How many Commissionerates are there under CBEC?
REALLY a very difficult question even for the CBEC to answer!CBEC Circular No. 969/03/2013-CX dated 11/04/2013 states, "All the 140 existing Commissionerates have been assigned pre-figured series and serial numbers have to be filled in for the orders passed by the Commissioner or Commissioner (Appeal) or Commissioner (Adjudication), as the case may be." That makes it 140 Commissionerates.
But the alpha-numeric codes published by the CBEC as shown in their website has a list of 139 Commissionerates and 8 Commissioners (Adjudication)!
What happened to one Commissionerate?
The mystery does not end there.
As per the information published under the RTI Act in the Departmental website :- There are 93 Central Excise & Customs Commissionerates spread across the country; There are 35 Commissionerates exclusively of Customs and Customs (preventive) spread all over the country; There are 6 Commissionerates of Service Tax. That makes it 134 Commissionerates.
Sampark 2013, the Department's Directory lists 137 Commissionerates.
And then there are four LTUs which are also listed in the 139 Commissionerates for which codes are given.
But what is the real number? Who knows?