CBEC in full strength with appointment of five new members

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the apex body for indirect tax policy making, is in its full strength now as the government has appointed five new members.
Former Director General, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Najib Shah, his wife Neerja Shah, who is working as Director General in Directorate General of Human Resources Development, and Vanaja Narayan Sarna, Chief Commissioner, Tax Arrears Recovery, have been appointed as new members in the CBEC, a Finance Ministry order said.
Besides them, Ashok K Kaushal and V S Krishnan, who are working as Chief Commissioners, have also been appointed as members in the CBEC, it said.

Najib, Neerja, Kaushal and Krishnan are 1979 batch Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) officials. Whereas, Sarna belongs to 1980 batch.
The CBEC consists of a chairperson and maximum of six members. At present, Kaushal Srivastava is working as CBEC chairperson and Joy Kumari Chander, as lone member.
Srivastava is due to retire in June and Chander will demit her office this month end.

Earlier, in March, Shashi Bhushan Singh, a former member of CBEC, was appointed as adviser in the board for three months on contractual basis. Singh, who retired in February this year, will complete his contractual term this month-end.

With the appointments of the new members, the CBEC is expected to get a boost in its effort to collect indirect tax revenue comprising of service tax, excise and customs duties.
The CBEC has surpassed its indirect tax collection target by a handsome margin of Rs 4,000 crore to reach Rs 5.46-lakh crore in the 2014-15 fiscal.