Tuesday, August 27, 2019

22 tax officials sacked for ‘graft’

Nine of them were posted as sector officers at a tobacco company in Indore

27/08/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,NEW DELHI



The Union government on Monday announced that the President had ordered the compulsory retirement of 22 more tax officials on charges of corruption and other offences.

In June, the President ordered the compulsory retirement of 27 tax officials.

“The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) has compulsorily retired yet another 22 senior officers of the rank of Superintendent/AO under Fundamental Rule 56 (J) in the public interest, due to corruption and other charges and CBI traps,” a Finance Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a few recent speeches and interviews, highlighted that “some black sheep” in the tax administration had misused their powers and harassed taxpayers, either by targeting the honest assessees or by taking excessive action for minor or procedural violations. Action was being taken against them, he said.

Notably, nine out of the 22 officers compulsorily retired had been posted at different times as sector officers in a single company — Ellora Tobacco Company in Indore. These officers “played the role of facilitating the excess unrecorded clandestine production and clearances of cigarettes”, the Ministry official said. The Director-General of the Central Excise Intelligence had detected clandestine production and clearances and investigated the case. It issued two show-cause notices demanding a duty of ₹1,03,74,648 and another demanding ₹28,39,43,195 from the tobacco firm.

The other officers out of the 22 were implicated in cases of bribery, extortion, smuggling and concealment of evidence.

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