IRS Revolt - Jaitley Not Amused

By Vijay Kumar

A PIB Press Release says,

"The Ministry of Finance has learnt through a newspaper item which appeared today that some officers of Indian Revenue Service (Income-tax) Mumbai Branch have passed a resolution against the Department of Revenue.

The Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley has taken a serious view of such a Resolution by officers of Organised Group 'A' service to advise the Government on what role it should play. This is an act of insubordination. Officers indulging in acts of indiscipline would be subject to Conduct Rules.

No Department of the Government has absolute autonomy. It has to serve the larger goal of the Government. The supervisory powers of next higher authority ensures that there is no misuse of power by anyone in the Government."

Several stories are doing the rounds on what really happened.

It seems last week IRS (Income Tax) officers met in Mumbai and discussed interference by the Revenue Secretary in operational matters. It was felt that micro management by the Revenue Secretary has undermined the autonomy of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. The IRS officers were said to be unhappy with the recent transfer of an IRS officer. It seems there was a case of Rs. 10,000 Crore collected from a Bank on 30th March and 9500 Crore was refunded on 1st April. Obviously the Revenue Secretary doesn't understand such 'modus operandi' for revenue collection.

Is it another IRS Vs IAS story?

Speaking in the Lok Sabha on 18th March 2013, Ms. B. Jhansi Lakshmi, MP said,

"I would like to bring an important issue to the notice of Government through this august house that there is strong resentment among the officers of IRS about the faulty organizational structure of the Department of Income Tax. It is headed by the CBDT, which is a statutory authority created by the Central Board of Revenue Act, 1963 and part of the Revenue Department in the Ministry of Finance. All the senior officers in the department including chairman and members are IRS officers. But the Revenue Secretary who heads the Revenue Department is usually an IAS officer. The entire problem lies here. Both the CBDT and CBEC function under the administrative control of Department of Revenue and its Secretary is from IAS cadre. The Secretary even writes Annual Performance Appraisal Reports of the Chairman and members of both these boards. What is most heartburning fact among the IRS officers is that the Revenue Secretary, an IAS officer, belongs to a junior batch than the IRS officers who are on the boards of CBDT and CBEC. This means all the Chairmen and members of both the CBDT and CBEC should report to a person who is junior to them, which is a cause of concern among the IRS officers, when all the IAS, IPS, IIS and IRS are recruited through the same examination by the UPSC. Nowadays even some of the top rankers in the Civil Service Examination are choosing the IRS over the IAS and IPS and most of the female candidates prefer the IRS to the IPS because of the stable postings and postings in metros. This means that a higher ranked Civil Services candidate who chooses the IRS becomes subordinate to a lower ranked candidate who chooses the IAS. It affects the dynamism of the Income Tax Department and the morale of the IRS officers, as everything is to be routed through the Revenue Secretary. Therefore, to ease out the problems of IRS officers there is a need to immediately upgrade the CBDT to the status of a department in the Government of India by renaming it as the "Department of Direct Taxes", with its Chairman and Members having the status of ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India unlike the present status of exofficio Special Secretary. I, therefore, urge upon the Government to upgrade the CBDT to the status of a Department by renaming it as the "Department of Direct Taxes".

How did the Hon'ble MP know all this? An article by an IRS officer extracted by us in DDT 2376, is almost identical.

The IRS is IRS and IAS is IAS and the twain can never meet.