19 October 2026
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Sit Lightly On Your Chair And Let It Sit Lightly On You: CBIC Chariman’s Farewell Advice to Colleagues

Former Chairman of Central Boards of Indirect Tax and Customs (CBIC), senior IRS officer Vivek Johri, outlined eight broad principles to follow in public life in his farewell letter to his colleagues
Indian Masterminds Stories

Senior IRS officer Vivek Johri, who superannuated yesterday from the post of Chairman of Central Boards of Indirect Tax and Customs (CBIC), has outlined eight broad principles to follow in public life, in his farewell letter to his colleagues. His letter was shared by IRS officer Dr Kiran Kumar Karlapu from his Twitter handle.

These 10 principles are –

  1. Be proud of your work regardless of what it may be and learn to enjoy it.
  2. Develop a sense of ownership for the organisation and appreciate the significance of what you do.
  3. Actively and constantly invest in learning your subject. Be open to learning from your peers and juniors. They all have something worthwhile to teach you.
  4. Develop a competence level of the highest order so that the organisation seeks you out for special responsibilities/assignments. Have faith that it will happen rather than hankering for certain postings.
  5. Observe the highest levels of righteousness and neither give in to the so-called system nor give up on zero tolerance for wrong doing. Some of us do it rather easily.
  6. Time is very short. If you have ideas about improving things, go ahead and so it now.
  7. Treat people with dignity and behave with courtesy. Do not confuse rude arrogant behaviour with firmness.
  8. Sit lightly on you chair and let it sit lightly on you.

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