Director General of Income Tax (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation) - The New Super Sleuth?
CBDT has notified the powers and jurisdiction of the DGIT and Directors, Intelligence and Criminal Investigation. Is it going to be another CBI for tax offence cases? The Directorates of (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation) are to be established at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Lucknow, with the DG in Delhi. Though the offices will be in these 8 locations, the officers will have All India jurisdiction.
The CI (Criminal Investigation) is said to be modelled on the US IRS Criminal Investigation (CI).
On July 1, 1919, the US IRS Commissioner created the Intelligence Unit to investigate widespread allegations of tax fraud. To establish the Intelligence Unit, six United States Post Office Inspectors were transferred to the Bureau of Internal Revenue to become the first special agents in charge of the organization that would one day become Criminal Investigation. They formed the nucleus that built the Intelligence Unit into an elite group of highly trained, dedicated professionals, who are recognized as the finest financial investigators in the world.
The Intelligence Unit quickly became renowned for the financial investigative skill of its special agents. It attained national prominence in the thirties for the conviction of public enemy number one, Al Capone, for income tax evasion, and its role in solving the Lindbergh kidnapping. From these promising beginnings the Intelligence Unit expanded over the intervening decades, investigating tax evasion by ordinary citizens, prominent businesspersons, government officials, and notorious criminals.
In July 1978, the Intelligence Unit changed its name to Criminal Investigation (CI). Over the years CI's statutory jurisdiction expanded to include money laundering and currency violations in addition to its traditional role in investigating tax violations.
Since CI's inception in 1919 to the present, the conviction rate for Federal tax prosecutions has never fallen below 90 percent.
In India, the Intelligence wing was created in the Income Tax Department in 1966 and now it is also the CI wing.
CBDT Notification No. 42/2011- Dated: August 19 2011