Referencer - Contact the Administrator

M.P.Vasudevan, I.R.S. 

Email: mp[at]vasudevan[dot]in

Website Objectives

Referencer.in - Indian Customs, Central Excise and Goods & Services Tax Referencer - provides easily accessible information and guidance on the laws, rules, regulations and procedures of the Indian Customs, Central Excise and Goods & Services Tax. It offers legal assistance, guidance and training to the officers in drafting Show Cause Notices (SCN), Adjudication Orders (Order-in-Original), Appeal Memoranda, Revision Applications, etc. Defence assistance in cases of Vigilance matters/ Inquiries is also available. Referencer.in also extends succour and support in fulfilling the tax payer obligations in an appropriate and legal manner. Legal advice and assistance against erroneous or unlawful cases and tax/ duty demands are also available to the Tax Payers. Referencer welcomes all the Officers and Staff of Indian Customs, Central Excise, Goods & Services Tax and other allied Departments alongwith the Advocates, CAs, Consultants, Customs Brokers (CHA), Tax Payers, et al to become members so that they can access the documents and get online support on indirect tax matters from www.referencer.in.

Customs, Central Excise and Goods & Services 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 the goods and services tax  collections are also on the rise. In addition to regulating cross border trade and collecting taxes, Customs and Central Excise officers minimise 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 or GST officer lies in the maximisation of revenue collections and prevention of smuggling/ tax evasion without disturbing the national and international movement of goods and thus facilitating the trade. Due to the changes caused by technological advancement, liberalization and globalization, it is a very challenging task to strike the right balance between trade facilitation, collection of taxes and enforcement of Law.

Over the years, the responsibilities of the Customs and the Central Excise officers, and now GST Officers too, 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), Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade (SWIFT), eSANCHIT, etc., on the customs side and the Automation of Central Excise and Service tax (ACES), Computer Assisted Audit Programme (CAAP), etc. on the central excise, have made the Officer's task much easier. Now, after the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on 01.07.2017, the Officers of central excise have been given the role of the CGST Officers also. The new GST Acts have been drafted keeping in mind the technological advancement and with an aim to utilise the advanced technology in the day-to-day dealings of the Officers with the trade. An IT backbone GSTN, has already been crafted for the trade to file their returns and the Officers to use them online. Most of the notices are also being sent out using this IT set-up. 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 Acts, rules and regulations which they enforce. www.referencer.in is an earnest effort in this direction.

Coming to the taxpayers, any duty or tax adds to the cost of the goods and services they enjoy and there is a natural tendency to minimize the cost and maximize the profit by resorting to tax evasion. Voluntary tax compliance is a major problem area for the Government, the Ministry and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC); and it is also not an easy task for the officers to persuade the taxpayers to voluntarily comply.  Ignorance of the Law, rules and regulations which are at times very complicated to understand and follow adds to the difficulty. www.referencer.in targets on improving voluntary taxpayer compliance by coaching and educating the taxpayers to follow a culture of voluntary tax compliance. The taxpayer education will surely improve voluntary compliance and ease the officers' job. www.referencer.in makes available up-to-date copies of the Customs Act, Central Excise Act, Goods and Services Tax Acts and Allied Acts, Customs, Central Excise, Service Tax & Goods and Services Tax Rules and Regulations, Customs, Central Excise, Service Tax & Goods and Services Tax Circulars, Customs, Central Excise, Service Tax & Goods and Services Tax Notifications, Customs, Central Excise, Service Tax & Goods and Services Tax Manuals, Union Budgets, Finance Acts, etc. for easy access, reference and use. www.referencer.in also aims at encouraging exchange of views, ideas and information amongst its members with negligible to no expenditure.

Background Facts

My affection towards the computer started in the year 2002 when my son, Chethan P.Dev, took admission in Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering, Bandra, Mumbai to pursue his studies in B.Tech. (Electronics) and we bought our first desktop computer, a small sexy box with a 14" monitor, from M/s IBM, India. While learning basic skills like Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Power Point, etc., I also started collecting 'soft copy' of various Acts, Rules, Regulations, Circulars, Notifications, etc. for my own reference. During this search I realized that though a lot of documents were available on various websites, most of them were not up-to-date. The files thus collected were edited, updated and compiled on a mini-CD, normally used in the video cameras of those days which fitted in any 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 its contents and presentation were upgraded to a newer version in the year 2004, while I learnt basics of coding. Thousands of copies of these mini-CDs, each containing data of about 250MB (12,000 to 15,000 printed pages roughly) went into circulation among the customs Officers with the help of the Office bearers (mainly Mr Bala) of the All India Federation of the Superintendents of Customs, Mumbai. It was in the year 2005 that the increase in size of this collection beyond the capacity of the mini-CD coupled with the abrupt stoppage of production of these mini-CDs by their manufacturers put an end to this mini-CD compilation and circulation. A compilation on the normal CD was not considered fit as it could not be carried to office and home daily with ease. At this juncture, as I was working with the Risk Management Project Team - pioneer of the Risk Management Division, Mumbai. 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.

Meanwhile, I could learn Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, Visual Basic, C#, etc., easily as building electronic gadgets was one of my hobbies from the college days. Day-to-day interactions with the young engineers of M/s BSL, the software developers engaged for the Risk Management System, had also given an opportunity to learn and understand more about Servers, Databases, etc. 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 too. 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 elsewhere in the department? It was an easily achievable feat, without much additional labour or expenditure, since the website, for that matter, was already on the internet. 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, the field of coverage was extended to Central Excise and Service Tax Officers also as there was an overwhelming response from the central excise and service tax side. Lots of other documents like Service Rules, Leave Rules, LTC Rules, etc. required by Central Government Employees were also added considering their utility to the officials working in other Ministries and Departments.

More from the Background

This website targets the overall learning process of its members, i.e. Officers employed to enforce the customs, excise and service tax (now Goods and Services Tax - GST) laws to collect the tax for the Government and the taxpayers dealing with them for payment of their tax dues. Guidance is available to the officers in their official duties and functions while taxpayers are educated in voluntary tax compliance. This in turn is expected to work wonders while they interact with each other. Help is also available in other areas including membership registration, password recovery, password change, etc., which is also helpful to them when they start using the ICES 1.5 version or ACES or GSTN. A lot of online quizzes are made available for self-study and self-evaluation of one’s knowledge of the law and the results are kept confidential to encourage maximum participation. As a matter of principle, any query from the members, in the normal course, is being replied within twenty-four to forty-eight hours of its receipt. A panel of willing and experienced members have been drafted for the purpose. Many sleepless nights are being spent on the expansion in content quantity, improvement in aesthetic quality and modernization of the hardware and software support of the site. It is also a matter of great pride that the site received the consent and approval of the department and was recommended for the Presidential appreciation. It is also a great achievement that as on 10.02.2024, going by the Google webmaster (Google Search Central now) tools statistics, 14,638 websites, including Bombay High Court, Supreme Court and Indiatimes, are linked to the pages of www.referencer.in, though only a very few pages of www.referencer.in are available outside the secured area which can be linked. Further, on an average, pages on the site take 1.8 seconds to load. I feel flattered and honoured to see the site having more than 5,000 registered members (as on 31.01.2024) - officers across the cadres, Commissionerates and Departments under the CBEC (CBIC from 01-04-2018) covering all the Districts in India – and serving more than 20,000 clicks, i.e. visitors daily. This is the lone motivating factor forcing me to devote my time and energy on its maintenance and modernization. The site has around 80 lakh pages contained in 43,000 files and databases occupying a disk space of 21 GB.

Several years of experience in maintaining this site, www.referencer.in, modernised and updated on a day-to-day basis is more than enough to learn that upkeep of such a huge website is indeed a herculean task. Some of my friends may also agree that keeping the site mostly up-to-date is an extraordinary feat. Even then, a "Weekly News Letter" was launched on 11.05.2014. Sincere efforts are also being made to provide the members an update on the important happenings around them in the department including the directions from the Ministry/Board that may directly or indirectly affect them as officers or as assessees. I am indeed grateful to all those members who have send their valuable feedback/ comments on the website.

Lately, on 31-03-2023, the hosting platform of the website www.referencer.in has been moved on to a state of the art server from M/s DELL with the latest hardwares and softwares. Further, on 30-01-2024, the server has also been upgraded adding an SSL Certification and the connections to the website are now fully secured with a 256-bit data encryption.

www.referencer.in also is committed to constant modernisation and upgradation. Now the site is fully mobile friendly and loads on all type of devises seamlessly adjusting to their screen sizes. Its doors are open to the public, i.e. Advocates, Consultants, Customs Brokers (CHA), Tax Payers, et al. and the profit out of the membership charges will go for charity. www.referencer.in now also offers legal assistance, guidance and training to the officers in drafting Show Cause Notices, Adjudication Orders, Appeal Memoranda, Revision Applications, etc. Defence assistance in cases of Vigilance matters/ Inquiries is also available. www.referencer.in also extends succour and support in fulfilling the tax payer obligations in an appropriate and legal manner. Legal advice and assistance against erroneous or unlawful cases and tax/ duty demands are also available to the Tax Payers. Thank you for reading the story behind this venture.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to S/Shri Yeshodhan G.Parande, IRS; Banibrata Bhattacharya, IRS; P.Vinaykumar, IRS; Basawraj Nalegave, IRS; Balaji Majumdar, IRS; Anupam Majumdar, Atanu Choudhury, IRS; P.K. Gupta, IRS and Dinesh Singh, IRS; all my colleagues in the Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax (now Goods and Services Tax - GST) Departments including the registered members on the website 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 (now cbic.gov.in) for the enormous reference material freely available on them.

Working Hours of Referencerg Hours of Referencer

Monday to Friday 10:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 18:00
Saturday, Sunday and Holidays 10:00 to 13:00

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