Government may use lateral hiring to plug vacancies in Revenue Department

NEW DELHI:  The Revenue Department, confronted with too many vacant posts at the top, has asked the government to fill the vacancies and sources say that the Centre may even consider filling them up through lateral recruitment. According to sources in the Department of Revenue, there are about 500 higher-level vacancies in the department, which is short of around 1,200 employees overall.

“There are too many vacant posts and it has resulted in overload of work on officers. The department is aware of the problem and had flagged the concerns at the ministry level. However, the matter is yet to be resolved,” a senior official in the IT department told this publication. 

Sources claimed that about 200 posts are vacant in the rank of Principal Commissioner, around 50 at the level of Chief Commissioner and Principal Chief Commissioner, a secretary level post. Many of these vacancies have been pending since 2019. Officials claimed that the apex direct tax authority Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which is the policy making and cadre controlling arm, also has four out of six Member posts vacant at present.

The Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, Tarun Bajaj, is also holding additional charge after the superannuation of Ajay Bhushan Pandey and current chairman PC Mody is on extension. Sources in the department claim that the vacancies are likely to be filled only when the board is working at full capacity and there are new inductions at the secretary level.

Another official at the finance ministry said that the ministry is aware of the vaccancy and that the matter will be taken up during the next fiscal year. “There was some disruption in the process because of Covid. That was in most of the ministries and not just in revenue department. We expect most vacancies to be covered soon, beginning April,” the official added. They also said that if required, the Centre may choose lateral hiring too: “While the next promotion will fill up many vacancies, if required, the DoPT is considering lateral hiring also. That cannot be ruled out”.