A Letter To PM Modi From Tax Officials

Demonetisation has caused a quite of change in the market scenario of country. It has surely cooled down the inflation rate to approximately 14-month lesser in November after PM Modi’s surprise withdrawal of high-demonetisation bank notes caused acute cash storage and severely hurt consumption.
Modi’s asseveration on November 8 that there is withdrawal of 500 and 1,000 rupee bank notes in an attempt to curb corruption and tax evasion made it much harder for consumers to make purchases in the predominantly cash-based economy.
IT department facing huge volume of black money cases post-demonetisation, two of the associates have written a letter to PM Modi asking to provide them with propoer man power and infrastructure  facilities to scrutinize instances of tax evansion running into “ several crores” this can also in smooth functioning to deliver best results.
The two associations – Income Tax Employees Federation (ITEF) and the Income Tax Gazetted Officers’Association (ITGOA) – renders roughly 97 per cent of the workforce of the Income Tax department.
They further added saying, “they are feeling demotivated due to shortage of manpower in lower cadres and huge inactiveness in officers cadre right at this moment.”
It is obvious that, from post-demonetisation developments that various other stringent measures will also be needed to fight the menace of black money and corruption and in such measures, where the Income Tax department will be playing a pivotal role.
The sum of such money would be calibrated in some crores.
“…In order to achieve the above objectives, the department must have adequate manpower, especially at key positions, be provided with proper infrastructure facilities so that the workforce stays motivated, committed and highly spirited,” the memorandum said.
The officers informed that they have written a communication to the Prime Minister on November 17 which highlights several elements to fruitfully fight against the task to seize the black money.
They said the lower rungs of the department are facing “almost 30-35 per cent of vacancies at cutting-edge positions” like Additional Commissioner of I-T and Deputy Commissioner of I-T, their junior ranks and others.
It has also flagged the issue of “severe space problems” being faced by Assessing Officers (AOs) as they have to take hearings in cases on a rotational basis. The associations also said in this time of e-governance, the “internet and intranet connectivity of the department stands very poor, thus hindering the e-governance as well as internet-based enquiries/assessments as well as knowledge sharing”.
It also, has been communicated, that the promotions of the officials is being hampered and is getting delayed creating huge vacancy in different departments.
Apart from these two employee associations, the department has a third organisation which constitutes the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers, posted to man top positions in the department.

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