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Indian Revenue Service
The Indian Revenue Service or the IRS is the central revenue service of Government of India, classified as Central Civil Services - A. The IRS is concerned with the collection and regulation of the direct and indirect taxes in India and is operated by the Department of Revenue of the Union Ministry of Finance
Recruitment
Officers are recruited either by direct appointment through the civil services examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission or existing employees are gradually promoted to the officer ranks. The ratio of officers recruited by the two methods at present is maintained equally. The entry level office is that of the Assistant Commissioner and the highest designation is that of the Member/Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes or Central Board of Excise and Customs.
Organization
The IRS is made up of two different departments - IRS (Customs and Central Excise) and IRS (Income Tax), directed by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) and Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) respectively.
The designations of IRS Officers in the ascending order are as follows:
- Assistant Commissioner
- Deputy Commissioner
- Additional Commissioners of Income Tax
- Commissioner
- Chief Commissioner
- CBDT Chairman/Member
Work of the IRS
Officers of Indian Revenue Service play a pivotal role in rooting financial malpractices in the country. The financial evaluations of the IRS are at the beginning of every investigation of a financial crime and the investigations of IRS regarding tax payment and evasion has also helped in corruption cases. Such efforts of the IRS officers have recovered large amounts of public money and the apprehension of cheats and frauds. For Example the ‘Fodder Scam’ of 1995 and the recently cracked Madhu Koda case from the state of Jharkhand has led to the recovery of Rs. 2000 crores in the form of tax evasions and money laundering. Also, Indian Revenue Service officers from the Income Tax Department were consulted regarding the various financial anomalies in the ‘2G Spectrum Scandal’ and also in and also in many recent scams.
Recent IRS campaigns have successfully confiscated ‘black money’ worth Rs.10, 000 crores from Indian accounts in several international tax havens. A new ‘Directorate of Criminal Investigation’ has been instituted under the Central Board of Direct Taxes whose responsibility is to crack down on the Business-Criminal-Bureaucrat nexus and prosecute and prevent tax evasion. This agency is modeled on the Internal Revenue Service of the USA and will include armed agents to investigate into the high profile cases of tax evasion and money laundering.
Major Concerns
Lack of Staff
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, has pointed out in his latest report the failure of the IRS to satisfactorily collect the arrears in tax collection. A severe deficiency in the total staff of the Indian Revenue Service has been blamed for its operational inadequacies.
Corruption
During the economic liberalization of India in the 1990s, the strict regulations of the government policies loosened and the new open market place was riddled with fierce competition among old and new entrepreneurs. The already influential bureaucracy in the Indian administration grew more corrupt and powerful during this time.
The IRS officials occupy prime positions in the Central Bureau of Investigation’s list of most corrupt bureaucrats in India. In the year 2009-10, the CBI had applied for prosecution against 102 IRS officials posted all over India for involvement in several corruption cases.