Infrastructure - facilities: Income Tax Better Than Customs
THE Finance Minister stressed the need for providing all facilities and good infrastructure for the Revenue Departments. He observed that they are better in the Income Tax Department and while several proposals from the Income Tax Department are cleared, several demands are pending. He observed that there are no proposals from the Customs and Excise Department. Obviously the Central Excise Department does not believe in spending government money. They have less than 90 days left in this fiscal year - let them spend all the money allocated to them and try to get some more to spend.
What the FM had observed, is open for any one to see. Just visit any Income Tax Office and Central Excise and Customs office - you will know the difference. It will be surprising to note that they are both under the same Department of the Government. The CBEC's field offices can go for better offices, with enough rooms and toilets for everyone including visitors; they should enhance their technical knowledge and subscribe to TIOL, ELTetc,. And they should take a few tips from their cousins in the Income Tax Department on how to spend money.
While on spending, the Department can also seriously think of cutting down on certain wasteful expenditure. In all the main buildings of the Customs and Excise Department, you find a control room with a uniformed Inspector and a dozing sepoy to assist him. Inspectors are posted round the clock for these control room duties. And what they do is anybody's guess. Are they receptionists? Are they security guards? This is not the work that you recruit inspectors and this work can be outsourced at half the cost and for a more efficient work. You also find Superintendents and Inspectors posted for ‘house keeping'. What is their expertise in house keeping? Is it because you have so many officers that you don't know what to do with them?