Taxman - your job is to collect correct Tax - Not a Penny More - Not a Penny Less
WHY are our taxmen obsessed with revenue collection by any means - fair or foul? Is there some secret code in the Department that as long as you collect Revenue by means legal or otherwise, you are safe? Are they taught in the high profile academies that 'yours is not to question why; yours is but to collect'? Even young officers out in the field resort to all kinds of arm-twisting to collect that extra rupee in the name of revenue.
In this process, they actually don't collect any excess revenue, they collect tremendous amount of bad name for the Government. Even it is not economically wise, as they ultimately end up paying interest, as it happened in the above case. If they want to project that they are loyal servants of the Government, what they ultimately turn out to be are enemies of the State. They lose the Revenue as well as the honour.
A senior revenue officer told me, "at the end of the day we are revenue officers; we are here to collect revenue." But are you supposed to collect what is not yours by law? Is it not mercenary extortion?
And what is the consent of an assessee - to be exploited? Which assessee will voluntarily give a letter stating that he is glad to pay the amounts which he is not required to pay and the collection of which has been stayed by a court?
The Central Excise Audit teams have a knack of getting spot payments - even before a Show Cause Notice is issued. Some assessees actually keep some amounts for spot payments to please the audit parties - as a part of tax planning.
Central Excise and Service Tax officers have kept refund claims amounting to hundreds of crores pending because it is a standard practice in the department that refund should be given only if all means of denying it have failed. And then they proclaim that the patriotic assessee has requested them not to give interest on the delayed refunds.
While reporting a case, when I wrote that by denying the refund, the officer ensured that the Department had to pay interest and suffer some embarrassing situations in the High Court, the highly agitated Assistant Commissioner wrote to me that department's interest was protected by not paying the interest - the assessee had agreed to take the amount without interest. What can the poor assessee do after five years of litigation and a case in the High Court?
Mr.Modi and Mr.Jaitley - give these officers some more promotions and have a cadre review every month; create more posts like Additional Principal Chief Commissioner, Deputy Principal Chief Commissioner, Assistant Principal Chief Commissioner, Additional Chief Commissioner, Deputy Chief Commissioner, Assistant Chief Commissioner and so on - but don't allow them anywhere near the assessees, if you want your revenue properly and legally.
The Prime Minister talks about more governance and less government - his babus ensure that anarchy prevails in the name of Government.