Central Excise Bhavan – the other side
If this is the plight of the officers of the Department, the fate is no better for assessees and consultants. While almost all the Chief Commissioners and Commissioners sit in opulent offices, they have not ensured that their visitors have minimum comforts – and their visitors are not ordinary people; they are either top assessees or top consultants. The other day I saw a retired Member of the Board sitting on a rickety chair, beside a Sepoy outside an Additional Commissioner's room waiting for a personal hearing with the Big Boss. The Sepoy was sitting in grand style while the former member was squirming in his seat unable to beat the heat and humiliation, while the Additional Commissioner was busy inside, probably with protocol arrangements for his Commissioner. I asked the former Member whether it was necessary for him to go through this humiliation and heat just to get an order which is bound to be against his client. The HUMBLE former Member (maybe humbled after retirement) told me, “let the officer enjoy his ego!” How nice it would have been if the Additional Commissioner had come out of his room and escorted the former Member into his room!
Your guests are top tax payers (or their representatives) who ensure that you get your fat salaries – the least you can do for them is to provide comfortable seats and maybe some good drinking water and clean toilets (there is none earmarked for the assessees in the current scheme of things). After all they are if not anything else, the citizens of this country – whose servant you are.