About a Hundred crores spent/wasted on CBDT Officers foreign Jaunts
THE CBDT has spent Rs.94 crores in the last four and a half years on the massive foreign excursion of its IRS officers called AMCTP - Advanced Mid Career Training Programme. Many departments of the Government of India have this MCTP, under which senior officers are given a fortnight's foreign tour to exotic locations of the world, with ex-India leave granted for further vacation at own cost. Some of the trainees are 58-59 years old; God knows what training they get at that age and to what extent that training is useful to the Department or the Nation.
Recently TC Gupta, a Deputy Commissioner in Income Tax got certain information under the RTI Act on this great wonder called MCTP. The questions he asked and the answers he got:
Q.i) Provide a copy of the report/reasons recorded for starting the MCTP Scheme.
Reply: The Training Division of DOP&T formulates the National Training Policy for the Central Government employees to bridge the competency gaps of the employees through training intervention. The proposal of Advanced Mid Career Training Programme [AMCTP] for IRS officers has been designed for Capacity Building of officers of IT Department. The scheme was designed on the basis of deliberations in 23rd Annual Conference of CCsIT/DGsIT in July, 2007 and the directions of the then FM. The proposal that was initially proposed by NADT was processed and examined by various divisions of CBDT from time to time and subsequently coordinated by HRD in the year 2009. The design of AMCTP for IRS was formulated by various high level committees and was examined, tweaked and toned at various levels from August 2007 to February, 2011 and the first AMCT Programme was finally rolled out in February, 2011 with the concurrence of IFU, Department of Expenditure and with the approval of Hon'ble FM. There is no particular or specific report from which the AMCTP scheme emanated.
The Income Tax Department had been undergoing a major metamorphosis in terms of its business processes, technical and information technology systems, citizen orientation and proactive approach to globalization and international tax issues. It was thus imperative that the Departmental human resources be exposed to International Best Practices, sound organizational practices and the latest managerial techniques, through a comprehensive system for human resource up gradation and reorientation. The advanced training program for in-service officers at various levels in their career was thought to be an essential ingredient for competency development.
The importance and relevance of the AMCTP is endorsed by the National Training Policy 2012 which stipulates that foreign training fills a crucial gap in the training system. It provides opportunities for officers to gain exposure to the latest thinking on different subject in some of the leading institutions of the world. It exposes them to experiences and best practices of different countries with differing models of development and governance. The NTP 2012 also recommended that each Ministry/Department/Organization set aside at least 2.5% of it salary budget for training.
Q. ii) Provide a copy of the report of study, if any, regarding usefulness of the scheme.
Reply: PI refer to the reply to question no.(i) above.
Q. iii) Provide number of officer in each grade who have availed MCTP, under CBDT and C&CE.
Reply: So far as the mid-career training programme of IRS [IT] officers are concerned, till date 12 batches of Addl./Jt CITs, 12 Batches of CITs/Pr.CITs and 5 batches of CCITs have been conducted wherein 471, 416 and 116 officers respectively have been imparted training.
Q. iv) Amount of expenditure incurred on the scheme, so far.
Reply: The Financial year wise amount incurred in the AMCTP scheme till date is Rs. 93.88 Crores.
Financial Year | No. Of Batches (Different Cadres) | Amount |
|---|---|---|
2010-11 | 3 | 3,54,35,938/- |
2011-12 | 4 | 16,34,69,929/- |
2012-13 | 8 | 27,40,71,921/- |
2013-14 | 7 | 27,33,72,973/- |
2014-15 (Till July) | 6 | 19,25,00,375/- |
Total | 28 | 93,88,51,136/- |
Q. v) Reasons recorded for sending IRS probationers on foreign training/tour during their basis training.
Reply: The information may be sought from Pr. DG(Trg) NADT.
Q. vi) Reasons recorded for sending promotee ACITs on foreign training/tour during their basis training.
Reply: The information may be sought from Pr. DG(Trg) NADT.
THE CBEC must have also been spending such huge amounts on their MCTP. What is the reason and excuse for CBEC MCTP? The only explanation would be CBDT has it and so should we.
In this electronic age, is it necessary to send a senior officer like a Chief Commissioner all the way to US to learn how to collect tax in India? And with all these foreign trained officers, is there any substantial improvement in the tax administration in the country or are we simply wasting precious money on these costly excursions?
It is reported that in one of the classes in the US of A, these trainees were taught how to use a Facebook account. Their grandchildren would have taught them!