West Bengal Civil Service (Executive), popularly known as W.B.C.S.(Exe.), is the civil service of the Indian state of West Bengal. For the WBCS (Exe) and other comparative posts, Public Service Commission of West Bengal arranges competitive examinations in three phases every year. These phases are Preliminary, Mains and Personality Test. WBCS is considered to be the premium public service in the state of West Bengal.

This article may require copy editing for punctuation, clarity, peacock phrases. (June 2023)

Usually, form fill-up (through online mode only) begins for the exam in November. The preliminary Exam is generally held in the last week of January or the first week of February in different cities of West Bengal. Post the publication of preliminary results, Mains Exams are held in June–July in some selected centers of Kolkata and at the office of WBPSC. The candidates who passed in Mains are called for the Personality test. Finally, a selection list of Group A & Group B is initially issued by PSC consisting of the names of qualified candidates from the Mains Exams and Personality test. Then, after a few months, a Personality test for Group C is conducted and the selection list is published. At last, a Personality test for Group D services is conducted and then the selection list is published. The process of recruiting Group A & B officers takes almost one and a half years, while it takes two to two and a half years for Group C and Group D respectively.

There are different groups in the recruitment of such examination based on choice and merit of scored number. These are Group A, Group B (only for West Bengal Police Service ), Group C^[6] and Group D. The WBCS (Exe) officers belong to Group A. In general, As per the record of the WBPSC, the candidates with higher scores opt for WBCS (Exe), WBPS, and some allied services like erstwhile WBCTS, etc. as their first choice. Since 1988 some of the top-ranked candidates have opted for an allied service called WB Commercial Tax Service (WBCTS) as their first choice due to the less strenuous nature of the service and the lure of metro posting. Mostly WBCS (Exe) & WBCTS(now WBRS) cadres along with WBA&AS cadre are promoted to IAS after around 27 years of service and WBPS officers to IPS after 13-15 years of service in state police service.^[7]

The WBCS (Exe) officers are usually appointed as deputy magistrates or deputy collectors on probation and after completion of two years of mandatory administrative training under the tutelage of Administrative Training Institute, start their career as Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector and Block Development (B.D.O.) Officers. They also pass orders in Executive Magistrate Court and execute some sections of Criminal Procedure Code. The officers of the cadre perform key administrative functions at different levels of various departments of the state. The highest position WBCS (Exe) officers can attain is that of Departmental Secretary. Three posts of district magistrate in the State of West Bengal are reserved for these officers. WBCS (Exe) officers may also be nominated at a later stage in their career to become Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers.^[8]

In 2017, West Bengal government merged four departments associated with revenue to form a single department West Bengal Revenue Service (WBRS) to improve better service to the taxpayers. The four departments are West Bengal Commercial Tax Service, West Bengal Excise Service, West Bengal Agricultural Income Tax Service and West Bengal Registration and Stamp Revenue Service. The cadre management of the West Bengal Revenue Service is done by the Finance Department. The officers are initially appointed as Assistant commissioner of Revenue and then promoted to Deputy commissioner of Revenue, Joint Commissioner of Revenue, Senior Joint Commissioner of Revenue, Additional Commissioner of Revenue and Special Commissioner of Revenue. Like the WBCS(Exe) cadre, WBRS officers also get a chance to be promoted to Indian Administrative Service cadre at a later phase of their career.

WBRS officers play a pivotal role in revenue collection, administration and mobilisation in the state. Many aspirants select WBRS as their first service preference over WBCS(Exe) and WBPS due to better work life balance, urban posting and less political interference leading to comfortable work culture. WBRS officers can be posted as Assistant commissioner in Commercial tax department, or as Deputy Excise Collector in Excise Directorate or as an Additional District Sub-Registrar in Directorate of Registration and Stamp Revenue. Officers recruited at a young age can get promoted up to Commissioner rank which is an IAS cadre post.

WBRS officers, as Assistant commissioner of Revenue are tasked with collection of State GST and prevent tax evasion through search and raids; as Deputy Excise Collector, they are tasked with collection of Excise duty on alcoholic drinks and take preventive measures against illicit sources of drugs through regulatory and enforcement actions; and as ADSR they are tasked with registration and valuation of immovable properties during sale or purchase and collect Stamp duty and Registration fee.

WBCoS officers are initially posted as Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies (ARCS).

WBLS officers are initially posted as Assistant Labour Commissioner (ALC).

WBF&SS officers are initially posted as Sub-divisional Controller of Food and Supplies (SCFS).

WBES officers are initially posted as Employment Officer (EO).

WBPS officers are initially posted as Deputy superintendent of police (DySP) or Assistant commissioner of police (ACP).

Services are allotted in four groups, which are as follows:^[9]

Group A

• West Bengal Civil Services (Executive) WBCS (Exe)
• West Bengal Revenue Service (WBRS)^{[lower-alpha 1]}
• West Bengal Co-operative Service (WBCoS)
• West Bengal Labour Service (WBLS)
• West Bengal Food and Supplies Service (WBF&FS)
• West Bengal Employment Service (Non-Technical) (WBES)

Group B

• West Bengal Police Service (WBPS)

Group C

• West Bengal Correctional Home Services (CSWB)
• Joint Block Development Officer (Jt. BDO)
• Deputy Assistant Director of Consumers and Fair Business Practices
• West Bengal Junior Social Welfare Service (WBJSWS)
• Assistant Canal Revenue Officer (Irrigation) (ACRO–Irrigation)
• West Bengal Sub-ordinate Land Revenue Services, Grade-I (SLRO)
• Assistant Commercial Tax Officer (ACTO)
• Chief Controller of Correctional Service (CCCS)

Group D

• Inspector of Co-operative Societies (ICoS)
• Panchayat Development Officer (PDO)
• Rehabilitation Officer (RO)

• Public Service Commission, West Bengal
• West Bengal Police Service