Wikipedia - Indian Revenue Service
The Indian Revenue Service (IAST: Bhāratīya Rājasva Sevā), often abbreviated as IRS, is a civil service that is primarily responsible for collecting and administering direct and indirect taxes. As a central civil service under Group A of the executive branch of the Government of India, it functions under the Department of Revenue of the Ministry of Finance and is under the administrative direction of the Revenue Secretary and the ministerial command of the Minister of Finance.
The IRS comprises two branches, Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) and Indian Revenue Service (Custom & Indirect Taxes), controlled by two separate statutory bodies, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC). The duties of the IRS (IT) include among others, formulation of domestic direct tax policy (through the Tax Policy and Legislation Section), formulation of international tax policy (through the Foreign Tax and Tax Research Division), handling policy matters in respect of investigation of tax evasion (through the Investigation Section), updating, resolving and maintaining the relevant laws (through the ITA Division), administering the direct tax policy (through its field offices across the country), and administering all the associated administrative functions pertaining to direct taxes. The duties of the IRS (C&IT) include formulation and enforcement of policy concerning the Goods and Services Tax, prevention of smuggling, and administration of matters related to Customs and Narcotics.
In the 2017-2018 financial year (i.e. 1st April 2017 to 31st March 2018), the IRS (IT) received 5,87,13,458 returns and collected direct taxes amounting to ₹11.37 trillion, spending ₹60,000 (equivalent to ₹91,000 or US$1,100 in 2023) for every ₹1,000 (equivalent to ₹1,500 or US$18 in 2023) it collected. The relative contribution of direct tax to the overall tax collection of the Central Government has risen from about 36% to 56% over the period of 2000–01 to 2013–14. The contribution of direct tax-to-GDP has doubled (from about 3% to 6%) during the same period.
History
Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax)
Direct tax in the form of an income tax was introduced by Sir James Wilson in India in 1860 to overcome the difficulties created by the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The organisational history of the Income-tax Department, however, starts in the year 1922, when the Income-tax Act, 1922 gave, for the first time, a specific nomenclature to various Income-tax authorities. In 1924, the Central Board of Revenue Act constituted a Central Board of Revenue – the statutory body with functional responsibilities for administering the Income Tax Act.
Commissioners of income tax were appointed for each province, and assistant commissioners and tax officers were placed under their control. Officers from the Imperial Civil Services (ICS) manned top posts and the lower echelons were filled through promotions from the ranks. The Income Tax Service was established in 1944 and was subsequently re-constituted as the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) in 1953.
In 1963, given the increasingly complex roles and responsibilities of administering direct tax in India, the Central Board of Direct Taxes was constituted as a statutory body under the Central Board of Revenue Act, 1963.
Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise)
With the passing of the Government of India Act, 1919 the civil services—under the oversight of the Secretary of State for India—were split into two arms, the All India Services, and the Central Services. Apart from the Central Secretariat, the more important of these latter were the Railway Services, the Indian Posts and Telegraph Service, and the Imperial Customs Service. After Independence, the Imperial Customs Service was reconstituted as the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) in 1953.
The nature of the service underwent a transformational change with the enactment of the One Hundred and First Amendment of the Constitution of India, which overhauled the administration of indirect taxation in India with the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). With the subsumption of several indirect taxes and levies, including central excise duty and service tax, under the GST, the nomenclature was updated to reflect the changed structure of taxation from IRS (Customs and Central Excise) to IRS (Customs and Indirect Taxes).