Through Proper Channel - What a waste of time, money and paper!
YOU will be astonished at the amount of time, money and paper at the disposal of the government and how happily they waste them with the impunity of a reckless royal ruler. Just take the case of the above clarification given by the Board.
The Board has sent the letter to the Chief Commissioner, Ahmedabad, with a copy to DG, Service Tax, who was requested to bring it to the notice of the field formations. Now in the DG's office, on getting this paper, the DG marks it to the ADG, with a remark, "Pl put up on file”. The ADG makes a similar remark and sends it to his Additional Director who likewise sends it downwards till it reaches an inspector. A file is opened and the Inspector gives a great information that a clarification has been received from the Board which has to be communicated to all the Chief Commissioners and a draft letter is put up for approval. The file makes its upward journey through the same route as it came down. On the way somebody would find out a great flaw that the letter of the Board need not be sent to Ahmedabad Chief Commissioner as he already got one from the Board. So the draft letter has to be redrafted. Finally the DG approves the draft letter which simply says that the "Board's letter is communicated herewith and it may be brought to the notice of the field formations”. So the letter is now ready and photocopies are made and sent to all the Chief Commissioners, except Ahmedabad of course!
Once this letter reaches the Chief Commissioner's office, the same drama as in the DG's office is repeated and Chief Commissioner sends it to his Commissioners. By now two more pages added - the covering letter by the DG and the Chief Commissioner. The Commissioner again repeats the drama and a third page is added - his covering letter.
So the letter from the field reaches the field after about two months and an army of officers had been working on that simple letter and reams of paper must have been wasted apart from spending money on copying, postage etc,.
Even a very rich country cannot afford this kind of luxury! Have they not heard of services like internet, website and email.
Why can't the Board simply upload the clarification in its website and send an email to every officer - at almost no cost - instead of wasting so much money, time and paper?
And if the DGST's job is to communicate Board instructions to the field, do we need to have a high ranking Chief Commissioner level officer for that job. A Data Entry Operator can do the job much better at a fraction of the cost.
The whole job of cadre review seems to be aimed at creating more work and then finding people to do that. Maybe the next cadre review should aim at reducing the size of the Department to about a quarter of its present size. It would make great economic sense for the FM to ask 75 percent of his revenue officers to stay at home and draw their salaries without coming to office and manage the show with the 25 percent, who are anyway doing the work even now. The Government should not exist for the sole reason of promotion and career prospects of the officers, especially when they are adept at such unpardonable wasteful expenditure.