The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) on Monday said it has shown the door to 22 officials accused of corruption and other malpractices. This is the second set of officials in the CBIC and overall third set of taxmen who have been sacked in the last three months.
According to sources, the sacked officials were serving as Superintendent and Appraising Officers. Among these, nine are from the Bhopal zone, while two each are from Nagpur, Jaipur, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Others are from Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Merrut and Chandigarh. “These officials have been compulsorily retired under Fundamental Rule 56 (J) in the public interest, due to corruption and other charges and action by the CBI,” a source said. Based on this rule, the President retires these officials with immediate effect.
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.
Tax officials said that action has been initiated in line with what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said in his address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort that some black sheep in the tax administration might 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.
In June, 12 senior Indian Revenue Service Officers from the Income Tax department and 15 from CBIC were given the marching orders.