Customs Valuation, Rules of Origin, Commercial Fraud & Money Laundering:

NACEN, Kolkata, India 2010

The training on customs valuation, rules of origin, commercial fraud and money laundering at National Academy of Customs Excise and Narcotics (NACEN), Kolkata, India in January, 2010 was attended by 5 different officials from Department of Revenue and Customs of Royal Government of Bhutan and I happened to be one among the five. The initial process while we reached at NACEN started with registration followed by briefing of our training and structure plan for the course with study materials being provided for the Bhutanese participants only.

Our course started with Mr. S. Routh, Appraiser at the NACEN who shared the overview of Foreign Trade Policy, 09-14, Impact on Import & Export, various Export promotion schemes, Type of Export Frauds including misuse of Export promotion schemes-Modus Operandi –and Methods to handle the menace.

The next session started with Dr. S.K.Mahapatra, Appraiser, who shared with the class on the Import & Export under multilateral and bilateral agreement Tariff benefits. He also taught us about the Enforcement of Customs exemptions for their implementation, scope of abuse and method for safeguard. The next speaker was Shri M.K. Sil, Joint Director, who shared with us, how Commercial Fraud and Money Laundering, Direct and Indirect Smuggling are practiced and its Mode of Investigation. Shri P.K. Agrawal, Asstt. Director, also shared with us regarding the Customs Valuation (Determination of Price of Imported and Export Goods) Rules, 2007. In the process we also learned the Customs Valuation as per contemporaneous Import and its relevance and applications.

R.K. Singh, Asstt Director, Safeguard Duty, taught us the Rules of Origin, Trade Remedies, Antidumping Duty, Safeguard Duty, Protective Duty, Detection of misuse and safeguard.it was followed by Shri.S. Das, Additional Commissioner, Bhubaneswar-I, who shared us the Evasion of Customs Duty through Import/Export by various modus operandi. He also shared us the live detective cases handled and their follow up needs for alertness and taking precautions.

Since it was the last day of the course, Adieu by Shri Adhish Dhar, Additional Director, joined by the entire Appraiser who taught us and gave away our certificate and group photo with words of appreciation. Indeed we were very fortunate to have undergone this course and it has enriched us with various knowledge, skills and methods to overcome any fraud are being practiced. We look forward for more of such and advance courses in the future and serve the department with sound knowledge on such issues that might arise.

Participants from Bhutan includes:

1.      Rupen Gurung, customs, P/ling,

2.      Sherab Dorji, customs, Samtse

3.      Ugyen Dorji, customs, Gelephu,

4.      Dungtu Wangchuk, customs, Paro airport,

5.      Raju Gurung, Sales Tax, Thimphu.