IRS (Customs and Indirect Taxes): CBIC, NACIN Training and First Post

The Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Indirect Taxes), or IRS (C&IT), is the Group 'A' service that works under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC). The CBIC looks after the levy and collection of GST, customs duty, central excise and other indirect taxes for the Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance. You join through the Civil Services Examination and train at the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN), whose main campus is now at Palasamudram in Andhra Pradesh.

This guide covers what the CBIC does, how training works and what the official record says about your first post and pay, using the CBIC, the Department of Revenue, NACIN, PIB and DoPT's examination rules.

What the CBIC does

• Policy and enforcement. The CBIC frames policy on the levy and collection of customs and central excise duties, Central GST and IGST, works to prevent smuggling, and administers customs, central excise, Central GST, IGST and narcotics matters within its purview.
• Field offices. It is the administrative authority for Custom Houses, Central Excise and Central GST Commissionerates and the Central Revenues Control Laboratory.
• Who sits on it. A Chairman and six Members. The Members' portfolios on the CBIC's website are compliance management and legal; administration and vigilance; GST, central excise and service tax; tax policy; customs; and IT, taxpayer services and technology. The Chairman is ex officio Special Secretary to the Government of India.
• Its history. It was earlier the Central Board of Excise and Customs, one of the two boards formed under the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963.

Training at NACIN

NACIN is under the administrative control of the CBIC and is headed by a Principal Director General from the service, at the rank of Special Secretary. It began as a Central Training School on 1 October 1955, became the National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics in 1989, and took its present name with the arrival of GST. The Prime Minister inaugurated its new campus at Palasamudram, in Sri Sathya Sai district, on 16 January 2024; the campus spreads over 500 acres.

• The course. NACIN calls the training of direct-recruit IRS (C&IT) officers its flagship programme. It describes a year-long programme starting each December, after a three-month Foundation Course at LBSNAA, mixing classroom sessions with visits to field formations across the country and short visits to bodies such as the Wildlife Institute of India, the Coast Guard and SVPNPA.
• A recent batch. When the 75th batch, 42 officer trainees (25 men and 17 women), passed out on 25 April 2025, the Ministry of Finance described it as the end of an intensive 18-month training programme. It was the first batch to do its entire foundational training at the new campus. Five officers from Bhutan trained with them.
• After the academy. NACIN's Year Book 2020-21 says that on completing 12 months' training in the academy, officers are posted to field formations for on-the-job training as subordinate officers, before taking independent charge as Assistant Commissioner.

NACIN also runs mid-career programmes for senior officers of the service at critical stages of their careers, and it is the World Customs Organization's Regional Training Centre for the Asia Pacific region.

Pay

When the Union Cabinet approved the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations on 29 June 2016, it put the starting salary of a freshly recruited Class I officer at ₹56,100. That is your basic pay on joining. Dearness allowance and other allowances are paid on top.

The Civil Services Examination Rules, 2026, which DoPT notified in the Gazette on 4 February 2026, give the pay level of each post in the service (Appendix II):

Post	Pay level	Basic pay
Assistant Commissioner	10	₹56,100 to ₹1,77,500
Deputy Commissioner	11	₹67,700 to ₹2,08,700
Joint Commissioner	12	₹78,800 to ₹2,09,200
Additional Commissioner	13	₹1,23,100 to ₹2,15,900
Commissioner	14	₹1,44,200 to ₹2,18,200
Principal Commissioner	15	₹1,82,200 to ₹2,24,100
Chief Commissioner or Director General	16	₹2,05,400 to ₹2,24,400
Principal Chief Commissioner or Principal Director General	17	₹2,25,000

The rules don't say after how many years each step comes, so we don't give promotion timelines.

Before you choose it

• Disability. The CSE 2026 notice lists the IRS (Customs and Indirect Taxes) among the services identified as suitable for persons with benchmark disability, with the categories and functional requirements it names.
• Nationality. Unlike the IAS, IFS and IPS, the service also admits some subjects of Nepal and Bhutan and certain other people, if they hold a Government eligibility certificate.
• Vacancies. UPSC's result notices count this service within "Central Services Group A", which had 507 vacancies in CSE 2025, so they give no separate figure for it.

This is a different service from the IRS (Income Tax), which works under the CBDT and trains at NADT, Nagpur. See IRS (Income Tax) and training academies of every service.