CBIC gets poll-ready, prepares SoP to track freebies movement

Subject : Polity

Section: Elections

Concept :

Movement of saris, shirts, caps, masks, scarves, party flags associated with the candidates or the political party in a poll without an e-way bill may be confiscated, a Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) prepared by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Custom (CBIC) to track poll expenditure.
The SoP aims at stepping up of preventive vigilance mechanism by the CBIC field formations and to prevent flow of suspicious cash, illicit liquor, drugs/narcotics, freebies and smuggled goods during elections.
This information has been made public at a time when elections are scheduled to take place in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana within the next five months, followed by the general election in the first half of the next fiscal year.

E-way Bill

The E-way bill, short form for electronic way bill, is a document to be generated online under the GST system, when goods of the value of more than ₹50,000 are shipped inter-State or intra-State.
The E-way bill must be raised before the goods are shipped and should include details of the goods, their consignor, recipient and transporter.
The transporter has to carry the invoice and the copy of E-way bill as support documents for the movement of goods.
Though check-posts have been abolished under GST, a consignment can be intercepted at any point for the verification of its E-way bill, for all inter-State and intra-State movement of goods. If a consignment is found without an E-way bill, a penalty of ₹10,000 or tax sought to be evaded, whichever is greater, can be levied.
An e-way bill is valid for 1 day for distance less than 100 Kms and additional 1 day for every additional 100 Kms or part thereof.

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC):

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), formerly known as the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), is a one of the Statutory Boards constituted under the statute the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963 (54 of 1963).
It is subordinate to the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
It deals mainly with the tasks of formulation and implementation of policy concerning to the levy and collection of Customs duties, Central Excise duties and Goods & Services tax, prevention of smuggling and administration of matters relating to Customs, Central Excise, Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) and Narcotics to the extent under CBIC’s purview.
The Board is the administrative authority for its subordinate organizations, including Custom Houses, Central Goods and Services Commissionerate’s and the Central Revenues Control Laboratory.
The CBIC is headed by a chairman and has 6 members in addition to the Chairman.
In the performance of its administrative and executive functions, the CBIC is assisted by Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners and Principal Director Generals/Director Generals.
The Principal Commissioners/ Commissioners working under the Principal Chief Commissioner/ Chief Commissioner’s supervision also discharge executive functions.