(FE)
Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday urged the customs department to make cross-border trade easier in an effort to improve the country’s standing in the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking. Additionally, he said the goods and services tax (GST) had stabilised in a very short time, which provided an opportunity to cut indirect tax rates further. In the past three years, India’s position on World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking improved to 100 from 142, Jaitley said. He added that the customs department could help improve upon the overall rankings to within 50 by aligning processes involved in cross-border trade with that of World Bank’s criteria.
Jaitley was speaking at an event to mark the International Customs Day. Revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia said customs department could improve cross-border trade ranking in two years. Separately, speaking on GST, Jaitley said the new indirect tax regime had brought about an entire change in the indirect tax system in the country.
