Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax officers have an exceptionally important role in the economic development of our country as the customs duties and central excise duties have been a significant source of revenue for the country's development. Now service tax collections are also on the rise. In addition to regulating cross border trade and collecting taxes, Customs and Central Excise officers need to address the country's security concerns by curbing money laundering, Intellectual Property Rights infringement and smuggling of firearms, narcotic drugs, fake currency, etc. The intricacy of the assignment of a Customs or Central Excise officer lies in the realization of revenue and prevention of smuggling without disturbing the national and international trade. Due to the changes caused by technological advancement, liberalization and globalization, it is a challenging task to strike the right balance between trade facilitation and enforcement of Law.

Over the years, the responsibilities of the Customs and also of the Central Excise officers have become remarkably more complex and challenging. The initiatives of the Government and the Department for computerization of the import and export cargo clearances such as Indian Customs EDI System (ICES), Risk Management System (RMS), National Import Database (NIDB), Export Commodity Database (ECDB), Indian Customs and Excise Gateway (ICEGATE), etc., on the customs side and the Automated Business Processes in Central Excise and Service tax (ACES), Computer Aided Audit Programme (CAAP), etc. in the central excise, have made the task much easier. Still, to achieve the twin objectives of trade facilitation and law enforcement, there is a crying need to raise the level of competence of the officers through training and exposure to the Act, rules and regulations which they enforce. Indian Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax Laws Referencer (www.Referencer.in) is an effort in this direction. Indian Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax Laws Referencer (www.Referencer.in) makes available up-to-date copies of the Customs Act, Central Excise Act and Allied Acts, Customs, Central Excise & Service Tax Rules and Regulations, Customs, Central Excise & Service Tax Circulars, Customs, Central Excise & Service Tax Notifications, Customs, Central Excise & Service Tax Manuals, Union Budgets, Finance Acts, etc. for easy access, reference and use. Referencer also aims at encouraging exchange of views, ideas and information amongst its members with negligible expenditure.

I am grateful to S/Shri Yeshodhan G.Parande, Member, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), New Delhi; Banibrata Bhattacharya, Commissioner of Customs, Bangalore; Pawan K.Sinha, Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals), Ahmedabad; P.Vinaykumar, Additional Director (Resigned), RMD, Mumbai; Basawraj Nalegave, Additional Commissioner of Central Excise, Mumbai; Anupam Majumdar, Atanu Choudhury and P.K.Gupta, Superintendents of Customs (Preventive), Mumbai; All India Federation of the Superintendents of Customs; all my colleagues in the Risk Management Division, Mumbai and all the registered members for their encouragement and feedback; Mr. Chethan P.Dev, my son for his assistance in building and testing this website. I also express my gratitude to www.microsoft.com and www.cbec.gov.in for the enormous reference material freely available on them.

My affection towards the computer started in the year 2002 when my son, Mr. Chethan P.Dev, got admission in Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering, Mumbai to pursue his studies in B.Tech. (Electronics) and we bought our first desktop computer, a small sexy box alongwith a 14" monitor, from M/s IBM. While learning basic skills like Microsoft Word, Excel, etc., I started collecting various Acts, Rules, Regulations, Circulars, Notifications, etc. for my own reference. During this search I realized that though a lot of materials were available on the websites, most of them were not up-to-date. The files thus collected were edited, updated and compiled on a mini-CD, which fitted in my shirt pocket. When curious colleagues enticed interest in this mini-CD compilation I started duplicating it and sharing it with them. This was in the year 2003 and was updated in the year 2004 also. A thousand odd copies of these mini-CDs, each containing data of about 250MB (12,000 printed pages roughly) went into circulation among the customs officers with the help of the All India Federation of the Superintendents of Customs. Slowly, the increase in size of this collection beyond the capacity of this mini-CD coupled with the abrupt stoppage of production of these mini-CDs by their manufacturers put an end to this mini-CD compilation. Compilation on a normal CD was not thought fit as it posed a problem for safe transportation. At this juncture, as I was posted in the Risk Management Division, it was a lot more essential to have all these documents handy for my own reference. Though all these documents were available on my home computer, there was no access to these files from my office.

Being an electronic hobbyist, I could learn Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, Visual Basic, C#, etc., easily. Internet connection was available in the office and at home, designing, coding and commissioning of a website, converting my little computer into a server, hosting the website on it with all the available documents went on smoothly. Finally all these documents became accessible for me from my office also. Gradually, other colleagues in the Risk Management Division also became part of this network and started accessing these documents whenever they required. The next big question before me was why not allow access to other colleagues working in the department? It was also achievable without any extra labour or expenditure. Thus on 01-04-2007 this website www.referencer.in was added to the World Wide Web - on an experimental basis, a beta launch in technical parlance - opening its doors to all the officers and staff working in Customs, Central Excise and other allied Departments. Later, coverage of documents was extended to Central Excise as there was an overwhelming response from the central excise side. I, now, feel proud to see the site having more than 2,000 registered members - serving and retired officers from Tax Assistants to the Chief Commissioners - many of whom are regular visitors. Thank you.