and physical fitness is thus a must for us. We, at land, airports, and borders and in harbours work outdoors in all kinds of weather. Some tasks involve getting dirty, going through cargo and tearing apart vehicles in search of arms, gold, currency and drugs. And, although duties are nearly always performed in a controlled environment, we do carry firearms and are sometimes called upon to use them.

It is worthwhile to mention that outstanding work put by us never go unnoticed. Through the reward scheme the Government of India is rewarding the officers with individual cash reward, by way of giving appreciation certificates and President Awards to the officers with commendable service.

The strength of any nation is based on its economy. Stronger the economy stronger is the nation. The role of the Superintendent of Customs in Indian Economy is of immense importance and all of us have to realise the importance of our duties in shaping the economy of the country. We must perform our duties with dedication, devotion, integrity, honesty, accountability, assertiveness, tenacity and patience to pursue lengthy investigations. We should have self-motivation, initiative and drive to complete the work assigned to us independently without any distraction of whatsoever nature.