The Indirect Tax wing of the Finance Ministry, consisting of Custom, Excise and Service Tax Department, will get over 18,000 new recruits.

This is a part of cadre restructuring proposal of the Central Board of Excise and Custom (CBEC) as approved by the Cabinet on Thursday.

The move is expected to help boost revenue collections, as additional posts will be created.

“Indirect tax personal strength has not been expanded since 2002, while revenue target and collection are increasing every year which highlighted the need for restructuring,” a senior Government official told Business Line.

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According to the official, a total of 18,067 additional posts will be created. Out of this, 989 posts will be for Group ‘A’ officials such as Chief Commissioner, Commissioner and Assistant Commissioners. The remaining will be for Group B, C and other category consisting of Superintendents, Inspectors, Havaldars and field staffs. Currently, the sanctioned strength of CBEC is 66,808.

It has also been decided to create 2,118 temporary posts for five years.

“This will enable Superintendent-level personal to get promoted to Group A officer as Assistant Commissioner,” the official said adding that there has been stagnation at this rank. This, along with filing up of cascading vacancies, will clear stagnation up to 2010 batches partially.

The whole exercise is expected to be completed in the next two years.

Expenditure

Although, creation of additional posts will involve an expenditure of approximately Rs 774 crore, it will help in collecting around Rs 68,000 crore annually.

In May this year, the Cabinet had approved creating 20,751 additional posts in the Income Tax Department in various cadres to help in increasing revenue.

It was said that expected expenditure of Rs 450 crore is likely to bring more than Rs 25,000 crore of revenue per annum.

Cadre restructuring of CBEC is taking place at a time, when the Finance Ministry has set a target of Rs 5.65 lakh crore indirect tax collections for 2013-14 which is 19 per cent higher than 2012-13.

However, indirect taxes grew by juts over 5 per cent in first seven months (April-October) in the current fiscal. (The Hindu)