The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, also known as CBIC, has launched an all-new portal for Indian importers and exporters known as Customs Compliance Information Portal (CIP) on 4th August 2021. The users can access it at https://cip.icegate.gov.in/CIP/#/home and is developed by the National Informatics Centre.
The Compliance Information Portal provides free access to all the Customs regulatory compliance and import-export procedures for about 12,000 tariff entries. It also lists down the duties and taxes applicable to each commodity.
The information about import-export through post and courier, re-import and re-export, project imports, import of samples and self-sealing facility available for exporters are also hosted on this portal. It also hosts the list of customs stations, land customs stations, seaports and airports across India by allowing users to choose from the map. The portal validates import-export code, authorised dealer code and goods and services tax identification number.
The portal has a tool built into it that allows users to obtain necessary information about the import or export of a particular tariff item free of cost. It increases awareness among Indian businesses to self-understand the procedures and their duty liabilities without being dependant on experts for the same. Before this portal was launched, customs information was scattered across different portals, and some were not updated. Hence, the new portal is made available as a measure of trade facilitation.
The CIP gathers information by tying up with the Partner Government Agencies such as FSSAI, AQIS, PQIS, Drug Controller, etc. There are filters and sorting options to choose a particular tariff item and the type of transaction for the detailed steps. To use the CIP, a user can enter either the description of the goods in question or the Customs Tariff Heading (CTH).
In turn, they can obtain information on step-by-step procedures, contact numbers of concerned authorities, necessary documents, other regulatory compliance requirements such as the License, Permits, Certificates, No Objection Certificates, among other authorisations for all cross-border trade.
The Ministry of Finance issued a PIB press release on 4th August 2021 announcing the launch of the new portal. The press release mentions the web address as https://www.cip.icegate.gov.in/CIP to access the portal. However, this link was not working as of date.
Instead, users can check out https://cip.icegate.gov.in/CIP/#/home. Any feedback about the functioning of the Compliance Information Portal can be sent via email to cip-cbic@gov.in as hosted on the homepage of the portal.
For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at annapoorna.m@cleartax.in
Annapoorna, popularly known as Anna, is an aspiring Chartered Accountant with a flair for GST. She spends most of her day Singing hymns to the tune of jee-es-tee! Well, not most of her day, just now and then.
