Revenue dept demand for 7,051 extra posts to be taken up today

The Cabinet is scheduled to consider on Thursday a revenue department proposal for an additional 7,051 posts in various cadres of the income tax department.

These posts, which are expected to cost the government around Rs 150 crore, have been necessitated by the introduction of new taxes like the banking cash transaction tax, increased scrutiny and audit, and measures like filing of Annual Information Returns.

The IT department has projected that the creation of additional posts will help it bring down the cost of collection of direct taxes to 0.75 per cent, which compares well with countries like Japan (1.78 per cent), Australia (1.16 per cent), Singapore (0.9 per cent), Indonesia (0.38 per cent), and USA (2 per cent).

The revenue department's current strength is 1.32 lakh, of which some 60,000 are in the CBDT, and it is the third largest government department in the country in terms of manpower after police and posts.

Most of the new officials will be engaged in scrutiny, audit, tax deducted at source, and AIR related work. While 4,365 officials will be used for scrutiny work, 880 will be used for TDS, 532 for audit, 319 for Annual Information Returns, 275 for tribunals, 72 for vigilance, and 98 for banking cash transaction tax work.

The revenue department has proposed the new posts will be notified within 60 days of the Cabinet's approval and be filled up within three years.

The 7,051 posts include 33 posts of commissioner, 137 posts of additional/joint commissioner of income tax, 118 posts of deputy/assistant commissioner, 244 posts of income tax officer, 1,193 posts of inspector, 62 posts of office superintendent, 248 of senior tax assistant, 4,014 of tax assistant, 58 of data processing assistant and 944 posts of stenographer.

The proposal for creation of 7,051 posts and revival of 3,470 posts had earlier been approved by the Committee of Secretaries (CoS). The total cost to the government on this account was estimated at Rs 222 crore.

The CoS had also approved that 2,500 data entry operators, 2,046 peons and group 'D' staff would be outsourced.