Airlines asked to share international passengers’ contact details with customs

The government said this is being done with an aim to prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute offences under the Customs Act

The government has made it mandatory for airlines to share international passengers’ details with the customs department citing ‘risk analysis’.

The passenger’s name record information will include details like PNR, date of reservation, among others. (File image)

The decision was taken on Monday.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said that every airline is now required to provide Passenger Name Record (PNR) details to the National Customs Targeting Centre-Passenger (NCTC-P) no later than 24 hours before the departure time.

The government said this is being done with an aim to prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute offences under the Customs Act.

The passenger’s name record information will include details like PNR, date of reservation, benefit information (like free tickets, upgrades) and an issue of ticket as well as frequent flyer.

The details will also contain payment or billing information, travel itinerary and the travel agency.

With this move, India has now joined the list of other 50 countries that also collect PNR details of international passengers.

CBIC also stated that a penalty of ₹25,000 to ₹50,000 will be levied in case an air operator does not comply with the mandate.

It clarified that the passenger information collected by customs will be subject to strict information privacy and protection, in accordance with the applicable law. “

‘The PNR details will be retained for a maximum of five years,’ the gazette notification read.

‘There will be an extensive independent system and security audit on an annual basis, to prevent any misuse of the passenger’s name record information”, it added.

Abhishek Jain, Partner, Indirect Tax, KPMG in India said, “The objective of said regulations is to obtain relevant passenger data for risk analysis to proactively prevent, detect, investigate or prosecute offences under the Customs law or any other domestic or international law. The onus of timely collecting and sharing such information has been put on the airline operators. While strict privacy guidelines have been stipulated under the said regulations, the government should ensure that the same are duly enforced to prevent unauthorised usage”