ABOUT CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE (CoE)

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Centre of Excellence (CoE) was conceived as an institution for significant research in the areas of taxation, tax administration management, macroeconomic policies, fiscal federalism and other related issues. CoE is devoted to educating tax administrators, the public finance academia, and public finance policy makers.

2. Background:

The CBIC (earlier CBEC) in its meeting on 30.08.2001, approved the proposal to set up a CoE which was expected to facilitate the development of professionalism for fulfilling the expectations from the department. In the year 2011, CoE acquired its own premises at NBCC plaza, Saket. Later on, in 2024, Centre of Excellence has shifted its operation to NACIN Palasamudram.

3. Governing Body:

The Board in its meeting in 2011 put up a proposal to constitute a nine member Governing body for CoE with two years tenure, extendable by another one year. The Governing body had a mandate to lay down procedures for selection of Research fellows, standards of research, and approve funding for research. A new Governing Body was constituted on 09.02.2017 under the Chairmanship of Member (Admn.), CBIC. The meeting of the newly constituted body was held on 17.03.2017 where a Draft Concept paper on Strategic Vision & Mission for CoE was prepared along with a draft Action Plan for 2017-18. Further proposal for reconstituting the Governing body is in the works.

4. The objectives of CoE NACIN are as under:-

1. Be centre of research and development in areas of Customs, GST, Narcotics and Taxation;
2. Prepare NACIN and the RTIs to meet the challenges involved in delivering training in the areas of current and future concerns of the department;
3. Create and manage 'Knowledge Forum' for CBIC;
4. Be the institutional arrangement for providing intellectual support to CBIC; and
5. Undertake training programmes for stakeholders through public-private partnership modes;

5. DoR Chair:

An MoU dated 29.03.2016 was signed between National Law School India University (NLSIU) and Department of Revenue ( DoR) for establishment of a DoR Chair in NLSUI. Centre of Excellence has been assigned the task for the Secretariat of the same. The first meeting was held under the chairmanship of Prof. (Dr.) R. Venkata Rao, then Vice Chancellor, NLSUI. In its 2nd meeting held on 28.10.2016 Shri P.R. Chandrashekhran was selected as the 1st Chair professor and since then Fifteen meetings have taken place, with the 15th meeting held on 03.12.2024. Several topics for research and furtherance were assigned to the Chair from time to time and the reports submitted by the Chair were sent to the relevant offices for further examination and utilization. Shri M Vinod Kumar ( IRS, Retd.) is the current Chair professor.

6. Work undertaken by CoE:

1. CoE co-ordinates the work relating to the DoR Chair set up by CBIC and CBDT. DoR Chair has submitted the research reports on various topics assigned to it by its Management Committee. Studies conducted till date, by DoR Chair are summarised below:

By Shri P.R. Chandrashekhran
1	Customs Valuation and Transfer Pricing-A Training Manual for Customs Officers
2	Training Material for the Adjudicating and Appellate Authorities
3	Conviction Rates in NDPS cases and Measures for Improvement-An Empirical Investigation
4	Tax Dispute Resolution-Need for an alternative approach
5	Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights- A Comparative Study
6	Training module on GST for IRS Officer trainees
7	International Practices of VAT/GST Treatment of E- Commerce in Services and their Relevance To India
8	GST Probable Areas of Dispute
9	VAT/GST Frauds and Evasion International Trends and Lessons for India
10	Convergence of Customs Valuation and Transfer Pricing & Efficacy of Arm’s Length Principle in Curbing Profit Shifting through Transfer Pricing
By Shri M Vinod Kumar
11	Study of NDPS Act, 1985
12	Study on the working of Authority/ Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling in GST
13	Study of Input Tax Credit
14	Study of Special Valuation Branch
15	Study of Taxation of Cross Border Services
16	Study on success rate of high value cases in adjudication/appellate forum and in prosecution in tax matters
17	Study on Customs Broker Regulations
18	Study on Taxation of Virtual Currencies
19	Place of Supply under GST Law - A Study on the Place of Supply of Intermediary Services under Section 13 of the IGST Act, 2017

2. Various modules of different topics were assigned which were completed and submitted to NACIN.
3. CoE has published two studies in the form of booklets:
   • IPR Violations: Challenges for Small Scale Industries & Analysis of IPR Enforcement Rules, 2007
   • Standard Checklist & SOP for NDPS Investigation
4. Several workshops/ training programmes were organized by CoE viz. work shop on Deputation of officers, the welfare of ST/SC officers, workshop on Nudge Theory, a Symposium on CAT cases , workshop on IPR, and Workshop of NDPS. Besides this several video conferences on the periodic changes made in GST law and compliances were organized.
5. Officers of CoE actively participated in periodic training programmes, video conferences and prepared and delivered the lectures in the training courses and video conferences.

7. Current Assignments of CoE:-

• In 2025, Centre of Excellence conducted field workshops on the following:
  • Applications of AI & ML
  • GST Compliance issues in Gold Sector
• DoR Chair has been assigned three study topics for this academic year , which are as under:
  • I. Study on key features and differences between the European Union's Value Added Tax (EU VAT) system and India's Goods and Services Tax (GST) and what learnings of European Union's Value Added Tax (EU VAT) can be imbibed in India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST). Specific topics of GST/VAT on which the comparative study should necessarily focus on are -
    • Place of supply.
    • Cross-border transactions between related persons.
    • Cross-border digital/online transactions of services.
    • Measures to handle/curtail GST input tax credit frauds.
• Conducting a study of international VAT laws specifically on the types of goods and services where input tax credit (ITC) is disallowed or blocked under those laws. Based on this analysis, what lessons or insights can be drawn for improving the Indian GST law in this respect. Specific International VAT jurisdictions that may be studied are the EU, Canada, Australia, UK, Singapore and New Zealand.
• To analyse present policy, regulatory framework & international best practices in Customs with respect to Postal & Courier mode and further policy interventions that can be made or Customs reform measures which can be undertaken in this regard to provide further impetus to cross border E-commerce.