The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is celebrating its 65^th Founding Day on 5^th-6^th December, 2022 this year. Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman will inaugurate the 2-day event along with the Union Minister of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary.

DRI is the premier intelligence and enforcement agency on anti-smuggling matters under the aegis of Central Board of Indirect taxes & Customs (CBIC), Government of India. It came into existence on 4^th December 1957. The DRI with its Headquarters at New Delhi has 12 Zonal Units, 35 regional Units and 15 Sub-regional units, with a working strength of about 800 officials.

For more than six decades, DRI with its presence across India and abroad has been carrying out its mandate of preventing and detecting cases of smuggling of narcotic drugs & psychotropic substances, gold, diamonds, precious metals, wildlife items, cigarettes, arms, ammunitions & explosives, counterfeit currency notes, foreign currency, SCOMET items, hazardous & environmentally sensitive materials, antiques etc. and taking punitive action against the organised crime groups engaged therein. DRI is also engaged in unearthing commercial frauds and customs duty evasion.

DRI has also been at the forefront in international Customs collaboration under Customs Mutual Assistance Agreements signed with various countries, where thrust is on information exchange and learning from the best practices of other Customs administrations.

Accordingly, DRI takes the opportunity of its founding day to organise Regional Customs Enforcement Meeting (RCEM) for effectively engaging with partner Customs organisations and International agencies like World Customs Organisation, INTERPOL for enforcement related issues. This year, 22 Customs administrations covering the Asia-Pacific region along with international organisations such as World Customs Organisation (WCO), Interpol, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Regional Intelligence Liaison Office – Asia Pacific (RILO AP) have been invited to the event.

The current edition of “Smuggling in India Report 2021-22” will be released by Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister on this occasion. The report brings together the trends in the field of anti- smuggling and commercial fraud and DRI’s performance and experience over the last financial year.

The DRI day serves as a day for honouring and recognizing the achievements of the past, a day of motivation for the young officers of the CBIC and the DRI and also offers an opportunity to interact and deliberate with the Custom Administrations of regional countries and important regional trading partners, thus reinforcing India’s role in Custom related matters in the region.

****

RM/PPG/KMN