Amid the ongoing tussle between IRS Association and the Department of Revenue, members of the officers body met finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday urging him to look into issues of overburdening of officers and conveyed “deep sense of deprivation and injustice amongst IRS officers”. The Association members, however, urged their Mumbai unit to suspend its agitation against the Department of Revenue. The Mumbai unit on July 22 had passed a resolution against the Department of Revenue, which is headed by revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia. In the resolution passed by them, the officers had spoken against the department’s interference in operational matters of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and had charged the Revenue Department of undermining the autonomy of the CBDT. In their meeting with the finance minister, the officers conveyed issue of cadre mismanagement, which has resulted in delay in promotions at various supervisory levels despite large number of vacancies and the disparity in empanelment vis-a-vis other services, particularly at the level of joint secretary, a release by the Association said. “The FM may ensure that the CBDT, whose powers and functions emanate from Central Board of Revenue Act, 1963 & Income Tax Act, 1961, be allowed to administer Direct Tax policies of the Government, strictly as per the said Acts,” the release said. The General Secretary of the IRS Association and senior IRS officer Jayant Misra said that CBDT is a statutory body like Railway Board and it should be given due importance and respect. The statement comes after the finance ministry issued a stern warning on Thursday to the Mumbai unit for passing their resolution. Terming it as an act of “insubordination”, the ministry had said that officers indulging in acts of indiscipline would be subject to Conduct Rules. Watch Video: What's making news "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," the ministry had said. A finance ministry official had said that the case in which action was taken against the assessing officer relates to jacking up of the advance tax collections from State Bank of India in previous financial year. A demand of Rs 10,000 crore was raised against SBI on March 30, 2016 with the assessing officer asking the bank to pay the amount on the same day, the official said. The bank paid the advance tax and requested for rectification on the same day as the actual advance tax paid was Rs 4,900 crore. The assessing officer took only Rs 1,200 crore as advance tax and charged interest of Rs 5,800 crore on short payment of advance tax. The assessing officer then passed a rectification order on March 31, 2016 and refunded Rs 9,500 crore to the bank after April 1, 2016. The Revenue Department had taken serious view of it and asked CBDT to initiate action against the officers involved as it was a clear case of jacking up of tax collections by the Income Tax Department officials for the year.
