Taxmen write to govt to ensure right nomenclature for their service

A body representing the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers has written to the government requesting it to ensure the right nomenclature for their service.

The move assumes significance as these officers feel that some "adverse news" in a section of media wrongly defined other services -- with nearly the same acronyms -- as the IRS and affected the goodwill of their service.

In a letter to the finance and personnel ministries, it said that the Indian Revenue Service was the largest Group 'A' central service amongst the organised civil services in the government.

It was the premier service engaged in the task of direct tax collections for the country and also curbing black money and benami transactions.

"It is noticed that in many official communications, the name of the service is wrongly mentioned as Indian Revenue Service (lncome Tax), IRS (IT), or Indian Income Tax Service etc. This is very often done to distinguish this service from another service under the Ministry of Finance i.e. Indian Revenue Service (Customs & Central Excise), which was earlier known as Indian Customs and Central Excise Service," the letter said.

However, such efforts for distinguishing the IRS from the IRS (C&CE) or other services having somewhat similar names such as IRSE (Indian Railway Service of Engineers), IRAS (Indian Railway Accounts Service), etc., results in incorrect nomenclature and distortion in the name of the service, it said.

"Sir, it is submitted that the name of our service is Indian Revenue Service (in short IRS), which is specific and is clearly distinct from all other services. A clarification from your esteemed office in this regard will go a long way in clearing any confusion that is prevailing in the minds of certain officers and even amongst the public regarding correct nomenclature of the service," said the letter by Indian Revenue Service Association.

The letter was also sent to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) that conducts an examination to recruit officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and the IRS among others.

"The Indian Revenue Service, and its abbreviation IRS is a known brand recognised in the country and abroad. It is requested that directions may kindly be issued that the correct name of the service be used in all official communications without distorting its name," the association said.

Senior IRS officer Jayant Misra, who is at present the principal commissioner of income tax here, said that media sometimes, while reporting on adverse news regarding officers from other services, refers to them as belonging to the IRS which adversely affects the goodwill of the Indian Revenue Service.

He said the correct nomenclature should be used by both government authorities and by media to avoid confusion.

According to another senior IRS officer, confusion is caused usually while writing about officers of IRS (Customs and Central Excise), which is under the Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs or CBIC.

They are often mixed up with the IRS, which deals with the Income Tax and other direct taxes related issues, under the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), he said.