About Indian Revenue Service (IRS)

The Indian Revenue Service (IRS) is the administrative revenue Group A civil service in the Government of India. IRS serves the country by carrying out one of the main sovereign functions, i.e. revenue collection for development, security and governance. It functions under the Ministry of Finance's Revenue Department and is administered by the Revenue Secretary and the Ministerial Command.

The IRS has two branches, Indian Revenue Service for (Income Tax) and Indian Revenue Service for (Custom & Indirect Taxes). These are governed by two bodies Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC). The IRS (IT) is responsible for the formulation of domestic & international direct tax policies, handling policy matters in respect of investigation of tax evasion, managing direct tax policy and all the administrative tasks associated with direct taxes. Whereas the responsibility of the IRS (C&IT) is to develop and execute policies related to Goods and Services Tax, prevention of smuggling and control of customs and drug matters.

Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax)

Sir James Wilson (British) introduced the direct tax in the form of an income tax in India in 1860 to resolve the difficulties caused by the Indian Rebellion of 1857. However, in 1992 the organisational history of the Income-tax Department started when the Income Tax Act of 1922 granted a clear nomenclature to the different Income-tax authorities. The Central Board of Revenue Act established a Central Board of Revenue in 1924 that has functional responsibility to administer the Income Tax Act.

Income tax commissioners for each division have been appointed and assistant commissioners and tax officers have been put under their jurisdiction. The top positions were occupied by officers of Imperial Civil Services (ICS) and lower levels were filled by promotions through rankings. In 1944, the Income Tax Service was created, which was later known in 1953 as the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax).

Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Indirect Tax)

With the implementation of the Government of India Act of 1919, the civil services were divided into two arms, the All India Services and the Central Services, under the control of the Secretary of State for India. Not only the Central Secretariat but the Railway Services, the Indian Posts and Telegraph Service, and the Imperial Customs Service is the important part of this. The Imperial Customs Service was reconstituted after Independence as the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) in 1953.

With the one hundred first amendment to the constitution of India, the essence of the service underwent a transformation that revamped the Indian indirect tax administration by implementing the goods and services tax (GST). The nomenclature was revised to reflect the modified taxation structure from IRS (Customs and Central Excise) to IRS (Customs and Indirect Taxes) with the subsumption of many indirect taxes and levies, including central excise duty and service tax under GST.

Share: