Ahead of the rollout of Goods and Service Tax (GST), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday sought to address concerns of job loss from reduced work of tax officials, saying they should have no insecurity as enough work and opportunities will be available to them in the new indirect tax regime. Only the nature of activity will change because there will be one national sales tax replacing an array of central and state levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT. Jaitley said the revenue to be collected is going to expand and there will be expansion of economic activity as well. Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia told the officers that they will have enough work to do under GST. The Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) Officers' Association has asked the government to protect the sanctity of their service amid attempts by officers of state government VAT departments to equate themselves with IRS (Customs and Central Excise) officers.

Source: dna January 27, 2017 16:44 UTC