New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday lauded the efforts of the Central Board of Indirect Tax and Customs (CBIC) and underlined the need for training personnel for better utilisation of Artificial Intelligence and data analytics.

"You keep doing good work, generating revenues, you are noticed for it, Prime Minister made a special appreciative mention recently on level of GST revenues," she said while inaugurating 'Kendriya GST Parisar', the housing complex for CGST officers of Mumbai zone in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai.

The Finance Minister also spoke about the need for training CBIC officials for better utilisation of Artificial Intelligence, data-analytics, IoT and other technologies to identify fraudulent practices, such as detection of tax evasion.

She was also appreciative of the Central Intelligence Unit team of CGST Mumbai Zone for fantastic data analysis and mining tools used for large scale tax evasion resulting in big recovery and booking of offenders.

She also lauded the effort of the department to take care of future needs and development required for the second phase for welfare of officers and staff.

CBIC Chairman Vivek Johri said that 7 per cent of GDP and 40 per cent of foreign trade is contributed by Mumbai.

Mumbai Customs Zone contributes 25 per cent and Mumbai CGST 18 per cent of GST revenue in the country whereas 14 per cent workforce of CBIC is in Mumbai itself, he added.

Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj was also present on the occasion.