A major reshuffle has been effected in the CBDT, with the board's Chairperson Anita Kapur deciding to assume exclusive charge of Income-Tax department investigations in order to personally spearhead ongoing probes into cases of tax evasion and blackmoney.

The charge of I-T investigations, usually, is handled by a separate Member in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and there have been only few instances in the past when the CBDT chief holds this responsibility in an additional capacity.

"Government recently appointed four senior IRS officers as the new Members in CBDT.

These posts were vacant for over four months. After portfolio allocations, the CBDT chairperson had decided to keep investigations charge with herself while other charges have been distributed among the four new officials and one working earlier in the board," a senior Finance Ministry official said.

Despite these new appointments, there is still a vacancy of one Member in the apex policy making body of the I-T department, which is expected to be filled up sooner than later, the official said.

An order issued on December 12 by the Department of Revenue under the Finance Ministry, and accessed by PTI, said while Kapur will hold the additional charge of investigations, Members A K Jain will look after Personnel and Vigilance charge, Atulesh Jindal will hold Revenue charge, S M Nigam Income Tax portfolio, Rani S Nair will oversee Legislation and Computerisation while Surabhi Sinha will be officiate as the Member Audit and Judicial in the CBDT.

Sources said the chairperson chose to keep the investigations charge, whom all the probe units of I-T and intelligence in the country report to, as the post of CBDT chief is a permanent member in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on blackmoney and the maximum work under this panel is related to tax evasion and probe and prosecution of illegal funds stashed abroad and within the country.

The SIT, sources said, also desired that the CBDT chief keeps a personal monitoring on large cases of tax evasion and blackmoney generation, like the recent case of suspended Noida Authority chief engineer Yadav Singh, so that these cases are fastracked and action is initiated quickly without getting delayed by bureaucratic or official procedures.

Four senior Indian Revenue Service officers-- Jindal, Nigam, Nair annd Sinha -- were appointed by the government to go to CBDT as Members on December 11 after which they have now been allocated work.

The CBDT is a seven-member body including the chairperson and is responsible for framing policy and administrative issues related to direct taxes and the Income-Tax department.