Sangeeta Gupta (born 25 May 1958), a retired Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, is an Indian abstract artist, poet and filmmaker. She is the first woman who qualified Civil Services from her district in Uttar Pradesh, India. She is an officer of 1984 batch IRS. Her artistic journey so far consist of 35 solo exhibitions of paintings, 25 published books including Fourteen anthologies of poems in Hindi and six in English. From her collection of poems, 10 books are translated into German, Greek, Mandarin, English, Bangla, Dogri, Tamil and Urdu. She has also directed, scripted and shot 30 documentary films, 6 of which are in the collection of the US Library of Congress. Song of the Cosmos is her creative biography.
A film, Life beyond Tax, has been made about her life by Tax India.
Personal life and education
Sangeeta Gupta (B.Sc., M.A, L.L.B) born at Gorakhpur, U.P. in 1958 spent her childhood in Tamkuhi road a small town, part of Kushinagar district, Uttar Pradesh. She completed her schooling from Carmel School, Gorakhpur, graduation and Post-graduation from Banaras Hindu University and Law from Delhi University, India
Career
Sangeeta Gupta started her career as a Junior Research Fellow at Advance Study Centre for Nepal, Department of Political Science, Banaras Hindu University in 1979 after completing her post graduation from the same university. She joined as a Lecturer of Political Science in a Government Degree College affiliated to Gorakhpur University in 1980 and continued to teach Political science to the under graduates students there till 1984. She then qualified Civil Services examination and then joined as Indian Revenue Service Officer (1984 batch). She is the first woman from her district, who qualified Civil Services.
She served as Income Tax Officer from 1986 to 1988 June at Allahabad. Thereafter, she served as ACIT; ADIT & DCIT in West Bengal till the year 1996. She then went on deputation to Delhi Jal Board as Director Revenue and served there till 31 March 1999. She was promoted as JCIT and also worked as Director IT in CBDT, Minister of Finance, was promoted as CIT in the year 2003 and since then has worked in various capacity. Sangeeta Gupta joined as Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Jammu & Kashmir in July 2015. Before coming to Jammu she was PCIT at Delhi. She rose to the apex level as Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Delhi on account of her dedication and hard work. She accepted many challenging assignments, which she accomplished to the satisfaction of the hierarchy.
She has also worked as Advisor (Finance and Administration) to Lalit Kala Akademi, National Akademi of Visual Arts (July 2019 to January 2020). She is a member of the Finance committee of Jawaharlal Nehru University since November 2018.
She was awarded gold medal in 1986 by National Academy of Direct Taxes, Nagpur for being the best probationer of her batch and the best bureaucrat of the year award of Make in India Excellence award conferred by Indo Global Business Council, Delhi
She has done her town, district and state proud by her achievements in her career. She retired as Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Delhi in May 2018.
Professional Achievements
During her short stint in the State in Jammu & Kashmir as Principal Commissioner of Income Tax the department produced remarkable results. Four new income tax offices at moffusil stations were opened at Katra, Samba, Baramulla and Rajouri and were made operational. Her tremendous efforts for widening and deepening of tax base at all levels finally bore fruits and resulted in addition of substantial new tax payers.
Apart from a successful bureaucrat during her career, Sangeeta Gupta is known for her love for poetry and Abstract Art.
For her, abstract art is a means to reach the non-objective experiences that help shape the inner life. It is a witness to the fact that man's spiritual needs do not disappear even in times engulfed by gross materialism. She strives to express the poetic vision in her works. Keeping in view her strong passion for painting and writing, one may think, what about her professional achievements as a Revenue officer. But the fact is that she has earned distinctions in different fields like art, literature, film making and civil services.