Now this is one achievement any bureaucrat would be proud of. Mr. Raghav Gupta, a 2012 batch IRS officer, has been selected as the only Indian officer among 56 global civil servants for a 10-day training in “Managing Financial Investigations”, organized by the OECD International Tax Crime Academy.
The programme was scheduled to be held in Guardia di Finanza (Italy), but due to the pandemic, it is being held virtually from 13 to 24 September 2021.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives. Together with governments, policymakers and citizens, they work on establishing evidence-based international standards and finding solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges.
SELECTION AND TRAINING
In an exclusive interview with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Raghav Gupta said “This international organisation OECD looks for investigators from all around the world in all kinds of departments. To enter this Tax Crime Academy, we need to send them an application highlighting our work in the previous years and the specialization we hold. Therefore, according to their criteria, they select people for their training programme.”
This year, 56 such candidates were selected from countries like the United Kingdom, Italy, Kenya, Portugal, Singapore, India, etc. for a 10-day training programme. Among this, Mr. Gupta was the only officer who got selected from India in the global training programme on “Managing Financial Investigations”.
Speaking about his experience on this first day, Mr. Gupta said “I participated actively and the course is nice. A group was formed and a case study was given which was to be discussed among the members to find a solution. The best part was to get ideas from other team members belonging from various other countries. It was an insightful session in which I got to know about how people in other countries tackle cases related to tax invasion.”
The 10-day long training programme will end on September 24. The officer has also been nominated to give a presentation on “Global Investigation Challenges” on the penultimate day of the training.
He said, “This international training is specialised for tax investigation and tax crime and it starts directly with an advanced approach with various new techniques and challenges. As the organisation is based out of Europe, which has indeed the latest policies, we can learn new tools and techniques which can be implemented in our country as well.”
ABOUT THE OFFICER
Mr. Raghav Gupta belongs to Kanpur where he completed his schooling at Seth Anandram Jaipuria School in 2005. He then got into the St. Stephen’s College, Delhi (Batch of 2009) after which he pursued his Masters in Taxation and Business Laws from NALSAR University, Hyderabad.
He received 102 rank in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2011 and underwent induction training at the National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT), Nagpur. He was first posted at Mumbai, where he served in various sensitive assignments including corporate and non-corporate assessment aswell as investigation and vigilance. Subsequently, he was posted as Deputy Director Income-tax (Investigation), Kanpur and has handled several cases that involved Benami and Black Money transactions.
While in service, Mr. Gupta completed the prestigious Advanced Diploma in International Taxation (ADIT) in 2019 offered by the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT), United Kingdom.
He then became the first IRS officer in the country to complete the rigorous and globally recognized 6-month Advanced Professional Certificate in International Taxation (APCIT) offered by the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD), Amsterdam (The Netherlands) in 2021.
Mr. Gupta says that his specialized qualifications such as ADIT and APCIT, along with his 4-year stint in the Investigation Wing was definitely a deciding factor in his selection for the training programme.
Apart from this, Mr. Gupta is also an ace wildlife photographer and is currently the Advisory Member of the ERDS foundation undertaking a Great Indian Bustard (GIB) conservation program. Being a passionate wildlife photographer, he has also conducted several wildlife photography webinars for youth across the country.
