Indirect Tax: Budget on customs could have been more positive

A highly retrograde measure has been proposed in the Section 125 of the Customs Act

The indirect tax Budget of 2018-19 was not expected to devote any time to GST. So the officers had all the time to achieve a meaningful improvement in the customs tariff. Only the sufferers know that the customs tariff has got 19 rates of duty like 150, 100, 85, 70, 65, 60, 50, 40, 35, 30, 25, 15, 10, 7.5, 5, 3, 2.5, nil & some specific duties. Then there are hundreds of exemptions and conditions and lists which make customs duty classifications quite complicated. There has been no move in removing the exemptions in a big way in customs