Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs
the nodal national agency responsible for administering Customs, GST, Central Excise, Service Tax & Narcotics in India

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), is a statutory body under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It oversees the administration of Indirect Taxes, including Customs duties, Excise duties, and the Goods and Services Tax (GST). CBIC's function also extends to prevention of smuggling, illicit financial activities, and regulation and control of Narcotics through its attached/subordinate offices.
The Customs & Central Excise department was established in the year 1855 by the then British Governor General of India, to administer customs laws in India and collection of import duties/land revenue. It is one of the oldest government departments in India.
Currently, the Customs and Central Excise/GST department comes under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The agency is staffed by Inspectors/Superintendents (Group B) selected through Staff Selection Commission (SSC) conducted matric level, higher secondary level, executive officers through Combined Graduate Level (CGL) exams and IRS officers (Group A) through Civil Services Examination who start their careers as Assistant Commissioners/Directors in the field with a few senior- most officers who become Chairperson/Members of CBIC/CESTAT/Settlement Commission.
Organizational structure
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) is headed by a chairperson and consists of six members.
Member (Customs)
Member (Tax Policy & Legal)
Member (GST, Central Excise & Service Tax)
Member (Administration & Vigilance)
Member (IT & Taxpayer Services)
Member (Compliance Management)
Hierarchy & designation of CBIC
The designations and time-scales within the Customs & CGST are as follows after cadre restructure:
Duties
CBIC administers indirect taxes such as GST, Customs, and the erstwhile Central Excise, Service Tax laws.
Goods & Services Tax/Central Excise/Service Tax
Collection of Goods & Services Tax (GST) and previously Central Excise Duty and Service Tax.
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This entry incorporates text from “Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.