The CPI(M) has condemned the reported move by the Centre to initiate disciplinary action against a group of Indian Revenue Service officers for unauthorised publication of their proposal to enhance the income tax rates for the super-rich to 40 per cent and imposing a 4 per cent Covid Cess.

The paper prepared by the officers for Fiscal Options and Responses to Covid-19 Epidemic has angered the government to act viciously, betraying their brazen intention to protect the rich, a statement by the Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) said.

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"The government has formally stated that these proposals will trigger uncertainties in the ‘market’, clearly suggesting that the super-rich are ‘holy cows’ for the ruling dispensation. This government’s class approach of being pro-rich, anti-poor and anti-working people is evident with its unilateral decision to freeze the dearness allowance for its employees and pensioners, retrospectively and prospectively, which by some calculation will fetch a stupendous amount. The government’s effort to stonewall queries on write-offs for willful defaulters and absconders in Parliament have now come to nought with authenticated RTI replies exposing the government-corporate nexus, which is looting the country and the people, the statement added.

The Polit Bureau demanded that the government should rescind disciplinary actions against the IRS officers forthwith. "It must initiate steps for free and transparent discourse on the revival of the economy. The PB also unambiguously expresses its resolve to resist moves to unilaterally burden the poor and the working people for shouldering the Covid impact, while the super-rich continue to loot and amass greater wealth," it added.

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