Over 18,000 additional posts have been sanctioned in the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the government wing tasked with the collection of service tax, excise and customs duty, as part of a cadre restructuring plan.

The Union Cabinet recently gave its approval for the creation of the 18,067 posts, thus taking the strength of CBEC on paper from 66,808 to 84,875 staff members, officials said.

As many as 2,118 temporary 'Group A' posts (of the rank of Assistant Commissioner) have also been created for a period of five years. 'Group B' officers of the level of Superintendents and appraisers will be promoted to these posts, they said.

The vacancies arising due to the filling up of these posts would be filled through promotion from feeder grades, including Superintendents of Customs (Preventive) and Central Excise, appraisers and senior Intelligence Officers (from DRI cadre), they added.

These 2,118 posts are in addition to the 300 posts created of the level of Assistant Commissioner. At present, there are about 949 posts of this rank.

The move to increase its workforce will help CBEC boost its indirect tax collection apart from aiding in a reduction of workloads, they said. CBEC works under the Revenue Department of Finance Ministry.

The ministry has set an indirect tax collection target of Rs 5.65 lakh crore for 2013-14, through customs, excise and service tax. That figure is up from the Rs 4.73 lakh crore collected in the last fiscal.

Also, 14 new posts of Principal Chief Commissioner and Principal Director General and 38 new designations of Chief Commissioner or Director General, of the pay scale of Rs 80,000 and Rs 75,000-80,000, respectively, have been cleared by the government.

Existing posts of Chief Commissioners have been revised as Principal Commissioner of a pay scale of Rs 67,000-79,000 (Higher Administrative Grade). Centre has created 53 additional posts from the existing 47.