We have enough staff to process Income Tax Returns - CBDT
One reason why many tax payers do not declare their correct income is their firm belief that the Income Tax Department does not have enough staff to scrutinise their returns. Recently some newspapers have reported that the Income Tax Department is facing an acute shortage of officers and so processing of returns and issue of refund are going to be delayed.
The CBDT clarifies that these rumours are not correct. Over 7000 new posts have been sanctioned and the recruitment process will be completed by 2010.
This is a very important factor to be noticed, about which the CBEC Chairman had also touched upon in our Vizag seminar. It takes four years to fill up the posts – the new ones, but what about promotions within the Department? It is nearly two years since there was a promotion to the cadre of Group A in CBEC. And it's more than a year in CBDT. Additional Commissioners in both the Boards are waiting eagerly for more than a year to become Commissioners.
What promotions? Even by July, they have not finalised the annual transfers!
The CBDT press release says, “ Tremendous growth in direct tax collections in the last four years is testimony to improved tax administration and tax compliance levels in the country.”
Are the taxes collected “because of” or “in spite of” our tax officers?