The Finance Ministry has instituted a special award for Income Tax department officials who render exemplary and meritorious service in the course of their service.

The two awards, called ‘Certificate of Appreciation’ and ’Certificate of Meritorious Service’, has been approved by the Finance Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee recently.

A notification in this regard is expected to be issued in a few days.

This is the first time that I-T officials, tasked to collect revenue and check tax evasion, are being considered for a dedicated government honour by their Ministry.

According to the scheme, the `Certificate of Appreciation’ would be conferred upon those employees who display specific acts of exemplary devotion to duty including performance of an act of extremely arduous nature beyond the call of duty, involving extreme effort and resulting in substantial/potential benefit to the government or acts involving grave personal risk.

The Income Tax officials undertake a number of search and survey operations and also gather intelligence to check tax evasion, and the job requires meticulous work on the field.

The `Certificate of Meritorious Service’ would be conferred upon I-T officials who have put in at least 15 years of service in the department and who have rendered consistently high levels of meritorious service during this period.

Meritorious and distinguished service awards at present are given by the government to the officials of other Central ministries like the Home Affairs Ministry and the Department of Personnel and Training.

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