Scheme of Finance Minister’s Award On the occasion of Income Tax Day 24th July CBDT
The Government hereby sanctions the following scheme of awards to be conferred upon the Officers and Staff (hereinafter called ’employees’) of the Income Tax Department (hereinafter called ‘Department’) in consideration of their rendering exceptional or meritorious service, or displaying outstanding devotion to duty.
1. The awards would be called “Finance Minister’s Award.”
2. The “Finance Minister’s Award.” (hereinafter called ‘FM Award’) would be conferred upon selected employees at the All India Level in different grades who, by their innovative ideas and special efforts as well as sustained devotion and commitment to duty, have contributed to promoting excellence in the field of Direct Taxation and/or substantial or potential benefit to the Department and the Government. The objective is to give due recognition to employees who have made exceptional efforts and contributed significantly in diverse areas of direct tax administration such as:-
(i) Tax payer services and facilitation/communication, including ease of doing business and grievance redressal;
(ii) Designing and re-engineering of business processes including automation;
(iii) Enforcement, including tax assessment, investigation, recovery and prosecution;
(iv) Widening of tax base;
(v) International taxation and transfer pricing;
(vi) Litigation management and judicial functions;
(vii) Audit functions and improving accountability;
(viii) Infrastructure development;
(ix) Human resource development, including training and capacity building;
(x) Policy making and Secretariat functions.
3. The awards would comprise a medal and a citation/certificate and would be announced in respect of every financial year, on the 24th of July immediately succeeding the said financial year, except when specifically rescheduled by Central Board of Direct Taxes (hereinafter called ‘CBDT’), Department of Revenue.
4. The ‘FM Award’ shall be so made that outstanding achievements in diverse areas of work are duly recognized and all deserving employees, irrespective of their rank, are considered.
Eligible Employee(s):
5. The ‘FM Award’ would be conferred upon an employee, who has rendered high levels of meritorious service, as reflected in the ACRs/APARs, and/or other evidence/manifestations of the same through reported items of work, letters of appreciation, specific remarks of devotion to duty in reports, or other communications of appreciation of specific instances of outstanding performance that may have been received from any person by the supervisory officers of the employee.
6. Recommendations for ‘FM Award’ will be made in respect of only such employee(s) who are clear from vigilance angle and have excellent APAR grading. Proposal of awards to only such employees will be considered whose record of service integrity is absolutely beyond doubt. At the time of sponsoring the names itself, the sponsoring authority should satisfy itself that the employee is really a deserving candidate for the award and also enjoys an excellent general reputation.
Procedure for Recommendation for Award:
7. Recommendation for award of ‘FM Award’ shall be made at the earliest after the outstanding achievement or performance, for which the recommendation is proposed to be made, is noted. All recommendations shall state the name and rank of the employee(s) so recommended and the particulars of the exemplary or distinguished act for which the ‘FM Award’ is recommended.
8. All recommendations for the grant of ‘FM Award’ shall be made by the Principal Chief Commissioner or Principal Director General concerned on the recommendations of the respective Head of the Department. All recommendations will be screened by a committee duly notified by Principal Chief Commissioner or Principal Director General of each Region/Directorate for this purpose.
9. All recommendations should be made by the 25thof April of each year with the inclusion of a specific justification of the proposal in a proforma along with a write-up detailing the exceptional performance or achievement of the employee so recommended. However, in the event of CBDT rescheduling the date for conferring of the awards under clause 3, separate timelines may be specified for making the recommendations for the
10. In the description of significant contribution made, the role of individual employee must be clearly brought out as distinct from that of the organization or team that the employee was a part of. Details of work where the employee has played a prominent role should be mentioned separately indicating the precise role played by the employee. No employee who is being considered for any certificate will be a part of the aforesaid screening committee.
11. The Committee at the level of Pr. CCIT/Pr. DGIT will finalize its recommendations and send the same to the Central Committee by the 20th of May of each year, except when the date for conferring of the awards is changed by CBDT under clause 3, in which case, separate timelines may be specified.
12. A Central Committee shall be constituted by the Chairman, CBDT, with Pr. DGIT (HRD) as Member Secretary for screening and short-listing the nominations from each of the Principal Chief Commissioners or Principal Directors General of Income Tax of different Regions.
13. After screening of the candidates, the Central Committee may recommend deserving cases for the awards and submit its recommendations to the CBDT for While making these recommendations, the Committee may also examine cases of employees with exceptional meritorious service and outstanding devotion to duty that are brought to its knowledge in addition to the recommendations made from Regional Levels.
14. CBDT shall consider all cases in which Certificates/Medals are proposed to be awarded as per the recommendations of the Central Committee and may recommend the same for approval of the Hon’ble Finance Minister by 15thof June of each year.
15. The number of ‘FM Award’ in one year shall not exceed twenty-five but the Government would have the discretion to increase the number in any year if the circumstances so warrant.
16. These rules and conditions are basic guidelines for selection of worthy candidates for conferring of the awards. In case the need arises, in exceptional circumstances, an award can be processed even outside the timelines specified above for recommendation of awards.
17. This issues with the approval of the Hon’ble Finance Minister.
(Manoj kumar)
Additional Director General
HRD, CBDT, New Delhi
