Abhijat Srivastava@abhijatindia
Cadre restructuring in CBIC is a perfect recipe for entrenched corruption, chronic inefficiency, and the systematic loot of taxpayer money. It is pure feudalism dressed up as administration.
Citizens see daily headlines of officials caught with bribes worth hundreds of crores and wonder why corruption keeps rising. They are fed the myth that UPSC qualified officers are the brightest talent India produces. The reality is far uglier.
The performance of Indian higher bureaucracy where they have all powerful posts and sit at the top of the hierarchy, does not match the tall claims. In truth, the UPSC system is not designed to allow real talent and domain expertise to evolve. It is a deliberate design. Policy making on human resources, internal functioning, and cadre control has become nothing but gang warfare by the top cadre to protect its own turf.
Look at the current push in CBIC. Despite more than 3000 signatures from subordinate officers, multiple representations, letters from Members of Parliament, and even a writ petition demanding their participation in the cadre review committee, the IRS cadre remains determined to form a committee stacked exclusively with its own members. This is not about national interest or superior expertise in human resource management. It is about raw domination: controlling vigilance, administration, and all levers of power so that the gang stays protected while skimming hundreds of crores, cornering resources, and misappropriating funds.
IRS officers enjoy facilities better than ministers by misappropriating departmental funds. They produce no original output, and operate with zero accountability. They have created a bloated ecosystem of redundant posts and fancy designations. The actual mind work and expert tasks such as assessment, audit, investigation, and adjudication are not done by IRS officers. These are pushed down to subordinate officers through their control and ganging over administration.
The entire burden falls on taxpayers who fund this parasitic structure.
This is textbook feudalism, reminiscent of British colonial rule. IRS officers act as the new rulers while subordinate staff are treated as tools to maintain the mess, enable corruption, and facilitate the looting of public resources.
IRS officers are paid handsomely for quasi judicial functions, yet most cannot even draft their own orders or appeal orders. Subordinates do the heavy lifting, either to curry favour for better postings or out of sheer fear.
To keep IRS officers above accountability and give them minimal work, CBIC has designed a system with no core assessment responsibilities for them, unlike Income Tax and State GST where workload is clearly distributed through monetary limits. There are revenue officers who do no scrutiny, audit, assessment, notice, or adjudication. They simply manage transfer and posting and earn their share.
With powerful AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude now capable of handling audits and adjudication, work that capable Group B officers have long performed effectively, the higher bureaucracy has become even more redundant. This is the perfect moment to slash unnecessary layers in GST and Customs administration.
Instead, we can expect proposals for exceeding 750 commissioners with minimal work but maximum opportunities for corruption and demand for ultra luxurious offices.
“Why should taxpayers continue to foot the bill for this? In other nations, citizens pay for expertise and results. In India, we pay for feudalism, gangism, corruption, inefficiency, and a tag earned largely by memorising school level NCERT books up to 12th standard.”
We urgently need an independent body, completely free from bureaucratic control, to modernise GST administration by taking into account the evolution of AI and the real needs of the system.
#ReformCBIC #OrganisedLootInCBIC #AI #CISF @nsitharaman @FinMinIndia @DoPTGoI @narendramodi @PMOIndia @RahulGandhi @AmitShah @khurpenchh @VivekGa54515036
