The 80th Session of the Policy Commission of the World Customs Organization (WCO) has started today at Hotel TajMahal Palace in Mumbai. The three-day long session is hosted by Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) and is being attended by Customs heads of 31 countries from all the six regions of the WCO.

The session was addressed by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley via video link. He thanked the WCO for giving an opportunity to India for conducting Policy Commission. He mentioned the role of customs in not only collecting revenues but also in other areas like safety, security, facilitation etc. He highlighted some of the key reforms being initiated by Indian Customs, as a result of which, there has been a quantum jump in the ranking for India in World Banks Trading across Border indicator from 146 last year to 80 this year.