Excise Board to hire 28k employees to improve operations

With an aim to enhance its tax administration and prevent evasion, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has decided to hire 28,360 personnel, including officers.

"The proposal is at an advanced stage of consideration by the government and it is expected to result in an increase of 28,360 posts at various levels," an official said.

The CBEC, the official said, is in the process of cadre restructuring and its reorganisation proposal envisages creation of compact field units like directorates, zones, commissionerates, divisions and ranges.

At a time when industrial production is moderating and exports' growth is slowing, the board faces an enormous task of collecting over Rs 4 lakh crore in indirect taxes this fiscal.

However, the CBEC is confident of meeting the target as it has already collected over 55% of the taxes in the form of customs, central excise and service tax.

"As far as our targets are concerned, we are quite hopeful of achieving the revised target of Rs 4,00,635 crore. The growth of 18.5% is higher than our target of 15%," CBEC chairman SK Goel said.

Indirect tax collections have gone up by 18.5% to Rs 2.21 lakh crore in the first seven months of FY12 against Rs 1.86 lakh crore in the corresponding period last year.

The Finance Ministry has asked the CBEC to enhance the revenue collection, reduce litigation and increase voluntary compliance.