Trade Facilitation and Ease of doing business has been a mantra
that has been intoned by this Government time and again to propel
India into an era of Atmanirbharta. To this effect, many best
practices and standards have been introduced for two decades to
accelerate growth. One such move in this Union Budget 2025 has been
to weed out some deep-rooted issues in the Customs law processes,
that have afflicted the trade for more than half a century now.
The Finance Bill, 2025 has proposed to amend the existing
provisions relating to provisional assessment [section 18] to
announce definitive timelines to finalize these assessments and
introduce a voluntary mechanism [section 18A] allowing revision of
self-assessment under the Customs Act, 1962. The proposal of
setting a timeline for the finalization of provisional assessments
is directed to bring about certainty and set an endpoint to
conclude assessments by the Customs authorities. Similarly, the
amendment introducing the
