Shabhash Sridhar ! – CBEC Member, Sridhar is our new hero.
We got this mail from a former Member of the CBEC.
I read with considerable interest your PPP-Trade storyof 7th, April about the speech made by Mr.V.Sridhar, the newly promoted Member CBEC in charge of Central Excise. There is refreshing candour and transparency in his outlook andcommunication. A spell in the TRU of CBEC has made manymembers of our serviceswollen headed and invincible! No doubt,before theintroduction of computers in the MoF , the work in the TRU was extremely tiresome, particularly three months before the budget and three months after thebudget. Only those who have the capacity to slogand spend many midnight hours were picked upfor the TRU posting. Most of them had put in tremendous amount of work during those days when one had to write notes on long hand, as even stenographers were not trusted!
But the TRU badge gave many officersEGO far beyondtheir capacityor comprehension.The secrecy related to budget preparation work covered up their monumental lapses. Sridhar is the first incumbentfromCBEC who openly admitted thatthe workdone in the TRU was not free from errors. Thelasting solution seems to be greater transparency through PPP-Trade-Taxpayer partnership. The practice of putting updraft of all sensitive notifications for public comments, at least a week ahead of its publication would do tremendous good for improving the quality of tax administration. Officers posted in the TRU should havean open mind and the humility to admit mistakes andpromptly correct those mistakes when pointed out in different discussion fora and ourdynamic audio-visual media.
The Govt. has already announced the introduction of GST w.e.f . 1st April, 2010.Yet there is neither sign of the draft legislation nor the Manual of instructions.Even more advanced countries dare not introduce such sweeping changes in their tax legislation, unless such measures are subjected to threadbare analysis and discussions at least two years ahead of its introduction. The secret of voluntary compliance of atax measureis its clearcomprehension and acceptance by the tax payers. TIOL is providing aspectacular service in improving thetaste ofmany incongruousfiscal recipes dished outby TRU regularly.You can be really proud of the way you have turned round TIOL into a dynamic fiscal portal /platform disseminating news, knowledge, information and analysis. MoF should compliment you for the yeoman service rendered by your Channel in the fiscal administration.
M.G.Venugopalan , Member (CBEC-Retd).