‘Agencies

DIBRUGARH, May 21: The Dibrugarh Central Excise Commissionerate, once the country’s second highest revenue collection area, is being sought to be shifted to Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. The move has been termed by financial experts here as a hare brained idea of the Union Finance Ministry’s Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC).

If the CBEC move succeeds, the high revenue yielding Dibrugarh Central Excise Commissioner’s office will be degraded to a joint commissioner’s office, under the new Commissioner at Itanagar. By the way, Arunachal Pradesh as a state yields just a paltry sum by way of Central Excise revenues, but will now be enriched with revenues of the Dibrugarh Commissionerate. In a nutshell, Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax revenues from upper Assam will now reach New Delhi via Itanagar.

According to sources, the move will put Central Excise and related practitioners to unnecessary difficulties, as they will have to travel to Itanagar to address issues that can be disposed at the Commissioner level. With general citizens requiring cumbersome Inner Line Permits (ILPs) to visit Arunachal Pradesh, apart from the difficult terrain, the Centre’s move just aims to put the people of upper Assam in great difficulties for no fault of theirs.

According to chartered accountant Suresh Verma, the Dibrugarh Central Excise Commissionerate, which collects more than Rs 2,500 crore as annual revenue, needs to be further consolidated here itself. He is of the opinion that a sub-commissionerate can be opened at Itanagar, under the Dibrugarh office. He said the second option is best suited for revenue collection purposes. He sees the latest CBEC move as ill-conceived.

Incidentally, the Dibrugarh Central Excise Commissionerate was opened in 2002 after a lot of public demand and correspondence. The Central revenues collected by this office are basically from industrial units of the upper Assam districts, especially in the tea, coal and petroleum sectors. For all these industries, Dibrugarh is centrally and conveniently located, apart from having good communication and transit facilities.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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