F. No. VAL/TECH/76/2004                                                          Mumbai,  23^rd Nov  2004

 

To,

Chief Commissioner of Customs (All)

Chief Commissioner of Customs & Central Excise (All)

 

Sir,

Sub : Launching of Export Commodity Database – regarding.

 

            Kindly refer to my letter of even no dated 09-09-04 announcing the Directorate’s programme for the development of an Export Commodity Database (ECDB) which will focus on the valuation aspects of export goods and related matters.

 

2.         As indicated earlier, the first phase of the ECDB project would cover EDI export data from the customs locations linked by ICENET. The National Center for Advanced Computing (CDAC), has been allotted the work of developing the software required for the analysis of export data. CDAC is expected to complete this work by January 2005.  The analysed data (ECDB) will be dispatched to Customs stations at regular intervals for maintaining the database at local level. It is also proposed to make available ECDB on the DOV website for access on a password protected basis by authorised personnel.

 

3.         Pending development data analysis software by CDAC, it has been decided to start a simple export database without analysis. For this purpose, the export data received from the custom stations  is being  collated to create a structured database with search and retrieval facilities. The only addition to the captured fields is a column on unit FOB value (in Rupees) so as to facilitate comparison. This simple database, has since been the primary version of Export Commodity Database (ECDB), has since been made available on the DOV Website  (www.dov.gov.in) for access by the departmental staff on a password – protected basis. The username and password issued to the nodal officer for NIDB in each Commissionerate/Custom House would hold good for accessing ECDB also.

 

4.         We would appreciate your comments and suggestions for improving the format and presentation of ECDB as early as possible, in particular the essential fields to be displayed and the search features, so as to make the database informative and user friendly.

 

                                                                                                                 Yours faithfully,

Sd/-

    S. S. RENJHEN

Copy to:

1.       Member (Customs), CBEC, New Delhi.

2.       Director General (Systems), New Delhi.

3.       Director General of Revenue Intelligence, New Delhi.

4.       All Commissioner of Customs.

5.       All Commissioner of Customs & Central Excise.