@ Debayon from DRI website
Born out of convention and now a
feature of every country's fiscal policy, customs levies and laws have
come to occupy a pivotal place in every economy. The importance of
customs laws, thus, cannot be over-emphasised; they attempt to regulate
allocation of resources within the economy, curb the menace of smuggling
and in our case also act as a major source of revenue apart from being
a potent tool of our overall economic policy. The customs officer by
virtue of his location at the point of entry and exit is uniquely
positioned to thwart a wide range of offences, having an impact on the
economic and social health of the country. The priorities entrusted to
him, however, vary substantially, depending on the level of economic
advancement of the country.
In these circumstances, the
recognition of the need for a central organisation for gathering details
of violations of economic laws in a continuous, organised manner so as
to devise a strategy to deal with them and to alert the concerned
customs formations was felt as early as 1953. This resulted in the
setting up of an organisation called the Central Revenue Intelligence
Bureau in 1953. The organisation was charged with the responsibility of
developing intelligence on matters connected with anti-smuggling and
anti-corruption in the Customs and Central Excise formations all over
the country. In retrospect, one Assistant Commissioner and two
Superintendents as then provided, was obviously too small a complement
of staff. The work done by this small organisation, however, brought
into sharp focus the urgent need and necessity for an exclusive
organisation to deal with the menace of violation of fiscal laws. The
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence was thus formed in 1957 as a direct
result of this.
The original brief of DRI was
extensive. There was no separate organization to deal with either
evasion of central excise duties or prevent narcotic drug trafficking.
Thus, the charter of DRI, as it stood then, encompassed all aspects of
work pertaining to customs, central excise and narcotics, which required
control, direction and investigation from the Centre.
With the passage of time and the
growth in the problems relating to effective control of violations of
such diverse laws, the need for specialisation and expertise was felt.
The result was the creation in 1978 of a separate Directorate of
Anti-Evasion (now known as Directorate General of Central Excise
Intelligence) to handle violations of Central Excise laws and creation
of the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau in 1985 to co-ordinate
activities amongst various enforcement agencies of the Department of
Revenue. With the growing incidence of narcotics trafficking and in
keeping with India's commitment to the international community under
various conventions to tackle this problem, the Narcotics Control Bureau
took shape in 1986, to co-ordinate the enforcement of anti-narcotics
laws.
The Directorate of Revenue
Intelligence in its present form is a lean organisation charged
essentially with the collection of intelligence, its analysis,
collation, interpretation and dissemination on matters relating to
violations of customs laws, and to a lesser extent, anti-narcotics law.
In order to ensure effective discharge of its responsibilities, DRI
maintains close liaison with all the important enforcement agencies in
India like the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau, Income-Tax
department, Enforcement Directorate, Narcotics Control Bureau,
Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Border Security Force, Central
Bureau of Investigation, Coast Guard, the State Police authorities and
also with all the Customs and Central Excise Commissionerates. It also
maintains close liaison with the World Customs Organisation, Brussels,
the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office at Tokyo, INTERPOL and foreign
Customs Administrations.
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence
functions under the Central Board of Excise and Customs in the Ministry
of Finance, Department of Revenue. Headed by Director General in New
Delhi, it is presently divided into seven zones, each under the charge
of an Additional Director General, and further sub-divided into Regional
Units, Sub-Regional Units and Intelligence Cells with a complement of
Additional Directors, Joint Directors, Deputy Directors, Assistan Directors, Senior Intelligence Officers and Intelligence Officers.
The land borders of our country,
extending to more than 15,000 kms. and a coastline of over 7,000 kms.,
make the task before DRI very daunting. The progressive economic
liberalisation with increasing emphasis on trade facilitation has also
led to enormous increase in the misuse of the facilities/concessions
resulting in loss of customs duty and foreign exchange. The complexion
of economic frauds has changed dramatically. Every enforcement agency
in this climate has to tread carefully and strike a fine balance between
facilitation - a natural corollary to liberalisation – and enforcement.
The events of Sept, 11 and Dec. 13 have also led to changed perception
of the role of Customs in the future, with security again emerging as
an issue at the forefront. This Directorate has risen to this challenge
and would like to believe that it has largely met with success in its
mission.
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