CBI Raids Sanctum Sanctorum of Indian Taxation
TAX Policy & Legislation (TPL) and Tax Research Unit (TRU) are two of the holiest wings of the Indian Taxation of the Direct taxes and indirect taxes respectively. These units help the Finance Minister in designing his budget and officers of these wings go underground and are not accessible even to their closest family members, a few weeks before the Budget. The best officers of the Department with absolutely doubtless integrity are screened through layers of vigilance and intelligence before they are selected for a posting in TPL or TRU. Nobody would have ever dreamed that the CBI would have an occasion to visit the TPL or TRU offices, but that is what exactly happened.
The CBI has just picked up an OSD from the TPL on charges of corruption and what massive corruption! The CBI thinks the bribe amount runs into Crores of rupees. Newspapers are going to town with figures ranging from Rs One Crore to Rs 60 Crores! The amount involved in the scam was around Rs 500 crores and the Income Tax Deputy Commissioner, now under CBI scanner, is alleged to have conducted fake raids and collected huge bribes. Yogendra Mittal, the accused is an IRS officer of the 2006 batch of IRS. This officer has six years of ‘service' in the department, out of which two years have gone for probation and training. This leaves all of four years of service and the so-called raids took place in 2011. That is in less than three years, this officer landed up in the Investigation wing and could collect Crores of rupees. You don't really need vast experience to collect bribes - some officers start the aggressive batting from the very first OVER.
After the so-called raid, this bright officer got posted in the prestigious TPL and must have been closely associated with the budget making process - and would have continued to do so - had the CBI not picked him up this week. A red-faced CBDT yesterday transferred him out of TPL to the office of the CCIT, Delhi, en route to the obvious destination soon.
But is it not a massive vigilance failure that such a person landed up in the TPL? Former TPL officers are aghast that such a thing could happen!
And if the figures are right, is it possible that an officer with just three years experience can demand and collect Crores of rupees all by himself? Obviously, he must have been running an Association of Persons (AOP) deeply engaged in this business and the booty must have been shared.