The Union Minister of Finance Shri Arun Jaitley will inaugurate the two day Annual Conference of the Chief Commissioners and Directors General of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax on Monday, 24th August 2015 in the national capital. Shri Jaitley will deliver the keynote address on the occasion. This session will be Live webcast and a link is being made available on the CBEC website www.cbec.gov.

 The two day Conference will be held on 24th and 25th August, 2015. Shri Shaktikanta Das, Revenue Secretary, Chairman and Members, CBEC and senior officers of the Ministry of Finance will participate in the Conference along with the Chief Commissioners and Directors General of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax.

 This year’s Conference will focus on emerging areas such as Taxpayers Services, Ease of Doing Business, Make in India and Goods and Services Tax. Year 2015 has been declared by CBEC as the “Year of Tax Payers Services”. As part of this initiative CBEC in consultation with FICCI and KPMG, conducted an independent survey amongst taxpayers and the results will be shared and discussed in the conference. Other new initiatives taken by CBEC in the area of simplifying procedures, promoting ease of doing business, facilitating trade, import & export and use of information technology to re-engineer business processes will also form part of the discussions with the Chief Commissioners.

 The Conference will commence with revenue analysis and strategies to achieve the Budget Estimates for the current Financial Year. Theme based interactive sessions with the Chief Commissioners will focus on areas such as on ‘Infrastructure and HRD issues’, ‘Capacity Building’, ‘Taxpayers Services’, ‘Ease of Doing Business’, and ‘MIS System’.

Dr. Arvind Panagariya, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog will deliver the 4th B.N. Banerji Lecture in the afternoon on Monday, 24th August 2015..

 Day Two of the Conference i.e. 25th August, 2015 will focus on ‘preparations for roll out of GST / GSTN.’ The Chief Commissioners will make a presentation on their vision of CBEC. The Conference also provides an opportunity to address the issues raised by the Chief Commissioners / Director Generals.

 Sh. Jayant Sinha, Minister of State (Finance) will address the Valedictory Session and interact with the delegates during the Valediction.

Goods and Services Tax rollout preparations emphasize operational readiness and taxpayer services ahead of implementation. A two-day administrative conference of senior customs, central excise and service tax officials will focus on revenue strategies and operational initiatives prioritising Taxpayer Services, Ease of Doing Business, IT-driven process re-engineering and capacity building. The second day is devoted to preparations for the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax and the GSTN, with Chief Commissioners presenting implementation visions and operational issues for coordination between central leadership and field heads.