PUSHED TO THE MARGIN
- Only 13 Muslims in three Maharashtra ports
- No Muslim among 84 officials at Delhi Customs
- No Muslim has headed the CBIC or become its member since 1965
- Kolkata Customs has one Muslim among 14 top officers
THE number of Muslims working at Customs at airports and seaports across the country has remained low, according to the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) whose 43 chiefs, since January 1965, include no Muslim. Similar is the case with the present seven members and the previous 53 members, according to a new book by Mohammed Abdul Mannan, At The Bottom Of The Ladder: State Of The Indian Muslims – https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0GF1Q9R25 – which quantified Muslim presence in 150 key organisations, including Union ministries, departments, and organisations.
The CBIC, part of the Department of Revenue at the Union Ministry of Finance, has 11 Customs zones across the country, including three in Mumbai and two in Delhi. There are 35 Commissionerates exclusively for Customs and Customs (Preventive). In all, there are 111 Muslims among 5,831 officers at the Customs at both airports and seaports, as of mid-2025.
India currently has 137 airports, which include 34 international airports and 10 Customs airports. International status airports include those in Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Calicut, Chennai, Guwahati, Jaipur, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Goa, Port Blair and Srinagar. The Customs airports catering to international flights include those of Varanasi, Trichy, Patna, Mangalore, Lucknow, Gaya, Coimbatore and Pune. Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) is one of the largest airports in India in terms of international passenger traffic.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is presently the owner of 95 airports spread all over the country. The management of five international airports at New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram lies with the International Airports Division (IAD), whereas the National Airports Division (NAD) manages seven international airports at Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cochin, Goa, Guwahati and Hyderabad, apart from domestic airports.
Among the 812 officials in the Indian Customs at three ports in Maharashtra, only 13 are Muslims. Delhi airport is India’s largest air cargo gateway, handling over one million metric tonnes of cargo annually. The first Authorised Economic Operator (AEO), Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, is the busiest and largest airport in India and maintains an annual air traffic of about 60 million.
Currently, goods imported or exported are on a prohibition list under the Customs Act of 1962 or any other law for the time being in force. This includes narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, pornographic material and fake currency. Export of Indian currency is strictly prohibited. However, Indian residents going abroad are allowed to carry Indian currency notes not exceeding Rs 25,000.
Tourists/NRIs leaving India are allowed to take with them foreign currency not exceeding the amount brought in by them – unspent foreign exchange left from the amount declared in the Currency Declaration Form at the time of their arrival.
Indian residents going abroad are permitted to take with them foreign currency without any limit so long as the same has been purchased/issued by an RBI-approved/authorised foreign exchange dealer as per norms. All the passengers leaving India are subject to clearance by the Customs authorities. For costly items that can be identified by serial numbers, marks, or other distinctive features, passengers travelling abroad have to approach the Customs Officer at the departure area for an export certificate.
However, this arrangement doesn’t hold for jewellery items; it has a separate procedure. Export of most species of wildlife and articles made from wild flora and fauna, such as ivory, musk, reptile skins, and furs is prohibited, according to the CBIC guidelines for international travellers. From April 2025, airlines are sharing ‘comprehensive’ information on international passengers with the Customs to enhance risk analysis. Airlines mandatorily share PNR details of passengers with customs authorities 24 hours before the departure of international flights.
Delhi Customs has 84 officials, of whom none is from the Muslim community. Ninety-one Chief Commissioners of Customs, AEO Zonal Programme Manager, Nodal Officers and CRMs at 20 places across the country includes two Muslims – P M Ataur Rahman and Mahfuzur Rahman, Commissioners at Kolkata and Guwahati, respectively.
Fourteen officers at the Hyderabad Customs Commissionerate are headed by Ajaz Uddin, Principal Commissioner. The jurisdiction of the commissionerate includes Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Air Cargo Complex, Inland Container Depot at Sanath Nagar and Thimmapur, Container Freight Station at Kukatpally and Muthangi, Export Promotion Division and Circles and Foreign Post Office.
During the 21st century’s second pandemic, one of the 20 Nodal Officers from the CBIC Customs Zones/Formations set up to facilitate Customs clearances had one Muslim – T P Anwar Ali, Additional Commissioner at Thiruvananthapuram. The Group-B and C officers also have only a couple of Muslims. The 35 Superintendents of Customs (Preventive) include three Muslims. The Preventive Officers are 48, including two Muslims.
At the Kolkata Customs, there is only one Muslim among the 14 Group ‘A’ officers – Khurshid Rehan, Deputy Commissioner. No Muslim is among the nine Assistant Commissioners. Twenty-four officials at the port include three Muslims – Sofi-ul-Alam, Mohsina Tabassum, and I Ali, all Assistant Commissioners. None of the 18 officials at airport is a Muslim.
The Group ‘A’ officers posted at the Mumbai Customs Zone’s Chief Commissioner’s Office stands at 23 without any Muslims on board. Its Import Commissionerate has 105 officials, including one Muslim – Aslam Hassan, Commissioner. The Export Commissionerate is headed by Javed Akhtar Khan. At the Directorate of Valuation, a Deputy Commissioner is a Muslim – S S Ahmed.
The Mumbai-based Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House (JNCH) is the biggest Customs Zone in the country in terms of revenue collection and contributes about 24 per cent of the national customs revenue and about 4.6 per cent of the total revenue receipt of the Union government. It is also the biggest in terms of import and export cargo handled in containers at Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT), one of the 11 major ports of India built over 2,500 hectares to de-congest Mumbai port and to serve as a hub port.
Presently, the Mumbai Customs Zone-II comprises Commissioner (Appeal), Nhava Sheva (General), Nhava Sheva-I, Nhava Sheva-II, Nhava Sheva-III, Commissioner (Audit) and Nhava Sheva-V, all situated in JNCH. JNPT is the responsibility of Mumbai Customs Zone-II, along with its jurisdiction over Container Freight Stations (CFSs).
Presently, there are 36 CFSs licensed by Customs and are being managed by various public sector organisations like Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) and Balmer Lawrie.
JNCH is the biggest in the country in terms of containers handled, documents filed and revenue generated. Among its 20 senior officers is a Muslim – I Baig, Commissioner of Customs (NS–General & NS-Audit) – the second senior-most official after Chief Commissioner of Customs. Among its 170 Appraisers are two Muslims – Mujawar Mansoor Mubarak and Sarfaraz Ahmed. None of the five Deputy/Assistant Commissioners of Customs is a Muslim, as is the case with five Examiners.
However, one of the 34 Examiners posted at Export Docks of JNCH is a Muslim – Sheikh Farhan Munaf. There is no Muslim among 26 Assistant Commissioners (ACs) and Deputy Commissioners (DCs) at the Mumbai Customs Zone-II. There are also no Muslims among the 44 officials at four Nhava Sheva’s Customs offices. There is only one Muslim among 11 at Nhava Shiva-V facility – Mazid Khan, a Joint Commissioner. The Commissioners for Audit and Appeals have no Muslims among their 11 officials.
Located in Gujarat’s Kutch district, the Kandla Customs is headed by a Principal Commissioner. There are only two Muslims among it 212 officials, who belong to Group ‘A’ and ‘B’. At the Commissionerate of Customs at Visakhapatnam, there is no Muslim among its 17 top officials. So is the case with Superintendents (Preventive) numbering 100 or 84 Inspectors (Preventive) or 11 Executive Assistants. Out of the total 259 employees at the Custom House Visakhapatnam, only four are Muslims, including Mohammed Ibrahim, Superintendent, and Amin Basha Shaik, Examiner.
At Chennai Customs, five senior officials at its Chief Commissioner’s Office include no Muslims. There are no Muslims at its Audit Commissionerate, which has 13 officials, as is the case with its two Appeals Commissionerate having 16 officials. The Chennai Airport Commissionerate too has no Muslim among its 14 officials, as is the case with Chennai Import Commissionerate’s 15 officials. It is only at Chennai Preventive Commissionerate’s 15 employees, there is a Muslim – I Baig, Principal Commissioner.
Chennai Export Commissionerate also has one Muslim among its 13 officials – Raja Mohammed, an Assistant Commissioner. There are no Muslims among the 15 officials at the Chennai Air Cargo Commissionerate or among the 11 senior staff at the Commissionerate General Administration. At the Bengaluru Customs too, there are no Muslims among its 13 top officials. Only one is a Muslim out of 132 Inspectors – Mizan Haider Jafri. Two are Muslims among 220 Superintendents – M Rashida and Mohammed Samee Ullah. One is a Muslim among 32 Deputy and Assistant Commissioners – Syed Zahed Ali, Deputy Commissioner.
There is no Muslim among the seven Additional and Joint Commissioners, as is the case with 13 Appraisers. At the Commissioner of Customs in Cochin, 391 officials include 17 Muslims. At Thiruvananthapuram Zone, which includes the Custom House Cochin that handles import/export clearances and trade facilitation, and the Commissionerate of Customs (Preventive), has four senior officials headed by a Muslim – Shaik Khader Rahman, Chief Commissioner. Twenty officials include only one Muslim – K Uthaman, Assistant Commissioner (Appeals).
At the Trichy Zone, a full-fledged Customs Commissionerate since November 2002, there are no Muslims among its 17 officials based in Tuticorin. The CBIC’s Directorate of Legal Affairs has eight officials with no Muslims. None of the 44 officials at Mundra Customs is a Muslim. Pune Customs has two Muslims among the 79 officials. Fifteen are Muslims among 284 officials at Lucknow Customs. Ahmedabad Customs has eight Muslims among its 348 officers. Mangalore Customs has two Muslims out of the 119 officials on its rolls. Seven are Muslims among the 648 officials in the Bhubaneswar Customs Commissionerate. Goa has no Muslim among the 75 officials. Jamnagar has nine Muslims out of 453 officials. Ludhiana has only one Muslim among its 155 customs officials, while Shillong counts three Muslims among its 77 officials.
To read and obtain more data, please visit:
At the Bottom of the Ladder: State of the Indian Muslims –https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0GF1Q9R25
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