Indian Revenue Service Hierarchy

This service deals with the matters concerning Income Tax. The members of this service, begin their career as Assistant Commissioners of Income Tax and may rise to the level of Chief Commissioners of Income Tax.

With changing times however, more and more IRS officers are serving in departments and areas that used to exclusively be the forte of IAS officers. This widening of opportunities and exposure has made the IRS more attractive.

Since there is no cadre system in this service you can expect to be posted anywhere in India nad even your home state, which becomes a problem for many in the IAS or IPS. The tenures are also more stable with an average of 3 years unlike the other two services where one may not even complete a month and the average tenure is around a year or so.

Officers of Indian Revenue Services (Income-tax) enter training at their academy at Nagpur. After training, they are posted as Assistant Commissioners either on assessment or other work.

While the main work of the department is assessment and recovery of direct taxes, the department has specialised branches dealing with investigation of tax evasion, statistics, and so on with the help of Assistant Directors (of the same rank as Assistant Commissioners of Income-tax). The Assistant Commissioners/ Deputy Directors, Communication Chief Commissioners become members of Central Board of Direct Taxes. The head of the department is the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, who is invariably a member of the Indian Revenue Services (Income-tax).

Indian Revenue Service

In the Indian Revenue Service you earn money for the exchequer and therefore, as Usha Gupta, Additional Commissioner Income Tax points out you have to keep departmental expenses to the minimum! The job according to her is “officer oriented” as you are involved in all the processes from investigation to decisions and policy planning. As you will deal with the fiscal policy and budget, aptitude for accounts as well as a legal aptitude is useful. She states that you “wield a lot of power” and whereas the law abiding citizen “need not fear us, the white collar criminal better watch out” !

Your professional training will be conducted in the National Academy of Direct Taxes, Nagpur and you will also receive on-the-job training at an Assistant Commissioner’s office for sometime. Following this you will serve as an Assistant Commissioner for about eight years. You will examine cases in which the tax assessed is more than the prescribed figure. Assistant Commissioners deal with income and losses between Rs. 2 - 5 lakhs.

In the Junior Administrative Grade (JAG) and Selection Grade you would be a Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax or Deputy Director (Investigation). Deputy Commissioners (Assessment) handle cases above Rs.5 lakhs. In the Senior Administrative Grade you could be a Commissioner of Income Tax in a metropolitan town or one of the state capitals or a Director of Income Tax. Some of these Commissioners are designated Chief - Commissioners of Income Tax and are in a scale similar to that of Additional Secretaries.

Top IRS officers to get fixed pay scale of Rs 80,000 per month

NEW DELHI: Top income tax sleuths will now get a fixed pay scale of Rs 80,000 per month on par with secretaries in the Union government and police chiefs.

The proposal, approving the enhanced salary for chief commissioners (CCs) and directors general (DGs) of income tax, was in-principle cleared by the Union Cabinet in May when it also put its stamp of approval on the much awaited cadre restructuring of the income tax department.

“The decision to upgrade the salaries of these senior ranking officers from Rs 67,000-79,000 to Rs 75,500-80,000 was made by the government on July 19 and it will come into force from today,” a top Revenue department officer said.

This is the first time Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers have been sanctioned the apex grade of salary and these I-T officers will now be getting equivalent pay on par with secretaries to the government and directors general of police, the officer said.

A total of 116 CCs and DGs of the tax department will get benefit of this decision who are tasked to collect revenue under the direct taxes category.

The government recently sanctioned a large-scale cadre restructuring of the I-T department and created 20,751 posts, in various ranks, in the I-T department.

According to the new blueprint of the I-T in this regard, the number of assessment units of the department would be “increased by 1,080 from 3,420 to 4,500 for strengthening the tax administration”.

This step is expected to “bring additional revenue of Rs 25,756.04 crore per annum against an expenditure of Rs 449.71 crore per annum”, the new blueprint says.

“The primary objective of the strengthening/restructuring exercise (of the I-T department) is to improve the efficiency of the I-T department, maximise revenue collection and provide better services to the taxpayers, apart from improving career prospects of the employees,” the blueprint, also called the vision document, says.

How to become an IRS Officer

IRS officer is the fourth most respected officer of Civil Services after the IAS’s, IPS’s and IFS’s. They are comprises of IRS (C&CE) and IRS (IT). IRS officers are concerned with the collection, administration and policy formation of direct (Income, Corporate, Wealth, FBT etc.) and indirect (Central Excise, Service Tax and even Customs Duty) taxes. These officers are the tax administrators of India. They are either under the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) or the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) in the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance.

These are the officers who hold the responsibility of having a check on the proper collection of the revenue through taxes of the Governments whether Central or State which is a big source of income of the Governments concerned. It is the income which is used by the respective Governments for the welfare programmes to be implemented for the common people of the state. Thus one can say these officers are indirectly responsible for the proper functioning of the welfare schemes by generating requisite funds for them by way of collecting the revenue of the governments in effective manner thus making this profession a highly important one.

This profession not only provides self satisfaction to be at the very best, highly respected post in the Indian administrative system but also give you a chance to serve the society by taking head on some antisocial elements of the country.

But to reach at this coveted position one has to be really diligent and hardworking. To reach to that level one has to really toil hard for nearly 2 years and pass through a rigorous test involving written tests and interview spreading through out a year almost which requires self-discipline, patience, punctuality, commitment self-confidence and a burning desire to be at the top ladder of an important organization of the country. The is a kind of carrier which is ever demanding you can not get relaxed after getting the post infect you have to work harder after getting the job then before getting it.

To be an (IRS) officer is not a mean thing. If you enjoy power then you have also to accept the responsibility attached with the bound less power. To handle things effectively a lot of hard work, stamina, alertness of mind, adaptability to follow difficult time schedules, good team spirit is required as this is not a time bound job. This is a carrier in which you are not only supposed to work yourself only but you have to make your team to work hard for the society you have vowed to serve while joining this career.
Eligibility to be an IRS Officer