The Tamil Nadu government has requested the union finance ministry to depute officers from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to the state’s Service and Analysis Wing as several key vacancies are currently hampering its effective functioning.
In a letter to the CBIC chairman earlier this month, Shilpa Prabhakar Satish, secretary for commercial taxes and registration, sought the deputation of an additional commissioner, a joint commissioner, two deputy commissioners, and four assistant commissioners.
The Service and Analysis Wing, formerly called the Service Tax Cell, plays an important role in strengthening tax administration through data analysis, policy formulation support and performance monitoring.
It also helps in improving tax compliance, identifying revenue leakage, and augmenting tax collection. “Lack of adequate personnel has resulted in delays in critical analytical work and constrained the department’s capacity to make timely and informed decisions,” the secretary wrote in the letter.
Though the wing was created in October 2017, two of the three deputy commissioner posts have been vacant since then. One assistant commissioner post has been vacant since November 2021, and the joint commissioner post has remained vacant since October 2023, the letter said. A senior govt official stated they have not yet received a response from CBIC.
