CBEC Transfers Commissioners and Principal Commissioners

By Vijay Kumar

CBEC has finally done it, ending days of agonizing wait for several senior officers. CBEC has transferred 15 Principal Commissioners and 68 Commissioners. It is a great feat indeed and the Board could beat the post by a whole month in advance this year. Last year they issued the transfer order on 20th August.

The transfer order was certainly not the best guarded secret. The other day I met several officers of the department in a meeting organized by a Trade Association, and many of these officers told me about the transfer - who is going where; and they were not wild guesses; from the transfer list today, I find they were pretty accurate.

Commissioners and Principal Commissioners hold the same rank positions, but now some of the Principal Commissioners are given additional charge of the post of Chief Commissioners. So some Principal Commissioners will work under Principal Commissioners who are given additional charge of Chief Commissioner. They also have a super cadre Commissioner called Principal Chief Commissioner. Now they seem to have more posts going around than the number of eligible officers available to fill those posts.

Now that they are seriously considering GST as a possible reality, they should have a look at the State VAT departments which are headed by a single Commissioner for the whole State.

With too many Commissioners to serve the assessees, doing business will be real tough for the trade.