Prime Minister Modi in awe of Lepakshi, inaugurates NACIN campus in AP

ANANTAPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday offered prayers at the historic Veerabhadra Temple at Lepakshi and later participated in the opening ceremony of NACIN (National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics) Academy established at Palasamudram village in Gorantla mandal in Sri Sathyasai District.

After reaching Puttaparthi from New Delhi, the Prime Minister left for Lepakshi, which is a significant place in Hindu epic Ramayana.

It is believed that Jatayu, the giant eagle, followed Goddess Sita to Lepakshi after she was abducted by Ravan.

The priests explained the significance of the temple to the Prime Minister.

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He performed various rituals and chanted ‘Shri Ram Jai Ram’ bhajan and also heard verses from the Ranganatha Ramayana.

The Prime Minister also watched a puppet show depicting the events of Ramayana. He went around the historic temple and had a look at Lepakshi handicrafts.

The Prime Minister described that Lepakshi Temple reflected the ancient glory of India and the cultural and sculptural wealth of the Vijayanagar empire. He said that the Centre was paying special attention to protect the heritage of India.

After a visit to Lepakshi, the Prime Minister inaugurated the new campus of National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics (NACIN) at Palasamudram in the same district.

Modi expressed confidence that NACIN would create new dimensions for good governance and would propel trade and commerce in India. He said it should create a friendly environment to make India an important partner for global trade and promote ease of doing business through tax, customs and narcotics.

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister talked about the tax reforms in the last 10 years. He recalled multiple, non-transparent tax systems of earlier times. “We gave the country a modern system in the form of GST and simplified income tax and introduced faceless assessment. All these reforms have resulted in record tax collection," the Prime Minister said.

‘We are returning people’s money through various schemes," he added.

He informed that the IT exemption limit was raised from the income of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 7 lakh.

Tax reforms after 2014 have resulted in tax savings of about 2.5 lakh crore rupees for the citizens. He said that the number of taxpayers is consistently increasing in the country as they feel happy that their tax money is put to good use.

“Whatever we took from people, we returned it to people and this is good governance and the message of Ram Rajya”, he said.

The Prime Minister also highlighted the special attention paid to the optimum utilization of resources in Ram Rajya.

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Pointing out the past Government which tended to stall, shelve and divert projects causing huge losses to the nation, the Prime Minister drew an analogy to Lord Ram‘s conversation with Bharat cautioning him against such tendencies and said, “I am confident that you complete tasks which cost less and give more benefit without wasting time.” He highlighted that in the last 10 years, the present Government has kept the cost in mind and laid emphasis on completing the projects on time.

Once again quoting Goswami Tulsidas, Prime Minister Modi highlighted the need to create a system that supports the poor and weeds out the non deserving. He informed that in the last 10 years, 10 crore fake names have been weeded out of the documents.

“Today, every paisa reaches the bank account of the beneficiary who is entitled to it. Fight against corruption and action against corrupt people has been the priority of the Government”, he said.

The Prime Minister expressed the belief that the poor of this country have the potential to defeat poverty if they are given the means and resources.

“We can see this becoming a reality today,” he added. He stated that the Government spent on health, education, employment and self-employment, and increasing the facilities for the poor. “When the potential of the poor strengthened and facilities were provided, they started coming out of poverty," he said noting that it was another good news before the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22.

“Poverty can be reduced in India, this is going to fill everyone with a new belief and will increase the confidence of the country,” he remarked.

Modi credited the reduction in poverty to the rise of the neo-middle class and the proliferation of the middle class. He said that people in the world of economy realize the potential of the growth of neo-middle class and their contribution towards economic activities. “In such a situation, NACIN must fulfil its responsibility with more seriousness.

In a step towards realizing the Prime Minister’s vision of improving governance through Civil Service Capacity Building, the new state-of-the-art campus NACIN was conceptualised and built. Spread in 500 acres, the academy is the apex institution of the Government of India for capacity building in the field of Indirect Taxation (Customs, Central Excise and Goods and Services Tax) and Narcotics Control Administration. The national-level world-class training institute would impart training to the officials of the Indian Revenue Service (Custom & Indirect Taxes) as well as to the central allied services, State Governments and partner nations.

With the addition of this new campus, the NACIN would focus on the use of new-age technologies such as Augmented & Virtual Reality, Blockchain as well as Artificial Intelligence and other emerging Technologies for training and capacity building.