The government has appointed senior bureaucrat Vivek Johri as the Chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), an official order said on Sunday.
The decision is made by the appointments committee of the cabinet. Johri, a senior civil servant, is currently a member of the CBIC, handling GST and tax policy. Johri succeeds current chairman of the Board Ajit Kumar.
The change of guard comes as budget preparations gather pace and a key task before the new chairman would be to undertake the government’s promised customs duty rejig aimed at boosting local manufacturing activities. The indirect tax administration is also discussing a GST slab revision meant to boost revenue collections.
For CBIC, a key task in the coming months would be to help the government balance its budget in the wake of the recent sharp reduction in excise duty on petrol and diesel. The revenue buoyancy from GST collections is expected to help in this.
