Comments
The Government, on Tuesday, showed door to 21 tax officers on account of various charges. With these, total number of tax officers ‘compulsorily retired’ has gone up to 85 this year.
According to Government sources, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) compulsorily retired yet another 21 Group B officers of the rank of ITO (Income Tax Officer). This action has been initiated under Fundamental Rule 56 (J) in the public interest, due to corruption and other charges and CBI traps. Sacked officials were posted in places such as Raja Mundry, Visahakapatnam, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur, Hazaribagh, Rajkot, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Sawai Madhopur, Ujjain and Bhopal.
The Rule 56 covers Group ‘A & B’ officers who entered service before 35 years of age and have attained 50 years of age. A review is carried out on a quarterly basis, including of officials and employees facing serious allegations of corruption. If the review committee finds the allegations to be true, it recommends compulsory retirement and the order is then signed by the President.
Such compulsorily retired officials will be paid a sum equivalent to their pay and allowances for three months, calculated at the same rate at which she/he was drawing immediately before retirement. Such an action is considered as a penalty and the government believes that it will act as a deterrent for others indulging in corruption. At present, the retirement age for tax officials is 60 years. The loss of 10 years of service means loss in terms of the benefits and perks for that period and, more importantly, a lifelong loss of honour.
War against corruption
It is in line with what Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address to the nation on August 15 about waging a war against corruption. “Some black sheep in the tax administration may have misused their powers and harassed taxpayers, either by targeting honest assessees or by taking excessive action for minor or procedural violations. We have recently taken the bold step of compulsorily retiring a significant number of tax officials, and we will not tolerate this type of behaviour,” he had said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.