CBEC Chief Commissioners Conference - No Charge-sheet just before retirement - FM
FM lighting the lamp to inaugurate the CC's conference. In the limelight are CBEC Chairman, V. Sridhar and MOS Palanimanickam. In the background is a Customs officer on protocol duty!
WHILE the FM wanted a zero tolerance of corruption, he was against charge sheeting “our own officers” on the last day of service, after they have put in more than 30 years of service to the government.
He told the senior officers, “Tax evaders, as well as smugglers, are getting increasingly more sophisticated using modern technology... you must also develop an effective intelligence system to not only check the evasion of taxes but also punish the wrong-doers”
Does the CBEC have a PR system?
Such an important event like the FM addressing the senior most officers of the Department and there was not even a PIB handout! The CBEC website was perhaps not aware of this meet or they just blocked out the news. The DG, Systems must have been in the meeting and his staff did not consider this event to be NEWS. They gave a flash - ACES website attracts more than ten crore hits - why so many hits? You just can't upload a return until you visit the site at least ten times. Filing them manually with an envelope containing a few thousand rupee notes was certainly a better proposition for most of the assessees.
Zero tolerance of Corruption?
It is surprising that they still talk of corruption and its zero tolerance! How are you going to stop corruption when Adjudicating Authorities have power to demand Crores of Rupees as duty/tax and impose Crores as penalty and when higher appellate authorities routinely ask for 25 to 50 per cent pre-deposit? It is a harsh reality of the Department that the honest officers are more harsh in demanding duty and imposing penalties. The assessee would prefer a corrupt officer who, for a small consideration would give them a favourable order, so that they need not make pre-deposit of huge amounts of money, to an honest officer, who to prove his honesty, will never give an order in favour of the assessee. When will they learn to treat the assessee as a partner and not as an adversary? If they are serious about zero tolerance of corruption, let them amend the laws to stipulate that no pre-deposit is required up to the stage of the Tribunal – the whole system will be cleaned and Mr. FM, you will not really lose any money! Your transfer system is such a massive commercial activity that a Commissioner's post in some of the formations carry a rate of Rs Fifty Lakhs to One Crore! And if somebody has bought his posting for fifty Lakhs, he will make at least a few Crores in that post, mocking at your zero tolerance!