As part of its plan to honor and award conscientious, industrious, and innovative members of its fraternity, the CBDT has instituted three awards for IT employees. These awards may be given on three different occasions in a year. First in the list is the Presidential Medal for Meritorious Service, which will be presented on the occasion of Republic Day; Finance Minister's Award on Income Tax Day celebrated on 24th July; and Chairman's Certificate of Appreciation on the occasion of Independence Day. In a letter to all PrCCs/Pr DGs, the CBDT has advised them to constitute a screening committee each in their areas of operation to pick up and nominate deserving candidates for these awards. Since the Income Tax Day of July 24is nearing, senior IT officers have been advised to send their list of nominees by July 13. In a notification, the CBDT said the above-mentioned Awards are at various stages of approval. To avoid controversies, it has advised PrCCs/PrDGs to ensure representation of IRS Association, ITEF, and ITGOA on each of the screening committees notified by them. The notification states that the objective of the awards 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; (x) Human resource development, including training and capacity building; and (xi) Policy making and Secretariat functions. Further, the awards would comprise