The first ever "Customs Tariff Database Online" for India was released by the Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Dr. Arvind Virmani, here today. This endeavour is a result of the research programme initiated by the Economic Division, Department of Economic Affairs and was prepared by the Academy of Business Studies for the Ministry of Finance under the guidance of Advisers of the Department of Economic Affairs. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Economic Adviser said that the database will help in analysing the issues related to customs tariff very quickly and in a user friendly way. This will help in the customs reforms process and help businessmen, researchers and those interested in this to get reliable data online without referring to bulk e books. A beginning of identifying reform plans was made in the Economic Survey of this year and last year. This database will help the government in carrying out customs duty reforms, said Shri Virmani. Customs Tariff of India is a complex subject with 11,000 tariff codes, 328 exemption notifications along with 591 entries in the Jumbo notification giving effective duties against specific tariff codes under exemption. Apart from this, there are about 150 amending notifications issued during the course of the year. The database consists of two sections: • Main database (updated till Budget 2009-10) on 11,000 plus covers: All customs duties (including the major ones basic, CVD of excise, CVD of VAT, Education cess, 182 Anti-dumping 8 Safeguards Actions Import policy restrictions by DGFT, NTBs like labeling, BIS standards, Country preferences, Import and export values and quantity from DGCIS) • Line wise Tariff for the 13 RTAs and BTAs such as Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, China (APTA) giving effective preferential duties for specific countries/country groups. Dr H.A.C. Prasad, the trade expert and Sr Economic Advisor in Dept of Economic Affairs who has led the team behind the database told that in this year's Economic Survey this database was used for the boxes on customs duty exemptions and revenue loss and specific customs duties. It can also be linked with other databases like WTO commitments which can be useful even in negotiations at WTO, he said. The database is the first in India and the world. The European Union was the pioneer in developing Tariff Databases for all important countries in world including India. However, this database is the first comprehensive database covering both tariff and non tariff measures and import values in a single database with provision for monthly and daily updation.

Customs tariff database enables streamlined analysis to support customs duty reform and rapid policy-making decisions. The Customs Tariff Database Online consolidates India's tariff schedules, duties, exemptions and amending notifications into a searchable repository covering over 11,000 tariff codes and the full composition of applied duties, non-tariff measures and import statistics. It provides country-specific preferential duty treatments for 13 regional and bilateral agreements and is designed for regular updates and interoperability with other trade databases to support analysis for customs duty reform and revenue assessment.