The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Tuesday asked all Indian airlines to mandatorily share with them the PNR details of international passengers with customs authorities 24 hours prior to departure of their flights to help authorities maintain “risk analysis” of passengers and prevent law offenders from fleeing the country.
The information airlines have to share includes the passenger’s name, contact details, date of issue of ticket, intended travel, and payment details. It will be used by the customs department for improved surveillance and risk assessment of passengers entering or leaving the country, read a notification issued by the Union finance ministry. The CBIC set up ‘National Customs Targeting Centre-Passenger’ for the same purpose.
The team will process information for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of offences under the Customs Act and also for the law enforcement agencies or government departments or any other country, it said.
