A series of transfers and promotions within the Income-Tax Department, compounded by non-transparent HR management of the issue has left a large section of India’s revenue bureaucracy unhappy, CNBC-TV18 has learned.
There is an air of despondency among many income tax administrators for nearly a year now, owing to issues like delayed promotions, transfers triggered by friction between officials as well as last-minute tenure extension of officers who were on the verge of retirement. The I-T Department, which is in charge of income and corporate tax collections, is manned by Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officials.
Multiple sources and officers told CNBC-TV18 that the inefficient handling of HR issues in India’s income tax department is hampering the career prospects of many IRS officials.
Taxmen from diverse ranks - probationers to Principal Chief Tax Commissioners - claimed that top functionaries associated with tax administration have been unable to address the concerns of the income tax bureaucracy.
Multiple officials CNBC-TV18 spoke to believe that tax administration related issues have taken a back seat in recent times and this has not gone down well with the IRS officers .
These officials also highlighted the delay in the Task Force Report on Direct Tax Legislation and poor handling of the recommendations contained in an informal policy paper titled Fiscal Options & Response to Covid-19 Epidemic (FORCE), as a few examples
The report of the task force on Direct Tax Legislation has been pending for over a year now, while the FORCE report, an informal initiative undertaken by about 50 young IRS officers, was publicly disowned by the government.
The FORCE policy paper was submitted to North Block and had advised the government to impose a COVID-19 cess and higher income tax rates, leading to public outcry. The FORCE policy paper was released around the start of the COVID-19 crisis
To deal with the widespread public opinion against the policy paper, CBDT came out with a statement saying the board did not subscribe to the views expressed by the officers and chided the group of IRS officers for releasing the details to the media.
Some senior officials from the income tax department point out that many young IRS officers who passed out from premier educational institutes and chose to be part of public service rather than pursue a lucrative corporate career path are demotivated by some of these developments.
Some other officials who CNBC-TV18 spoke to said, some misgivings on account of transfers are normal and par for the course but do agree that there is a chasm that needs to be bridged
First Published: Aug 11, 2020 12:36 PM IST
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