The government had made it mandatory for all promoted assistant commissioners (AC) of income tax to undergo special training at National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT). The first batch to complete this training will attend its valedictory function on Friday. These 169 officials have been working with the department for almost two decades, and the promotion to AC level requires them to have new skills.

Ujjwal Choudhary, who took over as director general of NADT just two weeks ago, said, "These officials are now at the level which is the entry point for Indian Revenue Service cadre. Though they have been with us for many years, their new job profile requires better communication skills, knowledge of information technology and also more confidence while representing the department at various forums."

The 169 trainees, of whom 18 are women, are from various parts of the country and have varied educational backgrounds. R Ravichandran, additional director general, said, "We designed a comprehensive three-month orientation programme for these trainees, to acquaint them with the challenges they will be interacting with. The first nine weeks were spent at NADT campus, where we exposed them to fields such as cyber forensics and communication skills." The remaining three weeks were spent at regional training centres across the country where many were given a glimpse of the fieldwork they will be involved in."

Ravichandran added, "Some visited tribunal hearings and worked on current cases with our regular teams. They saw how cases were argued, how paperwork is being prepared for bigger matters etc. We also taught them how to retrieve data from computers and hack passwords when they are involved in an investigation. Data mining from a computer is an important skill, since financial records are now being kept electronically."

He informed that every year about 200 officials are promoted to AC level, but earlier the training was not mandatory. "We used to get hardly 40-odd people for training and hence the duration of the programme was hardly seven weeks. But then the government introduced a new National Training Policy, making training mandatory, and now we have the first batch passing out from NADT," said Ravichandran.

NADT prepares for international training seminar

Come November and NADT will play host to 40 income tax officials from a dozen countries for a special training seminar. NADT DG Ujjwal Choudhary said, "The seminar will be on transfer pricing and exchange of information. We are also constructing international level facilities at our campus and I hope that everything should be ready before the next financial year."