Government promotes over 150 IRS officers as I-T Commissioners

NEW DELHI: In a major decision towards ensuring ease of doing business and resolving taxpayers' grievances, the government today issued orders promoting over 150 IRS officers as Income Tax Commissioners.

The much-awaited orders for a total of 153 Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers were issued by the Finance Ministry keeping in mind a big cadre restructuring that has taken place in the I-T department recently which led to the creation of new posts.

"With no officers in place, the new posts were being held in an additional charge by others. The recently promoted Commissioners will now take charge and ensure faster work," a senior I-T officer said.

The latest promotions pertain to the 1992, 1993 and 1994 batch IRS officers after clearance from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex policy-making body of the tax department, and approvals from the office of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The CBDT said the promotions and subsequent postings of these officials will enable the government to address the shortage of officers at various stations and I-T offices to a "significant" extent.

The major chunk of these officers will be deployed in disputes resolution wings so that bottlenecks are removed quickly, litigation is minimised and the government's decision to ensure ease of doing business in India are put to implementation, the official said.

"These officers will be deployed in posts primarily dealing with matters of dispute resolution. It is expected that with these postings, the department will be able to address the backlog of taxpayers' appeals and offer better services to the taxpayers in the field offices," it said.

The ambitious cadre restructuring of the I-T department was approved by the government in May 2013 which had created 20,751 posts, in various ranks, in the department.

It was done keeping in view the challenge of ensuring better taxpayers services and administration of direct taxes in the country.

The ground implementation of this decision had gathered pace this year with the CBDT moving towards filling up posts at various levels and bringing about changes in jurisdictions.

The restructuring in the department, with the creation of these new posts, had also brought about a number of changes in the existing jurisdictions of assessing officers (AOs) of the department across the country which means change in taxpayers' regular tax circles in a number of places.