After the money-for-transfer scam, Singh asked his adviser Vijay Kelkar to review the transfer policy of the revenue department and suggest a transparent mechanism that would do away with the arbitrariness of the current one.

The system, to be adopted soon, takes inspiration from the MEA model. Postings have been classified into three categories based on "degrees of hardship".

A revenue officer thus has to shuffle between the 'A' posts in metros to the 'C' posts in district capitals.

The new system will be unveiled by the finance minister at the first joint conference of senior officials of the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Central Board of Excise and Customs on July 15.

To distance the minister from the entire process, other than for exceptional cases, a grievance redressal committee headed by the revenue secretary will be institutionalised.

The panel will also include non-revenue officials, including those from the department of personnel and training.

Under the new system, the transfer season for officials will be shifted to December from the current May-June session.

This will ensure that the officials get the time to arrange for school admissions of their children.

Besides, the departments have been asked to ensure that a list of officials, with their posting records, is updated and circulated among all the officials.

Finance ministry officials said the government was also looking seriously at Kelkar's other recommendations on a minimum two-year tenure for the chiefs of the CBDT and the CBEC.

Kelkar has also suggested that there be no change of incumbents in the middle of the year without assigning any specific reason.

This is the first of a two-part series on how Finance Minister Jaswant Singh proposes to overhaul the tax administration machinery