Highlighting the importance of direct tax collections in the progress of the nation, Pankaj Chaudhary, Union Minister of State for Finance, said that the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) will have to play a crucial role in making the country a developed nation by 2047. He was speaking as the chief guest at the Convocation ceremony of the 77th batch of Indian Revenue Service (IRS) at the National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT) in Nagpur on Monday. Prabodh Seth, Member of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Sanjay Bahadur, Principal Director General, P Selvaganesh, Director General of NADT as well as Additional Director General of the Academy Munish Kumar and Seetharamappa Kappattanwar and Pradeep S, Training Director of the 77th batch were present.

 

On the occasion, 84 IRS officer trainees including 2 officers from the Royal Bhutan Service took the oath of tax administrator after successfully completing 16 months of pre-service training. Union Minister Chaudhary further said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a goal of making India a developed nation by 2047 and the role of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) will be important in the formation of this developed nation. “India is one of the fastest growing economies and the IRS is the backbone of the country’s financial administration,” he added. The tireless work of the officers of the IRS has given a boost to tax compliance and curbing revenue evasion. He pointed out that the use of modern technologies like data mining, blockchain, artificial intelligence is being used to bring more efficiency in tax collection. Chaudhary explained that the MUDRA scheme completed 10 years on April 8 and under this Rs 33 lakh crore unsecured loans have been disbursed to 52 crore people.

 

He also said that 68 percent of the women beneficiaries of the MUDRA scheme have taken advantage of this loan scheme and have become self-reliant by setting up their own businesses. Prabodh Seth, said that direct tax accounts for 50 percent of the total tax collection in the country and in the last financial year, 9 crore tax payments were made by citizens and all these returns have been processed on time.

 

Sanjay Bahadur, Principal Director General of the Training Department of NADT, administered the oath of tax administrator to the trainee officers of the 77th batch. Sameer Raja, who performed excellently in this 16-month pre-service training, received the highest number of gold medals for good marks in direct tax, advance accounting and other subjects and also received the prestigious Finance Minister’s gold medal. The event was attended by a large number of senior officers of the Income Tax Department and other dignitaries.