CBDT plans ₹5,000-crore land buy for offices and staff quarters in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru

The direct tax authority is targeting prime plots, including a ₹2,000-crore MTNL site in Delhi, to curb rising rental costs and accommodate an expanding workforce across metros.

New Delhi: India’s direct tax authority plans to buy land worth around ₹5,000 crore in major cities, such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, to build new income-tax offices and staff quarters, two senior government officials said.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has identified an MTNL plot in Connaught Place, New Delhi, valued at about ₹2,000 crore for a new office, and is eyeing parcels in Santa Cruz and Powai in Mumbai and in Bengaluru for both offices and staff housing, the officials said. The plans include creating residential facilities for about 1,000 officers in Mumbai over the medium term, one of them added.

A shortage of permanent office space and government quarters in major cities has forced I-T officers to operate from rented buildings and commute from distant suburbs, weighing on operational efficiency and raising rental costs. With direct tax collections rising alongside a fast-growing economy and appeals and investigations expanding, the board needs physical capacity to house new recruits and fill vacancies.

The CBDT is the apex body for administration and policy of direct taxes. Such taxes—including personal income and corporate taxes—are budgeted to touch ₹26.97 trillion in the current fiscal year through March 2027, accounting for 61.2% of the projected gross tax revenue. Indirect taxes, including goods and services tax (GST), are budgeted at ₹17.07 trillion. Robust tax collections are especially important in times of global economic headwinds, as they allow the government to fund rising domestic welfare spending while maintaining fiscal discipline.

While land acquisition and construction need significant upfront capital, owned offices and staff quarters will cut recurring rent payments. CBDT had a sanctioned strength of 77,713 with an actual cadre of 51,421 as of August 2025, according to a Parliament reply.

“The proposal has the potential to improve administrative efficiency while reducing dependence on high-cost rented premises,” said Riaz Thingna, partner at Grant Thornton Bharat. “Whether it represents good value for public money will ultimately depend on the lifecycle economics, including acquisition and construction costs, rental savings, maintenance expenditure and utilisation,” Thingna added.

Queries emailed to the CBDT chairman and the finance ministry spokesperson remained unanswered at the time of publishing. Queries sent to the chairman and managing director of both MTNL and BSNL and the spokesperson of the department of telecommunications on Thursday afternoon were not immediately answered.

Recent acquisitions

The government has, in recent years, stepped up infrastructure creation in key cities for both the revenue boards — the CBDT and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs — to reduce rent and other expenses. In July, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated Aaykar Sindhu, a 13-floor, 1.13 lakh sq ft office complex of the income-tax department at Mumbai’s Nariman Point.

She had then said efforts were underway to "expedite the government-to-government land acquisition process through the CBDT for establishing permanent office premises, as several Income Tax offices in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai presently function from rented buildings", according to a finance ministry statement in July.

In March 2024, Sitharaman had virtually laid the foundation stone of seven projects worth over ₹1,000 crore for mainly CBDT and CBIC, including a departmental residential complex of 214 quarters in Gurugram for income tax officials and 198 quarters in Faridabad, and 256 quarters for middle and senior CBIC officers in Dwarka, Delhi.

In October 2025, Sitharaman had inaugurated the new CGST Bhawan in Ghaziabad—a 2.21-acre green complex with a seven-floor building to house three commissionerates and pay & accounts offices under one roof. Built at a total cost of ₹116 crore, this complex has parking space for about 300 vehicles.

Other major ongoing CBIC projects include the 2024 New GST Bhawan and residential complex in Hyderabad. Built at a cost of ₹645 crore, the office tower has a built-up area of about 77,000 sq meters spread over two basements, four over-ground parking lots and 21 office floors, enough to accommodate about 1,500 officers and staff. This Bhawan was to house most of the central GST offices of Hyderabad, which were operating from rented premises.

A 40-acre township at Wadala, Mumbai, is under construction that is proposed to have more than 4,000 residential units and three office towers for the CBIC, while a residential project at Kharghar–Kendriya GST Parisar–was inaugurated in 2022.