The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs’(CBIC) ‘e-Office’ application services remain non-functional since February 9, primarily affecting Customs clearance process. A senior official in the CBIC told FE that the issue is likely to be resolved within the next two days, and till then officers in the Department have been asked to grant urgent approvals, or handle other business, through physical means.
e-Office is an application developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), to carry out office work of the CBIC electronically. The CBIC’s Directorate General of Performance Management (DGPM) oversees the functioning of the application.
On Sunday, the outage of e-Office was due to network failure at the NIC/RailTel Data Centre, where CBIC’s eOffice application is hosted.
Experts say Customs officers typically rely on this application, and the digital framework for clearance, duty assessments, and approvals. Any disruption affects import/export clearances, causing delays at ports and borders.
This system is at the core of tax administration, ensuring timely processing of proceedings and compliances, effective resolution of taxpayer queries, and smooth coordination between various units, explained Ankur Gupta, practice leader-indirect tax at SW India.
When the system faces an outage, it doesn’t just create administrative bottlenecks – it delays crucial compliance processes, hinders communication, and affects the timely resolution of taxpayer concerns, he added. “This disruption ripples across businesses, tax professionals, and government departments, causing significant setbacks.”
Sivakumar Ramjee, executive director, Nangia Andersen said: “To prevent future disruptions of the CBIC website, the government should invest in a robust IT infrastructure with advanced monitoring and backup systems. A dedicated technical task force must conduct regular audits and stress tests to identify vulnerabilities.”