Indian Post & Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service

IP&TAFS stands for Indian Post & Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service. This service is a Group A classified civil service, incepted since the year 1973. This service caters to the department of posts and the department of telecom. It includes managing and taking care of accounts, finance operations, and related tasks with the two departments it is concerned with. This is a transferable service, and officers recruited for this service should be ready to serve at any part of the country where they get posted and transferred from time to time.

To become an eligible IP&TAFS officer under this service, a candidate has to attempt the Civil service examination conducted by UPSC every year. IF the candidate qualifies for the preliminary examination and clears it, then he would be chosen for the mains examination.

Later if he is successful in the mains examination too, he would move on to the interview process, and then the final list of selected candidates would be out. If the candidate gets selected, then he would receive a call for the service based on the order of ranking and merit. The UPSC authorities bear the final decision, and thus a candidate may get selected for the IP&TAFS service category.

Training offered to IP&TAFS Officers

Once the candidate receives a call for the service, he would be officially confirmed for the same. Later he would receive intimation to attend training and induction programs. Initially, all selected candidates will be inducted into Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussourie, where they will receive extensive training for the civil services in common. The post and inherent dignity attached to that of a civil servant is well exemplified at this training centre.

Post the foundation training at Mussourie, candidates will have to report to the National Institute of Financial Management, Faridabad, where the next level of training commences. This training is specialized and service-specific training given to probationers in accounting, finance, and management.

It is an intensive 48-week training program where probationers will learn the entire robustness and development of their service under expert hands. Hands-on lectures and training for accounting series, financial organization, and management practices will be imparted through a series of highly organized, specialized, and in-depth training modules. Probationers will receive in-depth knowledge and be able to understand their service completely and entirely.

After the mid-level service specific training, candidates will then move on to the next level of advanced training. For this, candidates are trained at the telecom training centre at Ghaziabad. After understanding the functionality, working structure, and requirements for the operation of postal and telecommunication departments, it is essential to impart practical working knowledge too. So, candidates will strive to learn the postal and telecommunication rules and regulations of the country in every detail and exhaust their knowledge under practical curriculums to serve in these departments.

Postings offered post training

Once the final wing of the training module is complete, probationers will be appointed based on their postings. They shall be attached to the following departments in view of their probationary tenure and later as officers:

• Department of posts and telecommunication
• Telecom regulatory authority of India
• Public sector units governed by the ministry of communications.

These officers can be posted at the following locations:

• Metropolitan cities.
• Both central and state governments.
• International deputations to the World Bank and the UN.
• Central Staffing offices and autonomous units connected to Government functionalities.

Roles and responsibilities

There are two departments involved here with varied forms of responsibilities and roles. The department of telecom comes with a host of responsibilities that are entirely different from the functionality of the department of posts. We list out a few very important roles and responsibilities of officers recruited under this service:

Department of Telecom

1. Assessing and determining disbursement of telecom revenue and further declaration of shared revenue falling under government assets.
2. Revenue collection, licensing in spectrum allocation units.
3. Ordinances of monitoring, management, and allocation of spectrums.
4. Managing pension facilities of telecom employees.
5. Plans and project handling to improvise and mandate rural telecom units and infrastructure.
6. Scheme allocation, better funding principles, and management of budget and accounting handles. 
7. Managing high level assets and finance operations. 
8. Integrating projects, conducting checks, and internal audits from time to time, and managing any legal cases and breach of conduct, including arbitration cases.

Department of Posts

1. Financial advisors, both on and off field duties.
2. Managing insurances, internal audits, and accounting funds.
3. Planning, organizing, budgeting, and disbursing financial allocation of funds. 
4. IT implementation in every loop of postal implementation. 
5. Costing, tariff balancing. 

Indian P&T Accounts & Finance Service Salary

• A basic pay scale for a training completed probationer can be anywhere between 15600-39100 with additional grade pay around 5400 INR. 
• As General Managers or deputy director generals, they can expect around INR 37400-67000 with additional grade pay of INR 10000. 
• As a principal controller of Communication accounts, the pay can be anywhere between INR 67000 – 79000. 
• Financial advising board officers can expect pay between INR 75500-80000. 

Career prospects

An officer who undergoes training for IP&TAFS will get the opportunity to work in a diverse, dynamic, and fast-paced environment with technical challenges at the back-end. The delicate balance of technical knowledge plus management principles brings the best out of these officers and offers them a long prospective career in their service. We list down a few important career growth opportunities here, like:

• Revenue assessment and collectors.
• Spectrum allocators and managers.
• Rural project management disbursing officers.
• Budget and accounting managers.
• Finance and asset managers.
• Project Controller in communications division. 
• Internal auditing officers.
• Financial advisors and IT officers. 

Probationers can look out for initial roles as Assistant Chief Accounts Officer, moving further on as Deputy Controller of Communication Accounts and later as Joint controller. At the top levels, officers are allocated posts such as Principal Controller, Deputy Director, and director.