The (IRS) Indian Reporting Service – Multiplicity of Reports, Duplication of Work and Waste of precious resources – CBEC Instructions
SEVEN years ago, we carried a story, THE INDIAN REPORTING SERVICE (IRS) IS IN ACTION. A lady IRS officer was offended and told me that it was uncharitable to call the service as reporting service as after calling for reports they send periodic reminders. So the service was very much the Indian Reminder Service too.
The number of useless reports generated by the Department is stupendous. In fact from a Range to the Chief Commissioner's office, the only major work being done in the offices is preparation and correction of reports. And like two watches, two reports never tally. Most of the reports sent to the Board are not even read, as many of them have been directed to be stopped, but in blissful ignorance, the field continued to send these reports.
Now the CBEC directs that:
The MTR for Central Excise and Service Tax from the month of July 2011 shall henceforth include Annexure III A, III B, III C, III D, III E (as revised) and III F and III G and the MTR for Customs shall include Annexure VB(new), VC,VD,VE,VF,VG and VH.
It is desired that the above changes/directions are noted for strict compliance. It is once again reiterated that the Commissioners will not send any MTR to Legal, Judicial/review Cell of CBEC or the Directorate of Legal Affairs. The Zonal Chief Commissioner will send the MTRs containing the compiled Annexures being inserted in respect of his/her charge directly to the Commissioner, Directorate of Legal Affairs, 4th Floor, Rajendra Bhawan, 210 DeenDayalUpadhyayaMarg, New Delhi and also by e-mail at dla-rev@nic.in. The DLA will compile the all India data on the basis of the Annexures received from the Zonal Chief Commissioners. None of the Annexure is required to be sent to Judicial/Review Cell or Legal Cell.
Will the field understand these confusing instructions?
In this age of massive computerisation, why should there be a paper report at all? The Department is proud of its ACES and other IT projects. Why can't they develop a programme, so that all the data is fed into a computer from the Range to the Chief Commissioner and all authorised officers can have access to all the data. The Chairman sitting before his computer should be able to know how many returns were filed, how many provisional assessments are pending, the revenue collections and virtually every information. Asking reports from subordinates should be banned and whoever fails to feed data in the system within the stipulated time should be summarily dismissed.
If I can know from the web site of the Indian Railways, where a particular train is at a particular time, why can't the learned Assistant Commissioner tell me where my refund claim is gathering dust in his office?
Strangely, these instructions to the Department on submitting reports are issued by a public circular, while important matters of vital concern are sometimes issued through departmental letters.
Perhaps the line between instructions and circulars is getting obliterated.
CBEC Circular No. 944/05/2011-CX., Dated: May 10, 2011