TIOL-DDT 68 · the untouched capture
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<html> <head> <title>Untitled Document</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#0000FF" size="3">TIOL-DDT 68</font><br> 7 3 2005<br> Monday</b></font></p> <p align="center"><font color="#006633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>THE SIXTY PLUS SYNDROME</b></font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>YOU</b> have any clue as to what worries the senior-most officers the Revenue Service?<br> <br> It’s not revenue, it’s not arrears, it’s not adjudication. What really worries them is what to do after retirement. After about three and a half decades of service in government, they find it difficult to leave that government car and free telephone. So starts the job hunt for those 62 years-retirement posts. At sixty, one should be happy to retire and call it a day. But that the government car is too much of a perk to be given up. And opportunities are aplenty. There is the Settlement Commission, there is the CESTAT, and there is Advance Ruling authority. And may be if you are lucky you can land up in the CAT.<br> <br> The selection procedure for these posts is most undesirable to say the list. Take the powerful authority like that Settlement Commission which has vast powers in settling huge amounts of money and granting immunity form prosecution. The membership in this august body is like membership in one of those fancy exclusive clubs that dot our metros. You have to have tremendous pull to get into the one of those clubs.<br> <br> Look at the charade of selection for this high power commission.<br> <br> 1. Only a Chief Commissioner / Member can apply i.e. entry is restricted to a select coterie of officers.<br> <br> 2. Preferably they should be on the verge of retirement. The Chief Commissioner must be unlucky to make it to the Board because of the fault of his date of birth!<br> <br> 3. Strong recommendation – the stronger the better – is a major or rather the only qualification. The lucky man can spend two more cosy years in a five star room and A.C. car with red light!<br> <br> 4. For an Inspector to get a deputation post in an International Airport for two years, there is an elaborate interview by a Chief Commissioner and a couple of Commissioners. There is no such thing if you want to become a Settlement Commission Member! It’s enough if you are a Chief Commissioner or a Board Member, preferably on the verge of retirement. Your knowledge or the lack of it is not all a criterion.<br> <br> The Government has created an army of Commissioners and most of them have no real full time job and many of them have over ten years of service left. If retiring Members and Chief Commissioners are unwilling to step down what will the serving officers do? Wait for another decade! <br> <br> The time has come for the Finance Minister to examine the method of selection to Settlement Commission/ Advance Ruling Authority/CESTAT. There should be uniform recruitment and selection procedures to these organisations and also fix the retirement age uniformly at 60 years in <b>order to deter post retirement hunters.</b> Another requirement is to make it a mandatory qualification that only those Commissioners who have served as Commissioner Appeals/Jt.CDR/SDR will be eligible to apply for these posts. This is because it is an open secret that the posts of Executive Commissioner is much sought after and goes only to the influential ones. These officers bask in the glory of protocol and salutes hardly doing any quasi-judicial work, which is routinely passed on to knowledgeable Superintendents/Appraisers. Some years ago when there was a mass promotion to the cadre of Commissioners, most of the SDRs promoted were posted as Commissioner (Appeals) and a tribunal member remarked that the quality of appellate orders improved remarkably.<br> <br> The joke is that the Executive Commissioners are even lazy to sign the orders which are attested by the Adjudication Superintendents. Most unfortunately the CESTAT Larger Bench gave its approval for this ignominious practice. Another logical question would be if Group B & C officers can ghost write for their Commissioners why should they be excluded from the selections to CESTAT/Settlement Commission/Advance Ruling etc? Why can’t the knowledgeable be recruited, not in the interests of the officers but in the interests of the taxpayer?<br> <br> Is it not strange that the officers, who write the adjudication orders, remain as ghost writers, while those who are so lazy that they cannot even sign the orders put up to them end up as members of superior bodies like Tribunal and Settlement Commission? What is the quality of justice that we can expect <b>if there is no selection for these posts and these are treated as post retirement parking slots for about-to retire-officers?</b> If these posts are not that important that anybody can be posted there, why not make an error in favour of the tax payer and try to broaden the base and bring in people with some proven knowledge. Why not have a written test which should invariably have a question on writing an adjudication order, followed by an interview by the UPSC or Supreme Court judges and make the selection open for all the officers of the department?<br> <br> <font color="#006633"><b>Central Excise Divisions abolished</b></font><br> <br> In a major development, the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has decided to scrap all the central excise divisions and circles currently working across the country from March 15 to make all Central Excise Collectorates operational on functional basis.<br> <br> “This vital decision has been taken keeping in view the ongoing reforms to accord maximum facilitations to the tax payers.”<br> <br> Under the reforms process the CBR is creating 12 regional tax offices in the country where all the matters related to the income tax, sales tax and central excise would be done and the taxpayers would be offered facilities under one roof for paying the said taxes and taking up the issues of taxes with the tax official. - <b>A report from the Pakistan Daily Times today. </b><br> <b> <br> <font color="#006633"> Review petition in ITC case dismissed</font></b><br> <br> The Supreme Court dismissed the review petition filed by the Government against the ITC order. But the government does not depend on Supreme Court for justice; it has a better weapon – the retrospective legislation. <br> <br> <font color="#FF0000"><b>Until tomorrow with more of DDT</b></font></font></p> <p align="justify"><b><font color="#FF0000" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Have a Nice Day<br> <br> Mail your comments to</font></b><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com </b><br> </font></p> </body> </html>