Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on Saturday called for more stringent reforms in customs facilitation, thereby resulting in a significant improvement in India's Ease of Doing Business ranking.
"One area we have to improve is the ranking of India in the Ease of Doing Business index. While our current rank of 146 has seen a significant 30-place jump, we need to work harder to keep it within 100, driven by an improvement in customs facilitation. We need to implement enough measures to bring it within 100 in a year or two," Adhia said, while addressing the Investiture Ceremony and International Customs Day 2018 in New Delhi.
The finance secretary further stressed on the need for better reforms in trading across the border, and appealed to customs officers to facilitate deliberations on the same, if necessary.
During the event, two apps were launched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, namely ICETAB and ICETRAK.
The IT tools aim to create effective communication between trade and the department of customs and central excise.
