Mangaluru : The officers of Customs, Central Excise & Service Tax Commissionerates, Mangalore observed the Vigilance Awareness Week 2015 that commenced from 25th Oct – 2015 and the valedictory function was jointly held in the premises of the New Custom House, Panambur Mangalore on 30th October 2015.

The Central Board of Excise & Customs is celebrating 2015 as the “Year of the Tax Payers Services” in recognition of the need to have customer focus in the day to day functioning. The Central Vigilance Commission has announced the slogan for this year as “Preventive vigilance as the tool of Good Governance”.

Dr. M. Subramanyam, Commissioner, presided over the function. Speaking on the occasion, he briefed the audience on the achievements of both Customs and Central Excise Commissionerates. He appreciated the speedy disposal of documents and trade facilitation by complying with the norms of BIS Certification accorded to Central Excise & Service Tax Commissionerate in May 2015. He said that the officers of both the Commissionerates have worked tirelessly to ensure customer friendly but vigilant approach towards international passengers and the trade thereby striking a good balance between trade facilitation and enforcement. Underscoring that the preventive vigilance is a package of measures to improve systems and procedures in a way so as to reduce scope for discretion and eliminate corruption, Commissioner impressed upon to promote voluntary compliance by fair and efficient interaction with assessees.

Prof. Narendra L. Nayak, Chairman, Expert Educational & Charitable Foundation, Mangalore, was the Chief Guest. Addressing the gathering, he said that educating the public and mainly the professionals about the laws of the land will lead to better compliance and less evasion. Vigilance Awareness should not be restricted only to one week in a year but should be practiced every week.

Shri Vivek Prasad, Commissioner, Audit Commissionerate, Mysore was the Guest of Honour. He said, the Vigilance Awareness Week is observed by the Government to highlight the importance of vigilance in fighting corruption. Observance of vigilance Awareness week will make us introspective and conscious of responsibilities and duties in nation building activity.

During the function, Prizes were distributed to winners of various competitions held during the observance of this week. Shri Pravin Vinod, Deputy Commissioner, Customs accorded the formal welcome and Shri M. S. Prithvi, Asst. Commissioner, Central Excise & Service Tax delivered the vote of thanks. The program concluded with the National Anthem.

The program was compered by Smt. Shobha Peres Bhatt and Shri N. G. Shivalli, Superintendents.