Commissionerate of Customs, Calcutta : An Introduction

Custom House, Calcutta is one of the oldest Custom Houses in the country with a long history of its own. It is located at 15/1, Strand Road, Calcutta - 700001. Calcutta Custom House is one of the three major Custom Houses in the country, the other two being Mumbai and Chennai. During the financial year 1999-2000, this Custom House had posted its highest ever revenue collection of Rs.4288.05 crores and had shown an overall increase of 9.10% over the revenue collection of the previous financial year.

FINANCIAL YEAR	REVENUE COLLECTION (Rs. in crores)	REVENUE FORGONE IN EXPORT PROMOTION SCHEMES (Rs. in crores)
1998-1999	3930.11	872.56
1999-2000	4288.05	836.55
2000-2001	3684.20	759.52
2001-2002	3351.88	932.46
2002-2003 (upto Sep. '02)	1627.14	626.66

JURISDICTION

The Commissionerate of Customs (Port), Calcutta, has jurisdiction over the Calcutta Port, the Haldia Dock System, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Ten Kilometers on both sides of Hooghly River starting from Calcutta City upto the sea. The Commissioner of Customs (Airport and Administration) has jurisdiction over Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, the Customs work of Falta Export Processing Zone and the Administration side of Calcutta Customs.

ADMINISTRATIVE SETUP

STAFF STRENGTH

	Sanctioned Strength	Working Strength	Posts Vacant
GROUP-A	64	44	20
GROUP-B	447	451	-4
GROUP-C	1494	1085	409
GROUP-D	630	499	131

FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The primary task of the Officers and Staff working under the jurisdiction of Commissioner of Customs, Calcutta, is collection of revenue in relation to imports and exports effected through its jurisdiction. At the International Airport, besides clearance of passengers and their baggage, a Cargo Complex is also functioning. Apart from collection of revenue, the Officers and Staff of Calcutta Custom House perform many important agency functions including enforcement of the Export & Import Policy of the Government and other allied laws concerning exports and imports. Thus, this Commissionerate functions as the revenue collecting and regulatory authority on behalf of various Government departments. Officers of Customs are also required to collect intelligence and conduct investigations relating to certain fraudulent practices indulged in by some unscrupulous members of the trade. This Custom House has a Special Intelligence Branch as well as a Dock intelligence Unit (Appraising) for this purpose. Besides, there is a separate Preventive Commissionerate, which draws staff both from the Custom House and the Central Excise Commissionerates located in West Bengal - is responsible for looking after anti-smuggling operations in the State of West Bengal including the city of Calcutta. An Air Intelligence Unit also functions at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport to keep tab on smuggling through aircrafts.

The Custom House has various departments for the purpose of assessment in order to realise revenue, granting refunds/duty drawback, adjudication, Court related legal matters and the EDI system etc. - each under a Group A officer for their smooth functioning. These departments are called Appraising (Import/Export), Drawback, Refund, Legal, Accounts etc. These departments are again clubbed together for supervision by Additional Commissioners / Joint Commissioners and the overall in-charge of the Commissionerate is the Commissioner of Customs.