Union Government forms Directorate to flag high-risk areas in Customs, GST

The Union Government on 13 July 2017 constituted the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM) aimed at providing intelligence inputs and do big data analytics for taxmen for better policy formulation and taking action against Goods & Services Tax (GST) evaders.

The DGARM will do detailed data mining and analysis to generate outputs for focused and targeted action by field formations and investigation wings of the CBEC.

Highlights of the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM)
• The Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management will function under the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) for data analytics and risk management.

• The Directorate will report to the Chairman of CBEC.

• It will use internal and external sources of CBEC for detailed data mining to generate actionable inputs.

• It has four verticals headed by an official of rank of Additional Director General (ADG) or Principal ADG.

• The first vertical is the National Targeting Centre that has been set up for application of a nationally coordinated approach to risk analysis and targeting of risky goods and passengers crossing the borders of the country.

• The second vertical is Centre for Business Intelligence and Analytics (CBIA) that will be responsible for identification of information requirements of the CBEC. It will utilise data feeds from internal sources.

• The third vertical is the Risk Management Centre for Goods and Services Tax which will institutionalise mechanism to collect necessary inputs, adopt coordinated approach and share the outcome for risk-based identification.

• The fourth vertical is the Risk Management Centre for Customs that will be responsible for assessment and targeting of risky cargo crossing the borders through sea, air and land.

Moreover, the CBEC is expected to be renamed as the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) after excise duty along with service tax and a dozen other central and state levies were subsumed into GST.