ICEGATE stands for Indian Customs Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or Electronic Commerce (EC) Gateway. ICEGATE is a government portal that provides electronic filing services for the trading partners.
The following topics have been covered in this article:
1. ICEGATE (Vision & Mission)
Vision
The vision of ICEGATE is to provide an efficient medium to collect indirect taxes and administer the cross border control to increase voluntary compliance.
Mission
The mission of ICEGATE is to flawlessly implement and formulate laws and procedure of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax. Other missions of ICEGATE are:
- Revenues realization fairly and efficiently.
- Facilitating Trade industry
- Administration facility to the economic, taxation and trade policies of the government.
- Controlling cross border movement of goods, services, and Intellectual Property.
- Enhancing competitiveness among Indian businesses.
- Preventing evasion of Revenue, social Menace and commercial frauds
3. Salient features of ICES
Salient features of ICES are
- Automation of customs clearance system to make customs clearance functioning smooth and transparent.
- Real-Time electronic interfacing with import and export regulatory agencies through ICEGATE.
- Custom clearance using real-time Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
4. EDI Customs Trading Partners
| EDI Trading Partner | Type of Information Exchanged | Messages Number |
|---|---|---|
| Importers or Exporters | Bills of Entry or Shipping Bills and related messages | 13 |
| Airlines/Ships/ Shipping Agents | Manifests and cargo logistics messages | 26 |
| Air Custodians | Messages regarding cargo logistics | 9 |
| Sea Custodians | Messages regarding cargo logistics | 18 |
| ICDs | Messages regarding cargo logistics | 6 |
| Banks | Financial messages disbursement of duty drawbacks and payment of customs duty | 9 |
| DGFT | License, shipping bills and IE Code data | 13 |
| RBI | Foreign Exchange Remittance Data | 1 |
| DGCIS | Trade statistics | 2 |
| Directorate of Valuation | Data Valuations | 2 |
5. Functions of ICEGATE
Here is the list of functions of ICEGATE
- Customs and Central Excise duties and Service Tax Levy and collection
- Manufacturing excisable goods and service providers’ unit registration and monitoring
- Scrutiny of returns filed and declaration received with the department
- Preventing and fighting unfair practices such as evasion of customs duties and taxes
- Export Promotion Measures
- Border Control Implementation on goods and Conveyances
- Clearance, as well as, the examination of imported and exported goods
- Clearance of International baggage and passenger
- Dispute Resolution via Administrative and Legal Measures
- Audit Assessments to ensure tax compliance
- Refund, Rebate and Drawback Sanctioning
- Revenue Arrears
