CBIC - Organizational Structure

The Department of Revenue (DoR) of Ministry of Finance (MoF) functions under the overall direction and control of the Secretary (Revenue) and coordinates matters relating to all the Direct and Indirect Union Taxes through two statutory Boards namely, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) constituted under the Central Board of Revenue Act, 1963. Matters relating to the levy and collection of GST are looked after by the CBIC. Indirect Tax laws are administered by the CBIC through its field offices.

CBIC

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, in the Ministry of Finance, is the apex body for administering the levy and collection of indirect taxes of the Union of India. It deals with the tasks of formulation of policy concerning levy and collection of indirect taxes, prevention of smuggling and administration of matters relating to indirect taxes and narcotics to the extent under CBIC's purview. CBIC is headed by a Chairman and consists of six members. The understanding about the work allocation of all the six members can be viewed at: https://www.cbic.gov.in/htdocs-cbec/info-act/cbec/cbec

Zones

Zones are the highest auditable field entities headed by Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner. Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Zone exercises supervision and control over the technical and administrative work of all the Commissionerates in the Zone. They monitor the revenue collection by each Commissionerate in the Zone and the proper implementation of Acts/Rules and Board’s instructions/guidelines issued from time to time. In view of implementation of GST, CBIC restructured its field offices into 21 Zones of GST headed by the Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner vide circular dated 16 June 2017.

Commissionerates

Commissionerates are divided into three categories viz. Executive Commissionerates, Commissionerates (Audit) and Commissionerates (Appeal). The primary function of a Central Goods and Service Tax Commissionerate (Executive Commissionerate) is to implement the provisions of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017, the Central Excise Act, 1944, rules framed under these Acts and other allied Acts of the Parliament under which duty of GST/Central Excise is levied and collected. Administratively, each Commissionerate is a 3-tier set-up with its Headquarters at the helm, four to six Divisions at the second level and on an average four to seven Ranges under each Division at the third and final level. In each zone, there may be one or more Audit Commissionerates headed by a Commissioner (Audit). The main function of the Audit Commissionerate is to conduct internal audit of the taxpayers falling under its jurisdiction, convening of monitoring committee meetings, helping executive Commissionerates in pursuing the cases against the assessees etc. Commissioner (Appeal) acts as an appellate authority and passes orders on appeals in relation to adjudication orders passed by an authority subordinate to the rank of a Commissioner. Under these 21 Zones of GST, there are 107 GST Taxpayer Services Commissionerates that deal with GST and Central Excise, headed by the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner. Apart from these Commissionerates, there are 49 GST Appeal Commissionerates, 48 GST Audit Commissionerates and 22 Directorates dealing with specific functions such as DG (Systems) for management of Information Technology projects and DG, National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics (NACIN) for training needs.

Divisions

Each executive Commissionerate has four to six Divisions headed by a Deputy/Assistant Commissioner. The Divisional heads are responsible for proper compliance of laws and procedures within their jurisdiction. They are also responsible for provisional assessments, sanctioning of refund claims and perform quasi-judicial functions viz. adjudication of cases falling within their competence.

Ranges

Each Division consists of on an average four to seven Ranges. The Range, headed by a Superintendent, is the first office of contact between the trade and industry, and the Department. Scrutiny of the assessment is done by the Range on the basis of prescribed returns filed by the assessees. Apart from the assessment work, the Range officials also check the correctness of statutory declarations filed by the taxpayers.