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| An analysis: Sayta Prasanth |
1) Immediately upgrade the CBDT to the status of a department in the government of India. Rename it as the “Department of Direct Taxes”. Make its chairman and members ex-officio secretary to the Government of India (unlike the present status of ex-officio special secretary). Mind it, this was recommended by the Wanchoo Committee (1971) and the Raja Chelliah Committee (1991). The same structure should be replicated for the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) too. After all, IFS officers are headed by foreign secretary who invariably is an IFS officer, and Indian Postal Service (IPoS) is headed by the secretary (posts) who is again from the IPoS. Only a railway officer can become Railway Board chairman. So, where is the logic that highly specialist IRS should function under a generalist IAS officer?
2) Create a number of secretary level posts for top IRS officers. Currently, only chairmen and members of CBDT get salaries of a secretary of Government of India, but they are ranked at the level of special secretaries. Compare these with other cadres. The IAS with cadre strength of around 4,377 officers has about 170 posts at the level of secretary to the Government of India. The IFS with 618 officers has 26 secretary-level posts. And the IPS with cadre strength of 3,475 officers has its officers occupying around 50 posts in the apex scale. The Income-Tax Department in its Cadre Restructuring Committee (CRC) report (2009) proposed the creation of 42 posts in the apex scale. Even the Sixth Central Pay Commission noticed the anomalies. In its Para - 3.3.35 of the report, it said: “Despite the large cadre strength, the service does not have a single Secretary level post encadred in the service. This is clearly anomalous especially because this service is performing the important function of revenue collection. The Commission is aware that as a general policy, no recommendation regarding restructuring of individual cadres is being made. However, considering the fact that other group ‘A’ services with less than 1/10th the strength of Indian Revenue Service have more Secretary level posts, Government will have to seriously examine the issue and resolve the legitimate aspirations of the service.”
3) Increase the staff strength of the Indian Revenue Service. After all, the number of taxpayers has gone up from 2.5 crore in the year 2000 to around 3.5 crore by 2012. But the sanctioned strength of the I-T department remained at 57,793 since 2001. Create a separate Recruitment Board for the purpose of recruitment at the levels of Inspector and Tax Assistant on the lines of the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB) etc.
4) Do a massive up-gradation of the department’s infrastructure if the government wants to get better results. Look at the current gigantic task of the taxmen. Each Assessing Officer is supposed to scrutinize about 20,000 tax cases of individuals or oversee the accounts of not less than 1,000 companies per year. But an assessing officer is not provided with any vehicle or security to conduct surveys and recoveries. As they are vulnerable to threats, Assessing Officers tend to function mostly from their offices. Are one or two surveys carried out by each Assessing Officer in a year good enough?
5) The friction between the Direct Recruits (DRs) and Promotees (PRs) in the Income Tax Department needs to be done away with. It should not be a case of ‘we against us’. The post of the ‘Income Tax Officer (ITO)’ should be re-designated as ‘Senior Inspector’ and made subordinate to an Assistant Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner. This mere change in nomenclature will make sense as all the officers of the Income Tax Department from an Inspector to a Chief Commissioner are generally referred to as ‘Income Tax Officers’ by the general public. After all, the faulty organizational set-up of the I-T department has given rise to unionism among the subordinate employees who often resort to frequent strikes. The IRS Recruitment Rules need to be immediately amended to rectify all the flaws in the organizational setup of the Income Tax Department.
BoI subscribes to these views, as a robust revenue department is a must for the good health of the nation. In Kosha Moola Dandah theory of Chanakya of Arthashastra fame, the underlying message was loud and clear: The treasury and its collections are the sources of a government’s might.
Valid points. But nothing much is going to change.
ReplyDeleteWhere there is a will there is a way. Hope the political leadership shows some foresight and some spine.
DeleteAn idea whose time has come cannot be suppressed or prevented. The recent cadre restructuring of the Income Tax Department is a proof of that. The Committee of Secretaries comprising of all IAS officers tried its best to prevent creation of Apex and HAG+ scales for IRS officers. But the Group of Ministers (GOM) headed by the Defence Minister Mr. A. K. Antony has completely overridden the recommendations of COS. Where there is a will there is a way. The IAS cannot take the country for ransom for long. It's time for all the other services under the GOI to fight for their rights and honour. The future of the country is also at stake. The hegemony of the IAS should come to an end and god willing it will happen sooner than later.
DeleteVery very valid and reasonable on the part of IRS officer to articulate his viewpoint as how to improve the efficiency of the Department. Civil Services Survey released by Previous Cabinet Secretary had underscored the point very well that contrary to impression in outside world, service conditions are skewed against the IRS. There runs a deep rooted sense of grievance in entire service.
ReplyDeleteIrony is that Income Tax is an irritant to rich and powerful.The fear of taxman knocking at their doors petrifies all wrong-doors who happen to be powerful as well. That engenders a conspiracy of ignoring the Department, lack of enthusiasm to reform the Departmental structure. Equally import and true factor is that like almost all other organs of our society and fellow civil services, IRS too has majority which can not hold it's head high and look into eyes of masters. These all factors add to an environment where an important institution for mobilising resources for nation building remains ignored, left to rot and at the mercy of very those people whom it should keep tab on.
there is a need for change for effective tax administration
ReplyDeleteChange needed at the top level only. Nothing has been done to the department to improve its functioning, including getting the requisite manpower whenever required, on a timely basis. Efforts are aimed only at furthering the career of IRS
Deleteignoring the ground reality.Promotions of promottee officers for the past three decades have always been delayed, which has been traditionally hurting the revenue collection. As before an IRS should start from Income Tax Officer cadre, only then the basics of the department's functioning would be understood. All the manpower management crisis is self made by IRS due to the blind greed to further their career at the cost of the department. Mere change of designation only shows hatred to one section of vital arm of the department. It is high time perfect team spirit is exhibited, which is the basic requisite of any administrator. Whether IRS or non-IRS all are Indians working for the Country. One should believe in professionalism and not in persecution of a class of persons.
Valid observation on the article.
Deletethe book should be titled upgradation of irs and not smart taxation...smarter taxation means deduction at source...faster refunds...simpler tax exemption...lesser cost of filing returns..
ReplyDeletesmarter taxation by deduction at source, faster refunds, simpler tax exemption and lesser cost of filing returns can only be achieved if the Income Tax Department is restructured as Satya Prasanth says. More staff is required and more autonomy is required for the Department. An IAS officer cannot head the tax collecting departments. This is the root cause of all ills in the Income Tax Department. The Department is doing commendable job and it should be encouraged further.
ReplyDeletecan you please mention the blog address so that everybody can go through the whole article.
ReplyDeletesatyaprasanth.blogspot.in
DeleteHe forgets that when he filled the UPSC form he too put IAS as his first choice. This is just sour grapes
ReplyDeleteputting IAS as first choice and finally could not get through, does not mean that no efforts should be taken to improve the facility to provide better pro-citizen services. Now the time has changed and people must come out from colonial mentality. In days to come people will be more demanding and that force will surely change the situation. Already peoples sentiments has been sparked and wait to lit the full fire..........
DeleteWhen would you come out of this feudalistic mentality ? No one can stop an idea whoz time has come.IRS is collector of revenue whereas others are spender of revenue.
Deleteand then there will be a counter article to upgrade the "Revenue Department" .. increase "Land Revenue rates" "tax agricultural income" " ...another one of those most neglected departments..Silly me! I used to think that Collector of Revenue is the District Collector! sigh !
DeleteI passed the IAS and IFS and yet I did not join the civil services. I went abroad to a very prestigious university, did extraordinarily well and continuing, have got worldwide recognition in my area of specialization and am a frequent consultant to some of the most advanced countries at the highest levels in government. So those who are myopic in their mindset and constricted in their views, and are of the belief that IAS is GOD's gift to India's mankind, is spewing utter nonsense. A brief note about my family. Our family has connections to the old ICS service and members of our family have stood All India First in IFS, IAS, IRS and RBI exams. Indira Gandhi had many non-IAS officers as her close aides and advisers. Why? Because of loyalty, sharp intellect, discipline, and smooth governance. People disagreed with many of IG's policies, but that did not change the fact that IG had many non-IAS officers as her close aides and advisers. So to smear those who are not IAS officers, as losers and that ONLY IAS officers can govern and the rest are incapable and do not have the capability is absolutely false, and predicated based on condescension and moral superiority. The Tata family ran Air-India smoothly for decades, profitably, and Air-India earned a good reputation. What happened once Air-India was nationalized? Air-India's good name got severely bruised (tarnished), quality service was left by the wayside, to be replaced with sub-standard service, and last but not the least malfeasance became the way of governance. Who were the CMDs of Air-India? Not the Tatas, nor other Indian industry titans and experts in operating airlines, but the great IAS babus. Look what 65 years of IAS babudom has done for India? Two thirds (900 million) of Indians live in poverty, poor governance seems to be the norm, coupled with nepotism and corruption both in public and private sectors. Like a great soul once told many of us during our younger days that we Indians rest on our past glory. Yes I am proud of my heritage and glory, but that dies not automatically translate that the future is fantastic too. Have a good day.
DeleteIn one hand the blog-writer does not want to work under an IAS officer, in other hand he wants to make an ITO subordinate to AC/DCs (both are termed as Assessing Officer, having equal/ similar jurisdictional power, as per Income Tax Act, 1961).... Extreme example of double-standard.
ReplyDeleteAgree with, "Anonymous: February 18, 2013 at 8:44 PM
He forgets that when he filled the UPSC form he too put IAS as his first choice. This is just sour grapes." and "Anonymous: February 18, 2013 at 3:43 PM
the book should be titled upgradation of irs and not smart taxation...smarter taxation means deduction at source...faster refunds...simpler tax exemption...lesser cost of filing returns."
The writer says that ITO should be under ACIT/DCIT. He did not recommend that a person from another service should be under an IRS officer. An ITO is infact subordinate to an ACIT or DCIT by his rank and scale. Because of a faulty evolution we have the current wrong structure. Yes bothbare assessing officers. So what. A Collector, Joint Collector and succollector are all revenue authorities and executive magistrates. Then why keep an subcollector or joint collector under a collector. An Police Inspector and DSP and SP are all investigative officers. Then why an Inspector and DSP are under an SP. So dont bring such meaningless arguments here. There should be a hierarchy in any organisation. Otherwise there will be chaos.
DeleteThen he could have also suggested that a Tax assistant should be subordinate to a senior Tax Assistant, and a Senior Tax Assistant subordinate to an Inspector of Income Tax and so on. From his writings it is evident that he cannot accept IAS officers to be superior to him but at the same time he wants to claim himself a superior human being than the promotee officers. This mentality of his and other IRS officers is the main cause of all the nuisances surrounding this department.
Deletejust because the secretary revenue is an ias, entire irs is not able to go for smarter taxation..more deductions at source ...faster refunds..simpler tax exemption and lesser cost of filing returns...dear friend your problem are chartered accountants who do not allow the way you want it to be and not one officer...with around 4 crore Indians filing returns.simple rate of 1000rupees it is 4000cr business...forget the skillful gains they make in avoidance/evasion business..in todays times Fin Minister is accessible to senior irs officer and not only to secy
ReplyDeleteAlmost everybody keeps IAS as first option while filing the UPSC form. That doesn't mean that IAS officers should head every department like finance, revenue, animal husbandry, environment, defence, human resources, sports, commerce, science & technology, audit, etc. This is meaningless. No wonder the country is suffering like this. This is the age of specialisation. I think the IAS should be abolished immediately and specialists are given a bigger role. We are still following the erstwhile British system even now. The British have already reformed their civil services. Its high time we also reform ours.
ReplyDeleteRole of IAS is more like a collaborator,since he acts as 'government' at district level,he is better equiped with all the nuances.
DeleteA taxman din't know much about how to co-ordinate with different agencies or how a taxation proposal will be received in PMO or budget making.
After all u want a better administrator rather then a specialist worker at the top.Taxation comes under finance,so IRS have two IAS bosses,Revenue secry & finance secry.
After any department whether foreign,railways or post,all are monitored at the end by cabinet secretary, senior most IAS officer who presides any cabinet decision of administrative importance.
Why should an IAS officer be a collaborator? We already have a generalist politician acting as a collaborator. Why can't officers from other services be collaborators? Are IAS officers born administrators and leaders? Did god create them as special administrators? Every department should be headed by officers from the relevant service. If somebody says IAS officers acquire administrative capabilities because of their nature of work over a period of time, I will say give the same opportunity to officers from other services atleast in their own departments and then they will show you. IAS and CSS are like weeds in our administrative set up. A weed is something out of place. A single mango tree in a plantation of oranges is technically a weed because it is out of place. Like wise a single IAS officer in a the Income Tax Department is a weed. Like a mango tree he/she may be exceptionally good individually but will be a big failure and a burden in other areas. The IAS should have a specifically demarcated jurisdiction of their own like the revenue dept. in a state government.
DeleteThe person, who commented that IAS would have been the first choice while filling up the UPSC form, should realise that he (IAS) too would have filled IRS as 2nd or 3rd choice out of 25 services. Since IRS comes as 2nd or 3rd choice, an IRS Officer cannot aim for claiming supremacy over the rest of the 20 odd services.
ReplyDeleteIRS is never the 2nd or 3rd choice. These places are reserved for IFS and IPS.
DeleteAn IAS Aspirant
Rubbish. British still have generalists running every department, every corporate CEO is a generalist not a specialist. Don't talk utter crap without verifying facts
ReplyDeletethey are not contributing in real sense.If that is so then why don't IAS also do the job of Professionals.It is a time of specialization.
DeleteMr.So & So who commented it as rubbish argument about the issue of generalists vs specialists. Let's forget about this issue. I too find this issue of genrealists vs specialists as more of theoretical than practical. But the real issue is whether IAS alone are the meritorious throughout their career. There are very many outstanding officers in other services including IRS. Why are the other services not represented in deputations and generalist posts at least in proportion to their cadre strengths?
ReplyDeleteWhole world discussed about Vodafone issue. World's best brains had to hold a number of discussions and lobbyings to come out of the tax issue raised by an IRS Officer. The names of outstanding IRS Officers responsible for tax levy and collection never see the light of the day because the corporate funded media always support the taxpayers but not TAX COLLECTORS. Whereas a small exercise of arranging the chairs in a particular fashion and creating visitors' rooms etc by an IAS Officer in Gujarat created great news all over the nation and media wrote volumes and many authors are still writing articles in many administrative journals as if this were a great experiment. If this is read out in US or well developed countries they laugh at this as rubbish. It is their job to carry out those functions. Whereas in tax matters, judicial matters and other functionally specialised jobs application of mind is greatly required.
I would urge the members of IRS and IAS to stop claiming the primacy. Every Service is important, otherwise Government would have abolished such unimportant service. With regard to the ailments within the tax department, no IAS is responsible but only the IRS Officers are. It is natural that water flows downstream. It was we the IRS created the downstreams in tax department so that even the Group C recruited officials raise to the level of joint secretary (commissioner of i-t) and still carry out the strikes against which no action has ever been taken by an IRS officer. Even it's a shame on both IRS (Chairman, CBDT) and IAS (Revenue Secretary) who have never initiated any action against frequent and rampant strikes resorted to by the promotee IRS and lower officials of the tax department.
ReplyDeleteToday and tomorrow, all the Group C officials of Tax dept are striking work. Why are the IAS and IRS not taking any action against the erring officials. Tax collection is a sovereign function like police, defence, foreign affairs etc., Whatever we debate, ultimately IAS and IRS are from the same clan of Civil Services. In fact the bold IAS officers (generally all IAS are bold) should support the weak IRS officers (99.99% of IRS are weak persons) in instilling discipline in tax department. In the final analysis, I conclude that we should not blame outsiders for internal problems. As long as we are weak internally, the external forces always attempt to take over us...this is the age old practice.
Why only British. Many developed countries still have generalists heading some departments and corporate houses. But these people are selected based on specific skill sets and definitely no country has a service like IAS who heads every department irrespective of their qualifications or skill sets. The country is going to dogs because of this system. Keep a hand on your heart and think calmly. You will know what is right. The country is for our children and grandchildren. Don't be so short sighted man. Your comment shows u r an IAS officer. Please reform the system if you can rather than perpetuating the status quo mindset. We respect you for your talent and achievement but the country and its people are expecting more from you.
ReplyDeleteWell said. Every service should have a specific jurisdiction for itself. If a specific jurisdiction cannot be carved out then the service itself should be abolished as it will only harm the country and its governance. Why can't a specialist with administrative training and experience head his department rather a specialist without any knowledge of the department and only with a skill in manipulation. The basic reason for all the scams and ills in administration in our country is this wrong governance setup.
ReplyDeleteIRS officers should realize that they are also generalist and not specialist. Most of the IRS officers would be history or psychology students with no exposure to book keeping, accountancy, taxation etc. or even elementary mathematics at the time of their entry into service. With that kind of argument, only CAs, Economists and Finance MBAs' should man IRS. My dear friend,you should appreciate that at the higher levels and the top levels, it is more of the generalistic and managerial capability which is required rather than the subject matter specialization. If you don't accept this argument, your job is in as much danger as mine..
ReplyDeleteWell this is a long pending demand and in the name of democracy everyone can shout on the treet and demand anything. Country can't run like this.The logic of segrgating field jobs and policy making at the highest level would stand diluted if we have a system where every specialised service starts getting into policy making.For a better coordination and smooth functioning we have one service facilitating at the highest level. Can anyone imagine how things will move and at what pace if we have say IFoS as Forest Secretary,IPS as Home Secretary and then IRS as Revenue etc...Next even one fine day people would start asking for Cabinet Sec from their own service.This would litteraly put our country in total chaos. As per Foreign Affairs its from Allocation of Business Rules and there is parity which has been maintained right from its inception between IAS and IFS and hence they have thier own secretary.
ReplyDeleteThere is enough space and canvass for all service to work in their own domain and serve the country and true almost everyone had put IAS/IFS as first prefernece and govt had never stopped anyone from becoming IAS.We should live in a pragmatic world,and try to do best in the same. Don't see any logic or rationale to give top policy making post to any service.
were you born as an IAS officer? No you became one after getting selected and training for that. So every other officer of civil service can administer make policies for this country if they are given opportunities and exposure to work in the areas/spaces in which IAS cadre is given. All IAS officwers know that if IRS become powerful who becomes weak, so they are successfully resisting any move which would make IRS more powerful and Lucrative than IAS. I request each IAS officer to authentically look at their authenticity in opposing what the writer has proposed.Do you have the courage to do so?
DeleteIndia needs one solution for all its ills that is to appoint Sec DoPT and Cabinet Sec through a process of lateral selection. IAS/IRS should not be allowed to occupy these posts to avoid lobbying and to ensure fair play.
ReplyDeleteWonderful points raised by the young officer, which need introspection. A strong nation needs to give more respect to its Revenue Service, and make it more inclusive in various arenas of administration. Major overhaul required in the Dept. to make it more efficient. Start by making an IRS, revenue secretary and finance secretary of India.
ReplyDeleteThe problem of SELF CENTERED , POWER HUNGRY , NON REVENUE INTERESTED INDIAN REVENUE SERVICES MEMBER with such ONLY POST , POWER centered thinking officers treating them self as speacilists and IAS as Genaralist needs lateral SHORT SERVICE Entry of 50% post at Commissioner's Level by minimum Twenty year experience CA's , MBA's , ICWA's in Pvt Service in Multinational Companies .
ReplyDeleteThis will bring infusion of Fresh Blood & New Approach of Administration of Tax Department and will Get realisation the so called speacalised IRS know , how UNPROFESSIONAL AND UNspeacialised they actually are ???
Yes exactly. Lateral entry should be there in every department. That will infuse young blood. And the IAS who talked about this in an earlier post should realise that among all civil services only IAS is the least professional and most corrupt. Just list all the scams unearthed in India. Almost all of them had IAS as main culprits. Lateral entry should be there in all services and IAS should be abolished completely. It has outlived its utility. Yes candidates from all backgrounds join IRS but they are specially trained for 2 years in taxation, finance and accounts and thereafter practice their specialization continuously in the field all through their career. So they are experts in their field. What specialization does IAS have. They are taught how to manage people, press and politicians during their training. They practice the same thing in field also. They know how to mismanage people, mismanage budgets, manage politicians for their postings, cheat the country and rob its existence. Is this management? And the IAS heads every department. No wonder the number of tigers is dwindling, there are coal, 2G, chopper scams, infinite quid-pro-quo deals, fodder scams, paper scams, vehicle scams and what not. Come on guys grow up and stand for the truth atleast now. You cannot bleed the country infinitely. You children also have to survive.
ReplyDeleteYes I agree. IAS and Central Secretariat Service should be abolished and the civil services should be redesigned keeping in mind the future of the country. Complete restructuring is necessary. We already have specialist politicians heading every Ministry and Department. There is no need for another specialist in the form of IAS heading the departments. IRTS/IRAS/IRPS/IRES should head the Railways, IPos should head the postal department, IFoS should head the Environment & Forest Dept, IIS should head the Information & Broadcasting Dept, IFS should head the MEA, IPS should head the Home Dept, IAAS/ICAS/IDAS/IPTAFS/IRS should be the CAG, ITS should head the Commerce Dept, IRS should head the Revenue Dept, ICAS should head the Expenditure Dept, IES should head the Economic Affairs Dept, ISS should head the Statistics & Implementation Dept, Scientists should head the Science & Technology Dept, Doctors should head the Health & Family Welfare Dept or Indian Health Service should be created, and the Cabinet Secretary should be chosen from among all the civil services. IAS should be abolished. CSS should be abolished. All departments should be manned by employees from that dept.
ReplyDeleteWell said dear IAS officer. Lateral entry into IRS was recommended by you. Then there should be lateral entry at the level of Collector, Secretary, Principal Secretary and Chief Secretary to infuse dynamism. Officers from other civil services and from corporates should be given a chance for lateral entry in IAS at these levels. Do you accept this proposal? If not keep your selfish thoughts to youself. It would do a whole lot of good to the country if IAS is abolished at once.
DeleteTrue. At the higher levels and the top levels, it is more of the generalistic and managerial capability which is required rather than the subject matter specialization. So you mean to say that all IAS officers have very good managerial capabilities and all other civil servants are duds when it comes to administration. Sorry boss. No takers for this meaningless argument. Infact a specialist with good managerial capabilities is far more capable to head a department than a generalist with good managerial capabilities. What is the situation if a useless IAS officer with poor managerial capabilities head a specialised department. He will wreck havoc. Going by the way our country has grown in the last 60 years it is very clear that most of the IAS officers are real duds in the garb of efficient administrators. IAS officers have injured and bled the country more than the British. 60 years since independence - what have the so called administrators with self proclaimed excellent managerial capabilities do. Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, scams - these are the achievements of the great Indian IAS officers. Please do not put forward meaningless arguments for your self-aggrandizement at the cost of the country's future.
DeleteIrs officers are not given the powers and prestige like the revenue officials in the developed countries.
ReplyDeleteIndian Govt doesn't works on the basis of logic and optimisation. It work on the basis of trend and power lobby.
ReplyDeleteWell the debate is unending but in the larger interest of the nation the things move or works. First of all the governance in this country is not that skewed as it has been pointed by some of us. IRS people work independently at the field .Its not that an AC or DC or even commissioner of IT is reporting to an IAS. The government runs as per constitution and IT is in Central subject. If IAS were so power hungry they cud have brought it in concurrent list and hence reporting would have been to collectors (IAS) as the other departments do. So please also appreciate the magnanimity of the service.
ReplyDeleteAlso in the larger interest of the nation what can be done is merging the two parallel services which are constitutionally at par and in parity i.e. IAS and IFS.
By this we can address two important issues .Firstly can have a common pool of elite services which can be utilized both domestically as well internationally .
By this the crunch in stranght of IAS can be addressed to some extent. Plus we can get a larger pool of officers to be posted in our missions who are good in diplomacy.
For this a committe of secretaries consisting of IAS and IFS can be formed to take interviews and send the best person abroad.
I see a wide opportunity gap and potantial to be tapped for India.
If this is done we can have our ex diplomats serving in India and brining the best practices here.
There is proper space for every other service be it IPS be it IRS to perform to achieve common objective of nation building and progress. But firddt we need to focus on these two services i.e. IFS and IAS to start with.
what do the IRS people have done. Firt they should work to bring some good name. I see most of them indulged in hanky panky dealing and leading cosy life out of black money.
ReplyDeletePlus there is no political pressure or public check on these IRS officers. It is good that IAs is heading as revenue secretary else policy making will completely go for a toss.
The solution lies in having an Integrated Civil Service in which all public servants after their recruitment should branch out to gain specialized knowledge and acquire skill sets in different areas of governance/ administration. After say about 8 to 10 years of service the better lot of officers from all services should be picked up and imparted further necessary training to equip them to handle higher level of responsibilities at the level of policy making particularly in central govt. The unwritten and unethical reservation of any particular service with a view to monopolize all top level posts should be done away with in the best interests of the nation. Merit and competence is neither the preserve of any particular service nor does ones rank in UPSC is the only measure of merit.
ReplyDeleteFor a service that whole heartedly believes that their merit and supremacy is beyond establishes the IAS do go to extensive lengths to state it again and again. A hidden insecurity that manifests from their own recognition of their incompetence and success only due to groupism and manning the gates of all important posts?
ReplyDeleteNew recruits entering the Indian Revenue Service actually carry out the job of assessment only for a brief period of just 8 or 9 years at the beginning of their service. After that they get their promotion as Joint Commissioners-Addl commissioners-Commissioners etc and never in their life time subsequent to the first 8 years of their service they pass assessment orders.
ReplyDeleteAll the assessments are done only by the first level officers (ie Assistant/Deputy Commissioners of Income Tax and Income Tax Officers). If the Department needs to be strengthened, then quality people should be recruited at this level. In my opinion, for getting recruited in the Revenue Department, one compulsorily needs to have a degree from the accounting line.
This is not happening at present and majority of the officers of the Department, both promotee and direct recruit officers do not have any knowledge of accounts before entering into the service and only by trial and error they learn the nuances of accounting. This being the case there is not much difference between an IAS or an IRS officer.
Leaving this argument aside, practically speaking, majority of the work in the IT Department at the assessment level are handled by promotee officers at present. This they are able to carry out successfully with the help of their experience. Whereas the direct recruit IRS officers actually struggle to cope up with the work pressure during the first few years of their service into the Department. Invariably they are given lighter seats. Subsequently also, only those who shows the right attitude towards assessment are posted in tougher charges like Central circles etc. As a result all the tougher seats are eventually handled only by promotee officers, that is officers who got promoted from the cadre of ITO.
The author's suggestion that the post of ITO's to be renamed as senior inspectors and be brought under the cadre of ACIT does not make any sense as most of these newly recruited ACIT's does not have any experience in Tax matters and virtually struggles to establish their foot hold in the Department, whereas the ITO's and the Promotee ACIT's are far more experienced in tax matters and very much self assured in what they are doing.
great logic! Only the Station House Officer (SI/Inspector of Police) has arrest powers and inquiry duties in Police Department. If one has to go by your logic, since all tougher jobs of inquires are done by the SI/Inspector, the higher posts in Police Department should be given to the SI-recruits. Police are doing very specialised jobs such as forensic investigations and cyber crimes. As per your logic, Police investigations should be manned by Computer experts and forensic scientists.
DeleteUtter non-sense...
The reality is that the tougher posts involving sensitive cases are always handled by the DRs. The attributes required of an officer handling sensitive cases are that he must himself be clean, have officer like attitude (not staff like attitude), have grit and energy, have great mental capability, have analytical power, have exposure to various subjects which all the Civil Servants acquire through the Civil Services Examination and subsequent training in the respective national academies, etc. The PRs cannot be expected to have all such attributes and hence are not given sensitive charges. But one thing is true that the PRs make all illegal attempts and also succeed in grabbing the non-sensitive but high revenue potential charges. It is openly challenged here that we shall refer the files handled by the DRs and the PRs to CVC and CBI regarding the value addition made by the DRs and PRs in collection of additional taxes and the omissions made by both of them. Are you ready?
DeleteThis is a wrong presumption that tougher seats in the IT department are being handled by the ITO or promotee ACITs. Quality of work done by direct recruit IRS Officer is far better then ITO or promotee ACITs.
ReplyDeleteThe comment written by a promotee IRS officer above is clear attempt to divert the topic discussed by the author of the article. Actually the toughest charges in Income Tax Department are generally headed by direct recruit IRS officers only. Some promotee officer also are given important posts but this is not because of their experience or talent but just because they manoeuver and use their links through back door or pay bribes and get there. All important posts in the field like investigation and corporate assessments are generally given to direct recruits because of their higher calibre, talent, honesty, and integrity. Any taxpayer or Chartered Accountant who has visited the Income Tax Department will vouch for it. Actually the rot in the Income Tax Department is because the promotee officers get promoted too quickly to IRS cadre by using so many unfair means and start earning money illegally. Income Tax Department is among the very few central Govt. departments where the recruitment to IRS has 50% from promotees. In all other services like IAS and IPS the proportion of promotees is only 33%. This is one of the biggest flaws in the Income Tax Department. The more the direct recruits the better. Common people know that well. Ask the anti corruption bureau of CBI. It will tell. Giving ITOs assessment powers is like giving keys to the thief. This is cheating of highest order. This is institutionalized corruption. The earlier the Government realizes this the better. Ask any honest Chartered Accountant he will tell this real story. The quality of work done by direct recruit IRS officers is of the highest order. Ask any honest Chief Commissioner if he prefers direct recruit or promoted IRS officer. Corrupt senior officers will always prefer a promoted officer because he will do what ever is asked for and acts as an agent of illegal collection.
ReplyDeleteDirect recruits irs officers are of "high callibre"..plzzz 50% of them are there because of reservation so this argument wont sustain.regarding there integrity again doubtful.. file a rti with cbi and get the names of officers of the it dept who are under enquiry n u will find the truth..the truth is that most of the newly appointed direct recruits are fully dependent on their staff for getting the work done because there is a hell lot of difference in theory and practical..we have good and bad officers both in direct recruits and promotee officers..calling promotee officers as thief is like pot calling the kettle black..both have equal share of black sheeps and in my view generalisation of any kind is not healthy..
DeleteAll the people commenting here seem to belong to Indian something services bothered about establishing their supermacy but lacking in an Indian or pan- India perspective for which they have been selected. There is lot of dead wood in the top ranks in every service which needs to be removed if the country is to really progress and if all my friends have the same aim i.e. progress of the country and welfare of its citizens. After a certain length of service, there should be proper screening to remove non-performing, corrupt and power hungry members of any service so that every service can maintain the high standards of performance, the objective for which it was created. Sadly, we still live in a feudal culture and bothered about ourselves instead of our country or the people who pay for all the administrative machinery hoping someday it will deliver to their expectations. It is time for introspection whether the services are delivering to the satisfaction of people or lacking in performance.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the above comment made. Actually the intention of my article is this. There should be complete restructuring of civil services in India. The future and interests of the country are paramount. Specialists (whether from civil services or corporate) should be given enough opportunity. There should be lateral entry at the senior positions of every Government Department to infuse fresh blood and ideas. We have highly knowledgeable and experienced professionals in India like Chartered Accountants, Software professionals, quality doctors, engineers, finance professionals, economists, management professionals, experienced bankers, journalists having experience in foreign affairs, etc. Their services should be utilized in administering the country. The dead wood should be chopped off. Compulsory retirement for non-performing Government servants should be introduced. Training at every level of the civil services is to be made mandatory.
DeleteIt is a fact that getting selected into All India Services is a rigorous task. Having got selected, most of the officers are bogged down with enormous load of work resulting into lack of time to update their knowledge. As a friend of several senior officers in all services, it is my personal experience that their level of knowledge on current affairs sometimes abysmal more particularly with reference to International Affairs. Though successful examinees of Civil Service Examination opt for IAS, IPS and IFS; it is a matter of fact that all the successful candidates are almost one and the same as such there need not be any discrimination in cadres and create this needless class feeling among them. It is a matter of observation that most of the IAS officers feel and behave, except very few insignificantly small number of officers who are very modest, that they are the GOVERNMENT more so due to the fact that most of the political class are either ill qualified or even if qualified very badly ill informed compared to the officer serving under them as such they tend to influence their psyche and decision making. Under the circumstances it is always better to declare a single service of Government of India, AIS [ALL INDIA SERVICE] and every officer selected should be treated equal without there being any class feeling. As rightly commented by Shri Satya Prashanth there must be lateral entry from the rank of JOINT-SECRETRY in the proportion of 2/3rd from AIS, and 1/3rd from qualified professionals in respective field with a proper examination and interview conducted by UPSC. The 2/3rd should be gradually brought down to half over a period of 10 to 15 years. Special Services like Foreign Service, Direct Taxes, Indirect Taxes, Railways must be 50:50 professionals and AIS such that cream of the cream from the educated lot of the society could be attracted. Most importantly, the salary structure must be made very attractive enough for people to dissuade from adopting unfair unethical earnings. For example person with 15 years experience must at least get a salary of Rs.2 Lakhs per month [inflation adjusted with respectable increments] and Secretary level Head should at least get Rs.5 Lakhs per month, such that the officer could fend good education for his children in good institutions which have become very expensive. By paying well, the commanding officer need not use his official position in getting some favors from unscrupulous private business people to leverage the contact and get unreasonable gains while conducting business for Government. It has been experience that we Indians tend to keep any thing going without expressing any views openly. For example, when we go to any good hotel, if any item served is not good or to the taste, most of the people accept whatever is given and very very few people raise the issue and demand good quality for what is paid. Unless this raising the voice is adopted without there being any fear, the political class will behave like what they are and will always be under the thumbs of present lot of Officers [IAS]. Present Finance Minister is articulated and very intelligent, it is the right time form IRS officer fraternity to raise the issue with PC and get the parity to bring Chairman and Members on par with Secretary level. After all, Government now needs money to move on their grandiose plans of action. ALL THE BEST AND WISH THE ASPIRATIONS OF OFFICERS WOULD BE FULFILLED.
Deletethe comment made by an apparently promotee official of the I-T department is sham and farce. These Promotees treat the I-T Department as a "family estate" in which each PR and lower official wants a share as a coparcener. The DRs need not rebut this PR's comment because the PRs are not comparable to the DRs in I-T Department. The author's article is probably about the comparables i.e., IRS and IAS who belong to the same rank. The implicit in the article is that the IRS need to learn the management techniques adopted by the IAS to keep at bay the illegitimate demands of the staff unions.
ReplyDeleteSince the PR made a comment that the experience of a PR is matchless, I would like to mention that a PR's 20 year experience is similar to a DR's 1 year experience multiplied by 20 times. That means a DR masters in 1 year what a PR learns in 20 years. Compare the assessment orders or inquiry reports or appraisal reports or any other reports prepared by a young ACIT (DR-IRS) and that prepared by a PR ACIT. This can be inquired independently through CAs who interact with the department quite often. No doubt there might be meritorious minority among the PRs, that is miniscule 1 to 2 % of their strength. But even this 1 to 2 % PRs are no match to the DRs.
The PRs of I-T Department need to understand one thing that they cannot even compare themselves with Promotee IAS, let alone DR-IRS. The PR-IAS pass through 2 constitutional bodies viz., State Public Service Commission (SPSC) & then later UPSC Their selection as Dy.Collectors/SDMs initially through SPSC itself is in limited number and hence the quality, whereas the PR-IRS are initally selected at Group C level in large numbers through SSC and rise up to IRS in much lesser career span through their illegal tactics. Now every reader of this website may realise whether a promotee Asst.Commissioner can have any stand or ground to compare themselves with DR-IRS.
PArt 1
ReplyDeleteThe original author , in the name of not knowing the commentator identification , did not answer to following 10 hard to gulp facts in form of questions on his website . Here is another chance for him and to all IRS officers who are hell bent on usurping all the powers , facilities and resources of Income Tax Department and show as if that is the panacea of all ills Income Tax department’s problem.
1. A field office has one commissioner and three ranges , each headed by a Joint./ Addl. Commissioner rank officer. three Asst/Dypt level officer and 15 ITOs level officers. If commissioner, who is an IRS officer did well , who worked more ......15 ITOs or one or two IRS officers ?? Can a CIT achieve anything without the work of these 15 ITOs?
2. One may have very good knowledge of Maths , Physics, Arts , History or any other subjects. But Income Tax department requires –investigative skill, drafting , argumentative skill and courage to pursue the tax evaders . Income tax law is one of the most complex legislation. So , is it not strange that a direct recruit NADT officers , simply because his rank is Asst. Commissioner , gets exposure to assessment of corporate charge ? One fails to understand how a direct recruit is considered fit and very knowledgeable officer on Income Tax Act – investigating, assessing , drafting and arguing the very complex tax legislation of corporate. In comparision, how come ITOs who have at least 15 years of experience in department before they actually given exposure to corporate assessment is considered worse than ITOs?? In fact , the tax practitioners like them for their ignorance of law ! That is truth , however , bitter it maybe.
3. How many out of IRS officers cadre , India has produced true Direct Experts who are known in India as Direct Tax Experts in last 50 years ? We have certainly two very known name – Sri T.N.Pandey, former Chairman and one former CCIT who regularly writes in Businessline.
4. How can IRS officer , who gets one promotion in 4 years on avg. think of running an organization when they are happy at the plight of his colleague ITOS who are languishing with ONE promotion in 20 years. ?? If they even care for an iota about organization and apply the management principle , an organization cannot prosper if large number of officers and staff who are back bone of the organization remain disgruntled and unhappy???
Part 2
ReplyDelete5. Let us talk about morality of IRS officer. Today there are a lot of operational vehicles hired in department. Barring Commissioners and above, none are entitled to a vehicle. Is it not true that most of the IRS officers are using the hired operational vehicles which for office use as if it is their PERQUISITE .yet almost all of them are DRAWING TRAVELLING AllOWANCE ? What a pity for glorious rank officers.
6. Dear IRS officers, please ask CBDT under RTI , how many letters other than Routine reports ,, meeting with junior officers or knowledge enhancing lectures were done by CCIT level officer in year . ? In this scenario, is it fair to increase the CCIT level post ? Is it not true that the proposal is just to make the promotion at CCIT level faster ??
7. Do IRS officers think any good about tax payers and services to them ? In India , Chartered Accountants and lawyers are servicing the tax payers by visiting income tax offices. Most numbers of files are with ITO rank official. However, anyone visiting the income tax office, will find that ITO are sharing rooms with another officer. Why ?? Most of the available space are USURPED in name of rank. A CCIT who has almost no work , barring the CCIT-CCA and DGIT (Investigation) occupies the space for them selves . So when various cases are fixed , proceeding before ITO looks like Fish Market , where in small room he share two chairs for Professionals, others remain standing on the gate. If IRS community had even an IOTA of care for hapless practitioners and tax payers , they would have allocated more space, facilities according to REQUIREMENT for work and not according to RANK ?
8. Many of the IRS (anonymous commentator) have talked about corruption among promotee officers. Have they done any survey? Why don’t they ask CVC under RTI and then do their maths by drawing a PERCENTAGE of corrupt ? Please do , and if you find that more IRS officers are corrupt, don’t tell me because that is not news to me. Even search on Google will produce the result not palatable to them!
9. IRS officers, usually get chance to do a course abroad. How many changes have been brought by them either in the department or in tax collection? In fact , most of the officers who have gone abroad for course , I am sure have not submitted the REQUIRED . Do an RTI and you will get answer ?
10. Is it not true that 90 % tax in India is collected through TDS or advance tax ? Please state what IRS people do for this collection? The citizen of India through CAs and tax practioner pays advance tax or TDS as per legislation done by IAS people sitting in North Block ?
11. Can IRS officers justify the MID CAREER training to a class of Chief commissioners who are going to retire soon.? Is it not perquisite to spend the time abroad on tax payers money. Do IRS people know that even STUDY tour leave cannot be granted to any govt. servant if total time of retirement at the close of study is less than 3 years.
12. The injustice is institutionalized in the department. How come in the name of austerity , the NADT trainees who were all promottee officers were not let go aborad, but mid career training abroad for even officers who are due for retirement soon , was okay with department.??
Why am I anonymous ? Does that matter ? Or what matters is objective analysis of the situation prevailing in Income Tax Department.
Is it not high time , there should be exam conducted by outside body before each promotion above ACIT onwards , and then only who is better can be determined. Not in the same manner , once you come out of UPSC , you are always better even in a subject which was alien to them .
Whether hired vehicle is not provided to PR officers, whether they are not supplied laptops, whether the facilities are not being enjoyed by them? Then accept that the PRs are getting more benefits. Tell me any service in india, where class iii recruited person as steno or clerk will retire from the SAG grade. This is most probably happening in I.T Department. Therfore, there is deep need to reorganise department to equal it with all other services under GOI.
DeleteI have read lot of comments to my article. I feel its my responsibility to clear some things. The main purpose of the article is to demand an equity in the Government services. It really doesn't matter whether the person holding the post is a direct recruit officer or promoted officer. As I said earlier, the interests of the country and the people are paramount. There are some points of merit in the comments made by people from various services here and also by people recruited at various levels. While filling my UPSC form I have given IAS as my first choice because today it simply is the service which offers best of facilities, recognition, promotions, diverse experience, status, proximity to people who really bother. Based on my rank I was allocated IRS which was my third choice among the 24 odd services. I was sad because I could not get IAS but I was happy because I got my third choice and did not get any of the 21 other services. My preference in the UPSC form was based on my knowledge about various services on that day. this preference may change 20 years down the line. My children may prefer some other service. But once I entered into Government service and putting in a few years of service I have realised that there is a lot which needs to change and a lot of what I knew earlier was wrong. The fact of the matter is that every service has its importance and every post has its importance and relevance in the Government of India. But as I said some drastic changes are needed in the administrative setup of the country. Why are there many complaints from officers from every service including IAS? Why are there complaints from both direct recruit and promoted officers. Yes I may argue in favour of direct recruits because I am one of them. But some independent research is needed to reform our services. Lets take an example of Armed Forces. It is one of the institutions in the country which best organised. I am talking about their administrative setup. There are only two levels of recruitment - as Lieutenant and as soldier. But the levels of recruitment in the civil services are many, much more than two. Some rationalised structure should be evolved. A unified Civil Services Authority should be set up as recommended by the Administrative Reforms Commission.
ReplyDeleteIn continuation.... We can all keep on arguing on various aspects because we are humans and we will never be satisfied enough. But we should all realise that there is discontentment among the Government employees of every cadre and level. Some of them can be easily solved if some effort and will is shown by the powers that be. All specialised services should get more importance than what is being given right now. The promotional avenues for both direct recruit and promoted officers should be good. More of all there should be certainty in the policy and rules governing personnel policies of the GOI. The lack of clarity and certainty leads to various problems leading to bad blood among the employees, mistrust and finally leading to cases in the CAT and various courts. Coming to the issue of DR and PR in the Income Tax Department, the article I have written in my blog is directed at various anomalies existing between various services under GOI. There are some issues between DR and PR officers in Income Tax Department which are hotly contested by both groups. Everybody knows the solution which will be good for both and correct. But who will bell the cat? Both DR and PR officers should get their due. The DR and PR issue is not only at the level of ACIT and above but also exists at the level of ITI. Every issue should be solved scientifically and intelligently. An ITI is as important as a CCIT. Every post has its role and everybody should do his duty. As ACIT I cannot demand the facilities given to a CCIT. Similarly, an ITI cannot demand the facilities given to an ACIT. As far as infrastructure is concerned, my article has dealt very deeply about it. Infrastructure is very poor in the Department just like in other Departments under GOI. Proper facilities and work space has to be given to all the employees in an Govt. dept. It only increases the efficiency and output of an employee. In the end I only appeal to all readers to not to criticize any service or any level of employee here. Please think out of the box and suggest improvements. Healthy discussion is important. Criticism will not take us any where. There is no dearth of issues to be criticized in our country. But we should be practical and magnanimous and think keeping only the country and the hapless people in mind. I also request the website not to publish any criticism but give importance to informed and mature debate. Thank You.
ReplyDeleteI also suggest the website to publish only comments with proper identity. Anonymous comments tend to be inflammatory and disturbing. Comments made with proper identity will be generally reasoned unless the person making the comment is immature or of unsound mind. Please consider this suggestion.
ReplyDeleteWe do allow anonymous posts because many bureaucrats don't want to give their identities but meaningfully contribute in bureaucracy debates. Also, we do screen the comments and in fact discard many of those because of their inflammatory nature. We promise we will be more careful during the screening.
ReplyDeleteThere are numerous group A and B services in India and each service has their own career interest. All group A and B Services merged in should have common seniority list. Required number of officers from the group can be trained for specilised jobs but since they will maintain common seniority, the promotion/placement should also be as per seniority.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHow much time will you normally take to upload any comment made on this blog? I have contributed almost one and half hour ago and so far it is not uploaded.
ReplyDeleteThe total article shows the egoism. Because we are irs, we should not be governed by any ias and no promotee should be termed as officer. This is very bad attitude. The author should also know,the loser of civil service is also narrowed by starting with one mark. Will they be equalled with civil servants. Therefore, merit should hold respect. The author should not be feel that the policy decisions are taken by ias people. The present system is good and effective one.
ReplyDeleteThe promotee fellow believes that the CA`s and IAS officers in north block are responsible for tax collection and IRS officers are not. These lesser souls always please the CAs otherwise their parallel source of earning will be lost. As agreed by the self in the previous post by the PR, 70% orders are passed by these low level officials viz., ITOs. How can they be expected to match with battery of highly educated CAs and Lawyers? Only IRS officers who come out through highly competitive exams and well trained in national academies can handle better. These PRs of the IT department should compare themselves their equivalents selected through SSC and who are working in other departments. For instance, the Superintendants equivalent of ITOs) working in Central Excise dept do not have separate rooms. The Sr Audit Officer of IAAD (equivalent of ITO) does not have a separate room. It is for every reader to understand how theIT dept is completely hijacked and blackmailed by the lesser souls of IT dept. Having got beyond their due share, the PRs started comparing themselves with CCITs. IT is high time the CBDT took away the powers of assessment from ITOs and make them subordinate to Assistant Commissioners like in CBEC. We do not see such a militancy among the ITO level officers in other departments. The ITO have become financially strong as they themselves are passing the final assessment orders. Some greedy IRS officers at level of Addl CITs have become puppets in the hands of the ITOs and hence this level of indiscipline. When the file moves from ITO to Addl.CIT/CIT through AC/DC, this kind of indiscpline and this magnitude of corruption reduces in IT dept. It is in the interest of the country that ITOs are made subordinate to AC/DC so that proper hierarchical checks and balances come into place. One greedy person should not close the file. If hierarchy is followed in passing the assessment order then wisdom of second opinion finetunes the assessment. May God save the IT department from the large percentage of incapable promotees and minor percentage of greedy IRS officers, both of whom in collusion are ruining the it dept.
ReplyDeletehere is a reply to the PR's comments...
ReplyDeletePArt 1
1 Ans. The writer means that there is no requirement of hierarchy i.e., no Addl.CIT and CIT is required and ITOs themselves can function on their own. It is like saying that the mechanic alone can design, develop and build a machine and there is no need of Engineers and Architects. The ITOs are like workshop mechanics and the superior IRS Officers are like Engineers and Architects. The ITOs cannot claim to be the Architects.
Further, left to themselves the ITOs appointed by Chief Commissioner of I-T, again another IRS Officer, do build personal and benami assets rather than national assets.
2. Ans. Yes, it is true that a DR Officer requires a little bit of guidance from the bosses in the first year of field posting like any other Civil Services (IAS, IPS, IFS, IAAS, IRS(C&CE)). But that does not mean that the same DR has to wait for 15 years to learn entirely, like an ITO. It is the same DR IRS Officer who surpasses every other PR and ITO from his very second year onwards because he/she passes the most difficult Civil Services Exam and is rigorously trained at NADT. A donkey can only carry the heavy weights and it should do its job as given by its masters, but it should not desire for a running competition with a horse. This is the truth.
Investigation is carried out by the Inspectors as directed by the AC/DC/Addl.CIT/CIT, but he cannot do on his own. The ITOs merely carry out the instructions of his bosses in case of investigations and cannot ignore those instructions claiming that he is a good running horse. The writer could not understand how a judicial work is performed, even after working for more than 25 years in the department. Any judicial work (IT assessment) is performed by application of mind. The minds of DRs far more superior than the PRs. If the PRs show any more arrogance, they will pay the price for it in future.
3. Ans. Hon’ble Chief Justice of India or Supreme Court Judges or High Court Judges are not expected to be experts in the field of I-T, but still their judgments are very comprehensive and without any loopholes. Similar is the case with the IRS Officers. IRS Officers are not expected to be experts. Let the experts do their job. Let the IRS Officers do their job. There cannot be any interchange of the roles.
4. Ans. The servants cannot compare with the masters but they should compare themselves with their colleagues in other departments. An Inspector (Group C) joining CBEC at the age of 25 can rise to become the senior most Assistant Commissioner by the time of his retirement, whereas the same Inspector (Group C) in CBDT retires as Addl.Commissioner (Director level officer) with 10 years of service in that scale, and sometimes the same Inspector retires as Commissioner.
The levels of promotion for a DR Inspector (ITI) in CBDT are…
ITI ITO AC DC JC Addl. CIT, sometimes CIT.
That means in his life time, a DR inspector enjoys 6 designations (sometimes 7 designations), whereas the DR IRS officer attains only 5 designations such as AC, DC, JC, Addl.CIT, CIT (sometimes 6 designations with CCIT as the last designation in 99% of the cases). I am not talking about Member and Chairman of CBDT, which number only 6 and every IRS officer cannot attain them because the batch size ranges from 100 to 150 in a year.
Now every reader can really make out whether a person joining CBDT is a happy person or not. The Inspector should compare himself with his colleagues recruited through SSC examination and joining other departments. The Promotee IRS officers hold dharnas, strikes, wear black badges, and do not participate in the searches and surveys conducted by the department etc, etc to blackmail the department. Their non-cooperation happens almost major part of the year. Once appointed by the PRESIDENT OF INDIA, how can a promote officer behave like a unionised employee?
Part 2
ReplyDelete5. Ans. Yes, very much agreed that the operational vehicles should not be used for any other purposes than operational requirements. But then why do the PR-AC/DCs use the second operational vehicle for their personal purposes? How many times the available operational vehicles were used by the PRs for official purposes? What did they achieve? The lavish living of the ITOs and unworthy spending of the ITOs and the PRs is very much within the knowledge of the senior IRS officers and their other colleague civil servants like IAS and IPS. The PRs! control your tongues.
6. Ans. When the work has to be done by the ITOs and below, why are the PRs not asking for more number of posts at that level. Yes, they do not ask because the PRs only want promotions and lean structures at the bottom of the pyramid. The senior IRS officers should realise the ill-designs of the PRs. By the way, the consent of the PRs is not required to enhance the number of CCIT level posts. The CC level posts are equivalent of Addl. Secretary level posts in Government of India, which are created on the lines of IAS equivalents for the same length of the service. 6th Pay Commission also favoured creation of the same. The dear PRs may realise that they have no role in creation of CC level posts.
7. Ans. The ITO equivalents in other departments do not have a separate room. It is very unfortunate that most of the files are with ITOs who decide the issues in favour of the assessees in collusion. The functioning in I-T department should be changed and structured on the lines of the functioning of the Central Excise Department, States Sales Taxes Department, ED, CBI, State Transport Departments, or any other revenue earning department or enforcement department. Then the corruption among the ITOs can be controlled. The readers may know that the file does not travel beyond ITO in case of assessment. So the unworthy ITOs are able to close the issues in collusion with Authorised Representatives and the assessees. When the file travels from lower level to the higher level, there is no chance of secrecy and less scope for discretion and therefore, corruption can be greatly reduced.
8. Ans. Dear PR! the CVC may not have any details about the ITOs and the PRs but the Vigilance Directorate of IT Dept and Vigilance cell off CCIT can throw more light about all the PRs. If you have guts, you reply to this comment after consulting all your ITOs and PRs.
8. Many of the IRS (anonymous commentator) have talked about corruption among promotee officers. Have they done any survey? Why don’t they ask CVC under RTI and then do their maths by drawing a PERCENTAGE of corrupt ? Please do , and if you find that more IRS officers are corrupt, don’t tell me because that is not news to me. Even search on Google will produce the result not palatable to them!
ReplyDeleteAns. Dear PR! the CVC may not have any details about the ITOs and the PRs but the Vigilance Directorate of IT Dept and Vigilance cell off CCIT can throw more light about all the PRs. If you have guts, you reply to this comment after consulting all your ITOs and PRs.
9. IRS officers, usually get chance to do a course abroad. How many changes have been brought by them either in the department or in tax collection? In fact , most of the officers who have gone abroad for course , I am sure have not submitted the REQUIRED . Do an RTI and you will get answer?
Ans. Again, as said earlier do not compare yourselves with IRS officers but rather compare yourselves with your colleagues and equivalents in other departments. If those colleague have more share than you all, then ask for anything. The IRS Officers are the leaders of the I-T Department and their training needs are patterned on the basis of their fellow civil servants, IAS, IPS, IRS (C&CE), IA&AS etc.
10. Is it not true that 90 % tax in India is collected through TDS or advance tax ? Please state what IRS people do for this collection? The citizen of India through CAs and tax practioner pays advance tax or TDS as per legislation done by IAS people sitting in North Block ?
Ans. Great Mr.PR! You say that advance taxes and TDS collections are due to the efforts of the CA and tax practitioners and the policy makers like IAS. Since you need the support of these two classes viz., CAs for your enrichment and IAS for your survival, you have praised them. It’s a clarion call and invitation to all the honest IRS officers to deeply scrutinise the vigilance files of all the ITOs and PRs.
11. Can IRS officers justify the MID CAREER training to a class of Chief commissioners who are going to retire soon.? Is it not perquisite to spend the time abroad on tax payers money. Do IRS people know that even STUDY tour leave cannot be granted to any govt. servant if total time of retirement at the close of study is less than 3 years.
Ans. Respected Senior IRS Officers, please be awake and take interest in the assessment files of the ITOs and make sure that their discretion in assessments does not give financial strength to their bad mouths. Anyways, Mr.PR it is correct that the Govt should have given this training much earlier in their careers and should not have delayed. It is for the PRs to understand that their training is patterned on the basis of their colleague services like IAS, IPS, IAAS, etc.,
12. The injustice is institutionalized in the department. How come in the name of austerity , the NADT trainees who were all promotee officers were not let go aborad, but mid career training abroad for even officers who are due for retirement soon , was okay with department.??
Ans. True, the injustice is institutionalised in the department against the DRs and the PRs treat the department as a cow. Milk it as much as they can. Even they are ready to suck out the blood out of the department and make the department as a mediocre one.
Why am I anonymous ? Does that matter ? Or what matters is objective analysis of the situation prevailing in Income Tax Department.
Is it not high time , there should be exam conducted by outside body before each promotion above ACIT onwards , and then only who is better can be determined. Not in the same manner , once you come out of UPSC , you are always better even in a subject which was alien to them .
Agreed. There should be examination for the ITOs to be conducted by UPSC so that they cannot manage the results. All the DRs are ready for any type of examination at any stage.
April 21 is being celebrated as Civil Services Day. I hope the Day is not only about reading speeches, having dinner and giving away awards (most of them to people belonging to a single service). This is the seventh such Day being celebrated. Its good that such a Day is being celebrated. Its time for all civil servants to introspect and see what they have done and what is to be done. It should be an occasion to declare administrative reforms every year and review the implementation of reforms announced during the previous year's Civil Services Day. The recommendations of the Administrative Reforms Commissions should be taken in to consideration. Informed and intelligent debates and discussions should take place on the Day. The celebrations should end with proper outcomes. The people of India are watching with bated breadth. They should not sleep disappointed. The Day should not be hijacked by people belonging to a single service. Drastic reforms in the administrative setup of the country are required. The Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri. Manmohan Singh has had a long experience in the administration of the country. He is the right man to bring in reforms in the country. But sir we need you to be proactive and not to depend on the advice of your secretaries. Coalition politics will definitely not come in your way when it comes to civil service reforms. You have only few years left before you see god (though we expect good people like you to live long as there is dearth of people like you in this world). Let them count. You will be remembered for your pro activeness and reforms brought in for long. Sir one billion Indians are expecting a lot from you and they go to bed hoping to hear good news the next morning. Please do not disappoint them. Let the annual Civil Services Day be of use for the country and its people and let it be very constructive. Jai Hind.
ReplyDeleteThere is something seriously and worryingly wrong about a country that has Departments,even Ministries,devoted to Overseas Indian Affairs,Youth Affairs,Sports,Micro and Small Enterprises but needs to debate whether the organisation contributing the maximum Revenue needs to be a Department or an Agency or some other creature.
ReplyDeleteRecently, China carried out significant overhaul in respect of few ministries and agencies with a view to bring more effiecincy in administration . As per news item, in the past three decades, China has overhauled its government seven times. On the other hand, India has maintained more or less status quo in respect of Govt Administration despite changing times and needs. As a result, the departments/bodies, which have emerged crucial in changing economic environment in recent decades, are still not being getting deserved attention and importance hurting overall developemt of the country. The old structure still rules at the cost of efficiency in the system. There is urgent need to rationalise it.
ReplyDeleteAdministration and Governance of any country should be very dynamic for it to prosper. We are still hanging to the age old threads of British system. As long as the service called IAS exists our system will rot like this. The politicians do not understand this and do not bother. Some services like IAS, IPS, CSS are out of place in Indian polity. But the irony is that these services call the shots. Why should an IPS officer head CBI, NIA, CISF, CRPF, ITBP, BSF, NSG, RPF, IB, RAW when these organisations have officers of their own recruited by UPSC itself. The CIA, FBI, MI-5, MI-6, Mossad, etc have their own cadres. People go on deputation to these organisations based on their specializations but not based on the service to which they belong. This is exactly the problem in India. The Economic Offences Wing of CBI is headed by IPS officer but not IRS officers. Every Government Department is headed by an IAS. Even highly specialised depts like scientific organisations are headed by IAS. God knows when the hegemony of these out of place services goes and order prevails.
ReplyDeleteEvery overhaul in the Govt will mark a dent in the IAS. There is little place for other services except law and order and revenue in a developed world. All developed countries in the world are live example of this phenomenon. The process should have been started in India during current transition phase. But reconciliary approach of other services including ours have not made it possible......Today while every effort is made to computerise all essential and non essential services of our department, little is being done to computerise the land and other records and making that available to the applicant online in states like UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bangal...... Because applicants repetitive request to give requisite paper yield power to the concerned authorities.......I am also in favour of a detailed Income-tax Return having all information including credit/ debit card no, bank accounts, details of major expenditure, movable and immovable properties etc......once in a year return should not be simplified but should have all possible details.......this deterrent can do wonder in future tax collection.
ReplyDeleteKnowingly or unknowingly Shri.Satya Prasanth has touched the grave issue of how promotee officers are being treated in the Department. There is rampant discrimination that is going on within the Department and the way some of the direct recruit officers have addressed the promotee officers in their comments above (terms like promotee fellow etc) goes to show they don't have any regard or respect for age, experience etc.
ReplyDeleteIt is not known whether only such things are being tutored to them when they are at the NADT. What they tend to forget is that there is a possibility that their father, mother, uncle and elders in their family could also have worked at the IT Department at a much lower level in the hierarchy. It is just because that they have cleared one exam conducted by the UPSC, they think that they are much higher in intelligence and capacity.
They should also keep in mind that most of the great men of this country never cleared civil services or they may never have attempted it. Similarly most of the officers in the Department who are lower in rank may never have attempted this exam. It could be because of lack of opportunity etc. That does not mean all the officers who come through UPSC are higher in intelligence and all officers who come through SSC are lower in intelligence.
Take for example a person coming from a humble background struggles hard and enters into Government service through SSC and struggles through out his life to make his son/daughter clear Civil services by providing all necessary support. The son now enters the Government service as ACIT, but the father who still remains in service is working as an ITO. Will the newly recruited ACIT will also think in the same lines as the author and wanted his father to work under him. Direct Recruits, please think it over.
Once entering into the service, the DRs forget all about their background and consider themselves as separate group of people who does not have any other identity before. This creates a tremendous amount of arrogance within the group and this is clearly reflected in some of the above comments of DRs.
God alone can save the Income Tax Department and the country!!!!!
I completely agree with the comment above by supposedly a promotee IRS. I am really ashamed of reading some of the comments written here by both DRs and PRs. My article was never about the issue of DR versus PR in the Income Tax Department. It was aimed at demanding equity and parity between all the services under the GOI. Just because somebody cleared UPSC or SSC doesn't mean he/she is supreme. There are lakhs of people in India who could not even take these exams because of a lack of opportunity. We (including me) are fortunate enough to make it through these exams just because our parents toiled hard. There are instances where children of lower staff in the dept have cleared UPSC and became IRS officers and there are also instances where children of DR IRS officers who have become ITIs in the Department. There are also instances where people who have cleared SSC and became ITIs and worked for few years but later made it through UPSC and became IRS officers. My father is an ex-service man and technically belonged to a group of officers in the Indian Army who can be equated with the promotee IRS officers in the Income Tax Department. Because of my parents hard work and blessings I cleared UPSC and became a DR IRS officer. Referring to fellow IRS officers whether they are DR or PR as fellows is sheer arrogance and uncalled for. It is in a way disrespecting our own parents. Arrogance is clearly evident in some of the comments made by both DR and PR officers here. As I said earlier every employee in the Department whether ITI or CCIT has his importance and deserves equal respect. No human is more equal than others. Some of the comments made by some DR and PR officers here are very derogatory and reeks of arrogance. On behalf of all these people I apologize to all the readers for the bad comments written here. The DR and PR officers need not behave as separate groups. The senior officers are leaders and need to be magnanimous towards their subordinates. The lower staff need not unionize and arrogate to themselves and demand the facilities given to senior officers but do their duties well. Everybody has a role to play in the department and all of us are public servants. Our mandate is to serve the public honestly and without fear or favour. I request all the readers to avoid passing bad and inappropriate comments here and to respect the sentiments of all. A proper hierarchy is necessary in every department to make things work. But this hierarchy should be established on scientific principles. Yes there are some issues in the department which are mostly a legacy. No employee of present generation has created them. These need some time to get solved. But in the mean time passions tend to inflame. But ultimately we should remember that all of us are public servants and we have to serve the people of this country. When we realize that we are not doing that we are unfit and ineligible to continue in our posts whether DR or PR. My article has been completely misunderstood and misquoted by some people here. My argument is for equity and parity among all the services under GOI whether DR or PR, for provision of proper facilities and working conditions to all employees, for an egalitarian society based on the principles of equality and magnanimity. I request all employees of the Income Tax Department to please avoid irrelevant and negative comments here. We all have a role to play and we have to put up a unified fight to achieve our goals. I also doubt whether all the comments here are written by employees of the Income Tax Department. Lets not let others resort to the strategy of "divide and rule". Many will be happy to do it. Some of the comments here are putting me in an awkward situation because the only identity known here is that of mine. All negative comments were anonymous. That's why I request all readers to identify themselves while writing comments. Tomorrow (21/04/2013) is Civil Services Day. Let us dedicate ourselves towards the service of this great country and its great but not so fortunate people.
ReplyDeleteThe respected PRs pl allow the readers to know how you people changed the ratio of DR vs PR from 2:1 to 1:1 so that more no of lower level officials become IRS officers. Also allow the readers to know how you people flouted even the 1:1 ratio through unfair means. The newly created posts of DRs in earlier two cadre resrtructurings in 1991 and 2001 have been filled through deparental promotions, as a result of which the lower officials who had never dreamt of becoming even the Asst Commissioners (Jr Time Scale) had gone on to become Addl.Commissioners (Non Functional Selection Grade). As DRs we have no problem if the meritorious PRs rise to Addl Commissioner level through fair means. But all unfair means have been adopted by the PRs either in departmental work of assessment or in departmental postings or in departmental promotions. The preceding comments of the DRs do not reflect any arrogance but reflect the deep rooted grievances of the DRs.
ReplyDeletewhat exactly the writer of this article wants Prime Minister ManMohan Singh to announce on Civil services day?
ReplyDeleteIs it IRS is the most important service in the country and all the other services should come under it. Why Jai Hind! at the end of his comment suddenly. If he really wants his country to prosper, let him understand the plight of various officers working in his
own department rather than competing with an IAS officer who has beaten him squarely during the civil service exam. For his information and for the information of all IRS officers who commented on this forum, definitely IAS is the cream of the country. It is better if the country is administered by the cream rather than a second or third level officer like that of an IRS.
Mr.PR you know fully well that it is grievance and not arrogance. The DRs are left with lot of grievance not because of the good posts grabbed by you people but because of the illegitimate promotions obtained by you through backdoor entries.
ReplyDeleteWhat DRs need to understand is that a promotee officer can never be a competition to the Direct Recruit officer. A promotee officer never aspire or dream of becoming the CIT, CCIT etc. At the maximum they may retire as Addl.CIT and even this happens in fewer cases, as many of them retire as JCITs. In such a scenario, What I don't understand is that why they keep on delaying the promotions of ITO's to ACIT. A DRs ambition should be to enter into the ministry where IAS officers are holding control over and calling the shots at present. For this to happen the DRs need the support of the entire organisation as a whole. This kind of in-fighting and ill-feeling within the organisation is not going to help them as well.
ReplyDeleteIf the DRs are able administrators, let them take the entire organisation by their side and stop considering the hapless promotee officer as their competition.
Small decisions which are taken by a few people who does not understand the nuances of administration at the top level certainly affects the smooth functioning of the Department and creates lots of friction between the promotee officer and the DR. Take for example the web site "irsofficersonline" which is managed by CBDT. We have to remember that this site is not run by the IRS association but the CBDT. When CBDT runs it, then the access to the site should be available to all the officials of the Department and not only to a selected group of people within the Department. Furthermore the site does not contain any classified items and most of the employees of the Department watch it only for transfer orders etc. What big purpose is achieved by blocking its viewership only to IRS people.
I always felt that the CBDT does not belong to the DR alone but also to the PR, ITOs, Income Tax employees etc. Because of this action of the CBDT, everyone in the Department now feels that it belongs only to a select group within the Department and the rest are untouchables to them. Can anyone in the decision making corridor consider this.
Similar is the case with the Laptops that are provided to all the officers of the IT Department. It is reliably learnt that an officer of the rank of CCIT, when he retires need not surrender the laptop to the Department whereas all the other officers need to surrender the same at the time of their retirement or leaving the office. This proposition looks fair and simple and no one would question the decision as CCITs are the highest ranked officers in the field.
But the impact of the decision is that all the DRs need not return the laptop and all the promotee officers have to return the laptop at the time of retirement. This is so because all the DRs always retire as CCITs and all the PRs would eventually retire as only JCIT/Addl.CIT or sometimes as DCIT etc.
Though the original decision looks innocuous, the actual implication is once again discrimination between two groups of people within the Department. What is saddening to note is that, this is being perpetuated by the highest body in the organisation (ie CBDT).
The CBDT, instead of functioning as the moderator and help to resolve all the frictions within various group of recruits within the Department, is actually perpetuating it.
The need of the hour is to appease all groups of recruits within the Department and function as one whole and put our demands strongly to overcome the IAS lobby rather than fighting within ourselves which would eventually result in an IAS officer coming and occupying the post of chairman of CBDT as well.
Is this what the DR wants? Please consider.
dear writer, in this country among all services there is provision of direct recruitment at certain levels to keep the ordeal and maintain hierarchy in the organisation. it is through open competitive exams conducted by different commissions. If your goal is very high and you are also capable, then take open examination for higher direct entry. whether the evolution of these administrative system is correct or incorrect, this is not in question.In your case, it is true that unequal treatment and promotion is being provided. there are so many reasons behind for this palpably behaviour extended to PRs. Now the time has come to equalize the justified system of recruitment and promotion among all central services. there is no need to give more advantage to only income tax department,or change the whole process in all central governed department.
DeleteMr.Prashant, fortunately or unfortunately your article helped some DRs vent their feelings, and it is not known whether you really meant it or not. You raised many issues to be argued and discussed. Therefore, you are advised not to take the role of any moderator or judge over some of the issues, because let the whole world know the plight of DR-IRS officers in particular and whole department in general. Issues are common but feelings may not be common among all the persons. Since the website is screening the comments I think you should not trouble yourself in judging and concluding over every comment.
ReplyDeleteHi Satya Prashant absolutely there is no need for you to reconcile the PR lot over the comments made by some DRs and you need not take moral responsibility to feel ashamed over the comments. Everyone knows the hard facts and the reality. Anonimity gives the opportunity to be blunt and identity forces one to be reconciliatory, polished and deplomatic. Let others also speak out their hearts and minds. The department needs more and more people like you. Many senior officers are with you and therefore you do not attempt for rapprochement.
ReplyDeleteHere is yet another request to our readers to keep restraints while posting comments. BoI reiterates that it won't publish objectionable comments. The idea is to debate on the core issue, not to use foul language to hurt one's sentiments. Happy reading BoI.
ReplyDeleteIn a free speech environment like the one in our country, everyone has right to express his views, however such expression should not be derogatory and hurting the sentiments of anyone be it PR or DR or for that matter even his fellow AIS officers, or professional CAs. It is a matter of fact that most of the CAs despite the fact that they pass the examination after having studied the Tax Laws in depth, end up in being soft on the subject and hot on getting the assessment of the client done by all means, and the fact of the matter is that the client is also like that, i.e. he would like to get his assessment done by hook or crook and spend by defrauding the exchequer, in the process all the players are playing win-win game. The morality of the people at large is the moot point. Moral lessons have to be taught and inculcated. Speaking truth is almost farce in our daily experience. When a phone rings, the parent tells his kid to pick up the call and asks him to say that he is not available/in bath room/outside etc. What is the problem to pick up the call and say that one is busy and hence he would talk later. Like this, any number of examples can be given. We find on road any number of cases, policeman being greased to get out of simple traffic offences - - if the fine is Rs.500, he could bribe 100 and get away from the offence. In our country, we have least concern for the laws. Our laws are archaic and more procedural and our officers are not practical in their approach. Go to a Nationalized Bank, to take a demand draft, the clerk sitting at the counter would tell all kinds of stories and delay in issuing a draft. I have seen in one particular branch of SBI, the staff at the counter were even dissuading to open a new bank account and the reason cited is that they are as it is overburdened with the existing customers and hence they would not like to add more worries. The attitude of people should and must change. For this the whole society has to change. For this we need to have good teachers. But unfortunately, our teachers are also a lot like that. We have seen people accepting these babus so far, but the present generation do not have any more such patience. We are seeing how the public are calling for the scalp of the IPS officer, the Commissioner of Delhi Police for the inaction in not filing FIR on time when a hapless complainant went to the police station to lodge a complaint for his missing child. In every sphere of life, we encounter such situations but so far we have been keeping quiet. Thanks to alert media [even media has to upgrade their skills a lot, still they are doing a yeoman service in bringing out voice of the people].
ReplyDeleteNo doubt, Shri Satya Prashant has rattled the hornet's nest to a considerable extent, it may not be prudent to keep on reacting to the comments made by others through this forum and get inflicted by some egoistic fellow men from MARS.
As an outsider [a CA by qualification, but a Corporate Management practitioner, giving Solutions to multifarious issues of clients], with reasonable knowledge on Taxation, Corporate Laws and other legal matters, I would take this opportunity to express the fact that there is rampant corruption in the Government Departments including the one in discussion, with a proportionate degree as it keeps going up in hierarchy. I know quite a few ITOs retired having amassed 1.5 to 2 Crores in properties and other forms of assets. This would have been possible only due to the favors extended in the form of lower incomes having assessed illegitimate and unaccounted income of unscrupulous business people. This kind of money would certainly enable these lower rung officials financially strong enough to influence the political masters to go up in back door entry to get promoted by unfair means, whereas the Direct Recruit Officers would have come after having passed out of the rigorous UPSC examination. I also know a particular Chairman, who is an authority on Tax Laws, retired very long time ago having held the Chairman position for a very short duration and amassed good lot and retired gracefully. Corruption is the root cause because it is right from the top of the political bosses hence the best way is gradual eradication of this evil and over a period of time it may be reduced.
ReplyDeleteI WOULD LIKE TO ENLIGHTEN THE CREAM OFFICERS FROM ALL INDIA SERVICE THROUGH THIS FORUM THAT LET THERE BE RESERVATION ANYWHERE BUT NOT IN TEACHING & MEDICAL AND HEALTH PROFESSIONS. LET THESE PROFESSIONS BE LEFT TO MERIT WITH CONSIDERABLY RESPECTABLE DECENT PAY PACKETS SUCH THAT GOOD PEOPLE GET ATTRACTED AND TAKE UP THE PROFESSION AND IMPART QUALITATIVE EDUCATION TO OUR YOUNGER GENERATION. PLEASE DO NOT MISTAKE ME FOR THIS SUGGESTION, I DONOT MEAN ANY THING WRONG FOR ANY CASTE OR CREED. WE ALL KNOW WHY EVEN A KING USED TO SEND HIS CHILD TO THE ASHRAM OF RISHI TO GET PROPER EDUCATION. A TEACHER SHOULD BE COMPETENT ENOUGH TO TEACH AND GUIDE HIS WARD IN PROPER DIRECTION FOR WHICH PURPOSE HE NEEDS HIMSELF TO BE EQUIPPED AND STRONG ENOUGH TO DO SO. SIMILARLY A DOCTOR WHO TREATS A PATIENT MUST BE PROFESSIONALLY QUALIFIED HENCE ONLY PEOPLE WITH REQUISITE SKILLS SHOULD TAKE UP THIS PROFESSION AND THIS SHALL BE ONLY ON MERIT.
Should CA's be the only eligible candidates for IRS??
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly a discrimination to Chartered Accountants who are treated
as 'EXPERTS' in Taxation & Accounts and are not given 'PREFERENCE' to other candidates for IRS (Indian Revenue Services). Rather IRS should take Chartered Accountants as 'ONLY' eligible candidates like in IES (Indian Engineering Services) where 'ENGINEERS' are taken as 'ONLY' eligible candidates.
All learned Chartered Accountants will agree that no one else other than a Chartered Accountant better knows Taxation whether it's Income Tax, Value Added Tax, Excise, Custom or any other relevant law to Indian Revenue Services. Apart from that Taxation is inseparable from Accounts and a Chartered Accountant only is able to provide services in both areas simultaneously.
How a person coming from Science, Maths or Arts can know the muscle power of Accounts and Taxation ? It's only the Chartered Accountants who are well equipped with all weapons of Accounts and Taxation. Now we are facing with tax complexity including transfer pricing, DTAA and many more, so its high time for the govt. to think about the minimum eligiblity for giving revenue service examination.
I wasted so much of my otherwise precious sleeping time reading the above pages so patiently written by my fellow CIVIL SERVANTS............... In the end it is all CRAP. My advise, if any takers( which ever service or post you belong to ) Please introspect and focus on your area of work and excel in it while being grateful to the people of this country who gave you this opportunity to SERVE them and not to enslave them or Lord over them.
ReplyDeletecompletly aggreed with itdchuman
DeleteEvery IRS officer is well equipped with the knowledge of Advanced Accountancy, Taxation and allied laws due to the training imparted by NADT, Nagpur. If degree such as CA is important for being an IRS Officer, it may be known by everyone that from 2007 onwards NALSAR, Hyd has been awarding PG Degree in business and taxation laws on successful completion of training imparted by NADT. Accountancy subject is not as technical as medical, engineering, biotechnology, etc and therefore no minimum qualification such as CA is required for IRS. Moreover, the job of an IRS officer is not preparation of accounts but investigation of facts, interpretation of law and cracking the accounts. Any CA who interacts with IRS Officers will tell whether IRS Officers lack any knowledge in accoutns. IRS has a lot of quasi judicial power, which cannot be handed over to a particular community of professionals.
ReplyDeleteIn countries such as UK etc, the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) Officers are provided the help of accountants in understanding the accounts and allied matters like how legal counsels work for some organisations such CBI, CVC, etc. Income Tax Department requires a battery of CAs' help in carrying out certain works in deciphering the accounts seized from the premises of the business persons or accoutns produced by the assessees before the officers of the department. For this purpose, ITD needs to employ the CAs as inhouse professionals. It may be appreciated that a non-commerce graduate becomes a Finance Professional after graduating from IIM in PGDM(Fin). Training at NADT is very rigorous and brings out the best taxman out of a fresh recruit.
IRS BOTH IT AND CE AND CUSTOM ARE THE MOST CORRUPT SERVICE IN OUR COUNTRY.THEY ARE A BLOT ON CIVIL SERVICES.OFFICERS FROM ITO TO MEMBERS OF CBEC AND CBDT HAVE INVOLVED IN SOME OR OTHER ACT OF CORRUPTION. THEIR OTHER SERVICES TO CITIZENS ARE FLAWED OR DO NOT EXIST .THEY ARE ONLY AFTER FACILITIES AND THE MISUSE OF THEM. IAS ARE SCREWING THEM SO THEY HAVE STARTED YELLING SHIT ABOUT IAS.TRUTH IS IRS CAN NEVER NOT AT LEAST IN NEXT 100 YEARS BE COMPARED TO IAS. IAAS , ICLS , IP&TAFS ARE BETTER SERVICES IN SERVICE PROFILE THAN IRS . IAAS ARE THE MOST HARD WORKERS SCREWING THE SCOUNDRELS NOW AND THEN. ICLS IS A PROFFESSIONAL SERVICE ACTING AS ROC AND ON VARIOUS POSITIONS IN CCI , SEBI , IRDA AND OFFICIAL LIQUIDATORS.THE TRAINING ACADEMY OF ICLS IS BETTER THAN ANY OTHER ACADEMY IN INDIA . IP&TAFS ASSESS AND COLLECT HIGHEST AMOUNT OF NON TAX REVENUE ( 17000 CRORES IN 2012-13)( MANY WOULD BE SURPRISED ). IP&TAFS IS ALSO EXECUTING MANY DEVELOPMENTAL SCHEMES THROUGHOUT INDIA IN TELEMEDICINE , TELE EDUCATION AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION. SO THERE IS ALSO A LIFE BEYOND IAS , IRS , IPS AND IFS.
ReplyDeleteI totally disagree with the above view. Being a chartered accountant, we only feel how difficult it is to explain a simple accounting principle to a so called well trained and intelligent IRS Officer. On most occasions they are absolutely unfit to understand the basis concepts of accounting leave alone advanced accountancy.
ReplyDeleteIt is always better if the revenue official is a well trained person from the accounts or finance side rather than a Veterinary doctor or a history graduate. What I don't understand is that why the Government has to recruit a novice in accountancy and support him with a team of chartered accountants to get its job done. Instead the CAs/ICWAIs themselves can be a better option for the revenue which demands specialization.
Take for example in the judiciary only a person who is well trained in law can only be a good judge.
Before getting into services and during interview everyone talks about being a team player and working as a team.They strongly advocate a matrix type of organistaion and discard the rigid hierachical type of organistion.But after getting into services their perception changes drastically and now they strongly put it that hierarchy is imminent for any organisation.
ReplyDeleteI would like to narrate two incidents which show the weakness of IRS(Both DR&PR).
ReplyDelete1.This is the action which shows the highhandedness of an IPS officer, who many years back was the then SP of Jalpaiguri in West Bengal. The then Addl. Commissioner of Incometax in that small town was hand cupped and put behind the bars for one whole night without any charge, with the full knowledge of the then Secretary in the Department and the chief secretary of the CPM-ruled state. However, in the morning the officer was probably released, but no action was even contemplated against the SP who only acted this way for showing off his powers and strength and supremacy over an IRS officer.
2.An IAS officer, then DM, was infuriated with the then income tax assistant commissioner(present day Addl. CIT) who was summoned to the DM’s office and severely admonished for initiating action against an SHO in Raipur. The DM point blank threatened the IT officer that, if the notices were not cancelled and the proceedings dropped against the SHO, every officer and Inspector including ladies must be ready for arrest on a Friday night on any charge as the police felt necessary!
The IT Dept. did accordingly, mainly as the IAS had royal blood and very highly connected.
These incidents show how weak and vulnerable the IRS is.They can be easily targetted by every tom,dick and harry.
Take the recent case of arrests of IAS officers in AP.The IAS officers' association immediately convened a meeting to help the arrested officers.similar is the case with IPS.But this kind of attitude is not seen in IRS.when a colleague IRS is arrested(by committing genuine mistake) by the CBI,no other officers raise their voices, instead feel happy for it happened.This attitude will not help in the progress of a service.
Hence they are easily raided and in most of the cases arrested by the CBI.They are an easy target for the CBI.Every day an officer of any rank is raided or arrested by the cbi.No other service faces as many CBI cases as faced by the IRS.(not even railways,postal,IA&AS)
What is the importance of the post of Commissioner of Income tax,when there are more than 20 commissioners in Hyderabad!!!
An IRS officer as an AC/DC is not even provided with a vehicle.An IRS raiding an IPS/IAS is never heard and may never be heard even when there is sufficient evidence of tax evasion/corruption.
One more example which highlight's their weakness is one of the comments( The lavish living of the ITOs and unworthy spending of the ITOs and the PRs is very much within the knowledge of the senior IRS officers and their other colleague civil servants like IAS and IPS. The PRs! control your tongues.) made aboove by an apparently DR IRS,using the names of IAS and IPS colleagues to threaten their subordinate ITOs.
My sincere advice for both DR&PR IRS is to stop fighting with each other,insted try to improve your service conditions and strengthen your service.
The instances quoted by you are very remote. Since he was a promotee he went immediately to DM’s office. The right course should have been to intimate the matter to the higher-ups and department’s legal counsel about the threats given by those officials. No DR would be so spineless to go to a DM’s or an SP’s office on being threatened by them. The PRs/ITOs never realise their position. Even, it is noticed that a just promoted ITO treats senior most DC (even PR) as his colleague. Whereas, they think that they are subordinate to everyone outside the department but treat themselves as equals to the senior AC/DCs. They address everyone including a constable as sir due to lack of confidence, but when it comes to DR- AC/DC’s they call by name, even when they are junior to DR-AC/DCs.
DeleteYou appear to be a PR...You cannot create schisms among the civil servants by throwing such remote examples. Anyone who does misdeeds is liable to be punished, whether he is IAS, or IRS or IPS or a minister and there cannot be concessions based on the designations they hold. There are many examples wherein the IAS officers (famous ones, the Joshi couple) have been raided/inquired by the I-T department. There are high level ministers who have been summoned to I-T Investigation Directorates and statements have been recorded from them. First you stop belittling yourself in the society.
You’d better advise the PRs/ITOs, who are comparably senior officers, to follow the discipline in the department and not resort to frequent strikes like lower level employees. IT Department is an enforcement agency and all the employees should be barred from going on strike. If you want your demands to be met, you may go on strike with lower level officials but not with ITOs and above. Equivalents of ITOs in other departments are Superintendent in Excise, Appraiser in Customs, DSP in Police, SDM/RDO in State Revenue Department, Sr Audit Officer in CAG, RTO in Road Transport, CTO in Commercial Taxes, ZAOs in CBDT and PAOs in all other departments, etc etc. There has never been an instance that any of these officers went on strike, so far, in independent India. You should demand from the Government by doing something (though it is long term) but not striking work (which has short term effect) that too by Group B and promoted Group A officers. The senior IAS officers/other Civil Servants posted in DoPT are requested to stop the menace of rampant strikes called/resorted to by the promoted Group A Officers of the I-T Department.
U cannot disagree facts by throwing blame on PRs in tha name of their resorting to strikes.Your thirst for authority on ITOs is apparent.It is welcome if it serves to be useful,but just to satsfy one lot of civil servants the other lot of officers(PRs,ITOs) cannot be denied their dues.
Deletesee, DRs do not retire as DCs. The DRs become and remain as supervisory officers for more than 2/3rds of their career. Once they become, ITOs come under them. So, to have ITOs as subordinates to DRs will not be an unfulfilled desire for the DRs. But the real issue is not about the desire of DRs to have ITOs under them, but about organisational hierarchy, efficiency and output. Why should middle management (JCIT/Addl.CIT) be preoccupied as an immediate officer in supervising the ITOs who have low income cases. Such low income cases of ITOs should be left to the AC/DCs' supervision, however keeping the over all control over the ITOs. The middle managment should rather focus their energies on high income cases of AC/DCs. All Addl.CIT in all charges should have 4 to 5 AC/DCs under them in order that broadening and deepening of tax base will be possible. By this process, we can increase the scrutiny percentage from mere 2% to 5% and more.
DeleteWhy should the PRs oppose the structure of ITOs reporting to AC/DCIT. This doesn't bring PRs under DRs. At least 50% of AC/DC level officers are PRs. In that case 50% of ITOs will be reporting to PR AC/DCs. This is there in every other Government Department- Central or State. It should be brought in the Income Tax Department.
DeleteHe is more concerned with designation and hierarchy and not about doing quality. This is same with almost all IRS Officers. They are more particular that they are IRS. He never goes into the technicalities on how to revamp the department but creating more posts and about cadre. IRS officers are concerned about them and they are the prime reason for the rot in the Department.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with view that tax collection ...which involves understanding of business accounts and laws that regulates them .......must have specialized officer rather than generalist.
ReplyDeleteGeneralist are suitable where work can be executed by MANAGING it through one's IQ, basic general knowledge and other inter-personal skills.
A tax officers collects tax after going through accounts and applying the law. Management of the work of revenue collection has only a fraction of role in entire scheme of taxation regime.
If generalists ( IRS officers ) are so suitable blue eyed boys .....they would have been suitable for Indian Engineering Services or say Indian Economics Services or even becoming Scientist for ISRO ! Are they ??
Please note that there is news of creation of Indian Judicial Services (IJS) .......does that mean these IRS officers are also suitable for IJS. Not , because the law requires specialized knowledge.
It is high time that the services of IRS must be made exclusive to CA/CS/or ICMA or LLB with MCOM. So that right kind of educated persons can enter these services and not those who passed UPSC by taking Sanskrit,History , Public Administration or Geography and start giving rulings under a law which is highly dependent on the subject of accountancy .
Job of IRS Officer is to investigate and gather facts and on the basis of which to pass a well reasoned speaking order, but not to prepare accounts. IRS is a functionally specialist service but not a technical service in the strict sense of engineering or medical field.
DeleteAccountancy is only the language of presentation of certain transactions. Accountancy cannot be equated with Rocket science or surgical medicine. Moreover, the constitution gives AUTHORITY to Civil Servants which cannot be handed over to a particular community of professionals like CA’s. Engineering Services and Medical Services need respective professional expertise to function. Your argument that IRS/IAAS need to be filled with CAs is not correct. The job of IRS is interdisciplinary in nature and that is why persons from all the fields are recruited into IRS. If you guys are interested, fill the Civil Services form and opt for IRS as the first choice. There is also another route to become IRS…i.e., apply for Inspector post to be recruited through Staff Selection Commission. If you join as Inspector, rest assured you will become IRS officer much earlier than your contemporaries in other departments.
The judge, who himself is not a CA, passes the Order on most complicated tax issues. It seems that you people may argue to make CAs as High Court and Supreme Court judges. All the higher level posts, of non-technical nature, possess authority and are interdisciplinary in nature and therefore cannot restricted to a particular field such as CA/ICWA etc.
The instances quoted by you are very remote. Since he was a promotee he went immediately to DM’s office. The right course should have been to intimate the matter to the higher-ups and department’s legal counsel about the threats given by those officials. No DR would be so spineless to go to a DM’s or an SP’s office on being threatened by them. The PRs/ITOs never realise their position. Even, it is noticed that a just promoted ITO treats senior most DC (even PR) as his colleague. Whereas, they think that they are subordinate to everyone outside the department but treat themselves as equals to the senior AC/DCs. They address everyone including a constable as sir due to lack of confidence, but when it comes to DR- AC/DC’s they call by name, even when they are junior to DR-AC/DCs.
ReplyDeleteYou appear to be a PR...You cannot create schisms among the civil servants by throwing such remote examples. Anyone who does misdeeds is liable to be punished, whether he is IAS, or IRS or IPS or a minister and there cannot be concessions based on the designations they hold. There are many examples wherein the IAS officers (famous ones, the Joshi couple) have been raided/inquired by the I-T department. There are high level ministers who have been summoned to I-T Investigation Directorates and statements have been recorded from them. First you stop belittling yourself in the society.
You’d better advise the PRs/ITOs, who are comparably senior officers, to follow the discipline in the department and not resort to frequent strikes like lower level employees. IT Department is an enforcement agency and all the employees should be barred from going on strike. If you want your demands to be met, you may go on strike with lower level officials but not with ITOs and above. Equivalents of ITOs in other departments are Superintendent in Excise, Appraiser in Customs, DSP in Police, SDM/RDO in State Revenue Department, Sr Audit Officer in CAG, RTO in Road Transport, CTO in Commercial Taxes, ZAOs in CBDT and PAOs in all other departments, etc etc. There has never been an instance that any of these officers went on strike, so far, in independent India. You should demand from the Government by doing something (though it is long term) but not striking work (which has short term effect) that too by Group B and promoted Group A officers. The senior IAS officers/other Civil Servants posted in DoPT are requested to stop the menace of rampant strikes called/resorted to by the promoted Group A Officers of the I-T Department.
am not interested in services and never tried for these like IAS/ IFS/ IPS/ IRS/ etc..., these services are really the copy and paste of British days and nothing. Actually, the reforms now urgently required. See the Europe and other well performing country (Japan, Australia and China as well), they follow the expertness/ expert advice and provide high official rank to ‘experts’ only. They don't follow the rule that once passed some inane objective/ written memory based exam with little reasoning, will always be on the top of the bureaucracy. In the developed countries, an expert (either of tax/ rail/ revenue) is appointed to help the country fully developed and understand the public sentiments and demands. It is not like that in India, where Malaria department (read Health ministry) is headed by secretary (IAS) who knows nothing about the disease, just issues GO and asked doctors to perform their duty. Don’t think I am not a doctor. It is just an example. Why not a doctor/ or scientist/ health subject professor may be the secretary of health ministry, will advise the minister/ government better than the civil servants/ babus (IAS etc). For example, what a MBBS degree holder or IIT pass fellow who got cleared the Civil Exams, would do for Department of Culture or Director of Language at center level.. ………till India will not bring the ‘reforms’, our country will be far behind in global standards. Sometime Indian bureaucrats recommend wrong policies to their political bosses also.
ReplyDeleteReply to Mr.AnonymousApril 29, 2013 at 9:59 AM.
ReplyDeletePlease stop trying to throw the blame on PR IRS.Without knowledge of the incident,U just said that he is a PR IRS.Then what about the ADDL.CIT who was arrested for no reason,He definitely may not be a PR as no PR has gone upto the level of ADDL.CIT during that period.Im not a DR/PR neither an Income tax employee.But I know what is happening with the deparment.No officer or even a common man when stopped by a traffic constable will address the constable as sir.This is a sheer example of ur looking down on PRs.I appreciate u for becoming a DR,but beacuse u are a DR u cant supress others' promotions.What is happening to a DR when a PR gets promotion.He is promoted because he has that seniority,can u please explain how a Central Govt employee gets promotion through back door.If it happened it happened only because of DRs co-operation.
If u are so keen about making an ITO subordinate to AC/DC who have almost the same work of assessments,then y not make a joint.CIT subordinate to ADDL.CIT???
When an ITO is an equavalent to DSP,y should he be designated as SR.Inspector.He is an officer and he deserves respect.
In the 150 years history of IT dept,only one corrupt IAS was raided and NO IPS/Other service officer was raided/summoned.Many journalists,civil servants threatened IRS officers who are in discharge of their duties.(this is said by a DR IRS who retd as Chief commissioner viz "IRS-an Insider's account"). And see the case of employees of jeevan jyoti hospital who recklessly attacked the officers who searched them.The latest case is of that of Nitin Gadkari who openly threatened the IT dept.There are very few cases of tax evaders arrested by IT dept even when they are given the powers to arrest(Tax recovery officer).U are speaking about the ways of officers trying to meet their demands.And one more deficiency in this service is that an officer of rank of joint secy(CIT) goes to deputation in the level of Director to GOI.
Unable to digest the supemacy of the IAS, the IRS seems to be venting their ire against the hapless promotees within their department. Not a single person gave any valid reason for inordinate delay in giving promotions to the non-irs officers. The IRS Officers should first shed their arrogance before they leave NADT. Getting through the UPSC is definitely a great achievement. But remember the factors that made you achieve it. Just because some one subordinate to you has not achieved the same doesn't mean he is unworthy.
ReplyDeleteThe no. of posts of commissioner of IT in hyderabad is more than 30,ADDL.CIT is around 40,AC/DC is around 80.what is the importance of the post of a commissioner in such a situation.Take the case of commercial tax dept where only a single commissioner controls the matters of state and this commissioner who is from IAS is junior to many IRS officers in rank of commissioner and he gets more respect and staff(as many as 10 addl.commissioners) and one of the IRS officers in rank of addl.cit is a subordinate(through deputation) to the presenent commissioner of commercial tax.And take the case of any other dept like police,state excise where only one commissioner is the head unlike the IT dept which has many commissioners.This is just done to improve the promotion aspects of IRS but imposes a huge burden on GOVT.
ReplyDeletecommissioner of Income tax,Addl.commissioner are not entitled for a red beacon,where as officers in IAS,IPS who are juniors to them are allowed to use red beacon from the rank of SP/DM till the end of their career.A raliway officer gets one bungalow peon,but IRS doesnt have a steno in the grade of AC/DC,they share stenos.That is the phase through which the IRS is going through.
ReplyDeleteCommissioners of Income tax are eligible for red beacons,even addl.cits are eligible for amber beacons.we dont use them even though we are eligible beacuse we have respect for the common man.so we dont flout rules!!More we are provided with hired vehicles and not govt. owned vehicles.only govt owned vehicles can be fitted with beacons.
DeletePlease understand! None of these people are eligible for any beacon lights and very recently also Hon'ble Apex Court has come down heavily on illegal use of such lights over the cars of Government Officials. You may wish to have one. But unless you are qualified to have it you cannot have it. Even Chief commissioners of Income tax are not eligible for such lights.
DeleteLeave alone this beacon lights. Even Addl/Joint Commissioners of Income Tax are not eligible for any vehicles. However large number of vehicles have been hired throughout the country for this cadre in the name of operational vehicles and the only operation they carry out is picking and dropping them from home and carry their children to school. It's a shame that without any hesitation they claim the travelling allowance also. Let them come out clean first and then talk about other things like revamping etc.
Using cars for personal matters, though not allowable, is a petty matter. But it is to be inquired how the same Addl.Commissioners have allowed ITOs and PR-AC/DCs to function without any proper check from top.
DeleteDear PRs! what you are today is because of promotional avenues, challenges and opportunities offered by IRS as a CIVIL SERVICE. If you yourself do not grow up to the cadre of IRS even after conferment and do not respect the post and cadre you are into, it will be like chopping the branch which you sit on. For the moment see the attributes of a PR-IAS. Most of the times it is difficult to identify the PR-IAS because he acquires the attributes of a civil service and lives up to the dignity of the Service (IAS) he is in. It is in the interest of department that the PR-IRS grow up to the level of CIVIL SERVANTS. All IRS, be they DR/PR, be united for the sake of furthering the Revenue's cause and catch the big fish and further broaden and deepen the tax base.
DeleteWhat do you mean by saying growing up to the cadre of IRS? What is being told is fraudulent hiring of vehicles in the name of operational purposes and using the same for personal purposes. Claiming transport allowance by even Commissioners of Income tax who are officially provided with a chauffeur driven vehicle.
DeleteYou mean to say everyone has to adjust to all these malpractices within the Department and wastage public Money like this. Fantastic advise to everyone. The country will prosper once the above advise is sincerely followed. Long Live our Nation!!! and Long live these insensitive direct recruits who are noting but a bundle of ego completely out of sink to the present day thinking of young India.
If one tries to undrstand ur wordings it gives a feeling that all the PRs, ITOs and staffs are most honest. Just open and see CBI website as to how many ITOs and staffs of IT department are awarded the pumishments by CBI courts. You guys tell onething...why do staffs, ITOs and PRs make beeline before the Commissioners and CCs to get assessment postings? By the way certain unhealthy trends have been noticed...the staffs, ITOs and PRs started paying huge momeys to ITGOA and ITEF governing members to get postings of their choice. Some of the weak and financially less strong personnel expressed their grievance that Staff Union members have become very costly to approach ans they are accessible to only rich staffs and ITO.
DeleteHey Mr.Staff, you are talking about honesty of senior officers in utilisation of office cars, which is clearly out of jealousy of their positions. You have to understand that the entitlements hang to a particular post depending upon grade. Since you people are harping too much about usage of office vehicles by the senior officers, it is clarified here that Government is paying fixed amount to the car owner (hire) whether it is used fully or not, officially or not. So it is not going to make any difference to the government if the vehicle is sometimes used for personal purpose or not.
DeleteNow coming to honesty of the ITOs and PRs it is to be noted that all your actions, inactions and misdeeds have been very well chronicled in all your file dealings. We will forward this thread to CVC and CBI to pick up files, at random, dealt by the DR-IRS, PR-AC/DCs and ITOs.
Let CVC and CBI give certificate of honesty to either you or me. Till then you just control. Days are not far!!!
DR saab,Please understand one thing here that u need not make a show of power in public as they are aware that a seniors IRS is above a ITO.
DeleteSo try to intimidate ur subordinates which amounts to ur irreverence by urself.Instead try to expose ur counterparts i.e. IAS,IPS who are known to be most powerful lot of the services,then automatically u ll derive respect from general public too.Put an end to succumbing to ur counterparts and start retaliating and show ur honesty,sincerity,power.
MR.Anonymous May 21,2013 at 12:18 AM
Deletejust google "red beacon usage in India" and u will see a list of dignitaries entitled for red beacons.Plese dont mislead people with ur inchoate knowledge.CCITs are no doubt eligible for Red beacon and this is in accordance with central motor vehicles act.CITs and ADDL.CITs are sometimes eligible for amber beacons as it is indicated in some websites though its authenticity is not confirmed.
very funny to say that the writer is neither DR nor PR nor income tax employee but he narrated many events only known to the PRs and income tax employees. The readers are not as naive as you think.
ReplyDeleteone guy has mentioned in his comments
ReplyDelete"Some greedy IRS officers at level of Addl CITs have become puppets in the hands of the ITOs and hence this level of indiscipline."
Are not these Addl.CITs DRIRS and why they become puppet in the hands of ITOs who are far junior to them. This mean they have neither control over their lust nor are efficient administrative. Most of the CIT and CCIT in ITD are full of temptation and lust. Were they not at initial level so-called AC/DCs? Morality doesn't depend on being promotee or direct my dear friend rather it is an inborn quality.
Mr.PR the same Commercial Taxes Department has a structure wherein a CTO reports to an AC and so on. Do not quote selectively to garner support in your favour. CTO, a directly recruited officer, who is Group B level officer compared to Central Government Rules, retires at the level of Joint Commissioner in most of the cases. Whereas an Inspector recruited at Group C level retires as Addl Commissioner in most of the cases. This is a very awkward situation. By most of your writings, you are always trying to belittle the IRS officers before everyone. The same you, before a Commissioner of I-T or Chief Commissioner, praise him or do anything to appease him and thereby to get your choice post. Since most of the IRS officers may not be closely following these comments, you are freely making the statements. By your writings, do not create deathbed for the promotees in future. Do not try to injure the self-respect of DR-IRS by your filthy writings. The present generation IRS officers will become commissioners, chiefs of ITD in course of time.
ReplyDeleteYou are a direct recruit IRS officer and a responsible officer who has to bear a lot of responsibility.It is such a shame on ur part to use the word "deathbed" with regard to promotees.Remember that ur father or any of ur family memebers may be PRs of IT or their equivalents in other depts.Remember that the ITGOA is the most powerful associations which can condemn this behavious strongly.Beacuse ur comment is anonymous u cannot speak whatever comes to ur mind!!
DeleteUr no one to decide other's promotions.
Parents of IRS range from IAS to a peon. we have respect for our parents irrespective of their positions. At the same time, no parent wants his son's organisation to degenerate. If any lower level recruited person raises to higher level by virtue of his merit, that is most welcome. But meritocracy has no place in ITD. It is by virtue of union activities carried on by all the Group C, Group B and promotee Group A Officers, 90% of the incapable persons from below are reaching the middle and higher echelons of the organisation. This is more injurious to the organisation. An IRS Officer (both DR and PR) is appointed by the PRESIDENT of INDIA, whereas the ITO is appointed by an Addl.Secy level officer (CCIT). The ITO claims that he is equal to an AC. How can an ITO be equal to a PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTEE?
DeleteRecently, Government of India has introduced competitive exam for State Civil Services for entering into IAS/IPS/IFoS and the same is going to be introduced in IRS as well. You people have to face the interview board constituted by UPSC before getting into IRS. Days are not far!!!
Senior officers' apathetic attitude has made ITGOA powerful. mind you guys! old water is going, new thinking and new blood will dawn among senior officers. Your power is not going to be permanent. All your reckless comments are publicly reported which will go against your own interests.
DeleteThis change is happily welcome.This exam gives officers opportunity to prove their capability.But before that there should be direct entry at the level of ITOs.Since ITOs are equivalent to state civil service officers,this will equate them group-1 officers of the state.I think this will satisfy the egos of DRs as ITOs are group-B,where as ITIs are group-C.ITGOA is powerful beacause it has people who can air their voices and views without any fear and not beacause of anybody's sympathy.Dear sir,Please verify the above comments,im sure that u will realise who made reckless comments on whom."deathbed" is not a word used by a normal person,but by an abnormal person only.Where did anybody mention that ITOs are equal to ACs.Many ITOs are promoted to rank of ACs beacuse of excessive vacancies created due to cadre restructuring and not due to strikes!!
DeletePeople recruited at the level of group-C have risen to the level of Group-A because there is no direct entry in dept at the level of Group-B.This is the reason for all ills within the dept.
DeleteAt the same time if ITOs are made subordinates to AC/DC,then y not make an AC subordinate to DC and JC subordinate to ADDL.CIT.
Superintendent (ITO equivalent) in CBEC is subordinate to AC/DC, but AC is not subordinate to DC and JC is subordinate to Addl in CBEC. Your logic is not correct.
Deleteexcellent! good for the organisation. such filtering (exam for ITOs) is required at that stage because they are the cutting edge level for the dept.
Deletecorrection in previous comment...JC is not subordinate to Addl Comm in CBEC.
DeleteGoing by ur comparision between CBDT n CBEC,Inspectors in CBEC are group-B,but in CBDT inspectors are group-C.This implies that inspectors in CBDT should be elevated to the level of group-B as both the inspectors(CBDT&CBEC) are recruited through the same exam and CBDT is the top choice of many candidates as compared to CBEC(at level of inspectors and now at level of IRS also).Also Govt of AP declared Sub-Inspectors of police as gazetted officers!!ITI draws the pay scale of Circle Inspector of police and more than a SI.So this should mean ITIs should be elevated as gazetted officers and be made equal to group-B.And i also feel there should be direct entry at level of ITOs.
DeleteDear sir,Since CBEC is following that structure,does it require that CBDT should follow the same.Sir,Cant we be innovative and think different from what is already existing now??
Deletewhether CBEC inspectors are Group B or not is a fact to be verified. There should not be any problem in giving gazetted status to Inspectors of CBDT. Do not run merely for outward appearances. Bring real structural changes within the organisation. The SI of Police is the head of the office (HOO) in many places, whereas Inspector of I-T is not HOO anywhere. Whether giving gazetted status makes any difference is a big question. Instead ask for more inspectors, more powers at your level (of course with accountability), more facilities at your level, 2-wheelers for conducting inquiries, etc, etc. First try to enrich your jobs, establish yourselves, prove to everyone how important an Inspector of I-T is for the society. Remember! Form is not important, but substance is. Do not forget this basic rule. Once you get get the substance, ask for the form.
Deletehttp://www.cbec.gov.in/transfer_ord/xfer-policy-gp-b-cx.pdf
DeleteClick this link and u will find that,inspector if CBEC is group-B(Non-gazetted).Sir what u said above is absolutely correct.
Dear PR, your writings are distinctly identifiable in such a way that you try to show that IAS is superior. You may note that most of the IRS families have IAS also either in their own families or in relations. So your access to IAS is much limited to that of an IRS. So don't do sycophancy such openly.
ReplyDeleteBesides, your knowledge is limited, of course, naturally about higher civil services matters. When an IAS officer goes on deputation to an organisation or PSU, he reports to non-IAS officer thereby automatically becoming the subordinate to such organisation's higher officer. Seniority goes by the batch of Civil Services recruitment, except at Secretary level. On the contrary you are generalising at all levels, which is grossly incorrect.
One last suggestion to satisfy the ego of the DRs. Public identify the department by an ITO or an Inspector. In fact they feel that an Inspector is superior to an ITO. They do not recognise the commissioners prefixed by so many words. Therefore, the DRs are undergoing an identity crisis. The only solution to this is to redesignate the commissioners as income tax officers prefixed by suitable words that differentiate them in hierarchy. My earnest request to all of you is to stop this acrimonious writings and focus on the job you are doing so that recognition comes on its own and not on demand.
ReplyDeleteYou will repent and regret heavily in later course of your life and after retirement. Remember! the DRs sacrifice anything for the sake of the Department.
DeleteFor the sake of dept or for the sake of money!!!
DeleteOne's perception depends on his thoughts and deeds. Your thoughts are reflected in your mischievous words. This is the direction the PRs take the dept, if left to themselves. For them everything is counted in money terms and nothing else.
DeleteWah Wah!! One suggestion that too 'LAST' by the greatest personality. Is it suggestion or 'request not to expose' anymore the wrongdoings of the PRs?
ReplyDeleteAn interesting articles penned by a young civil servant. The article that I had hoped would evoke an informed and productive exchange of views, unfortunately has kicked up quite a storm of personal diatribes and communal 'below-the-belt'remarks (IAS v/s IRS, DR v/s PR). In fact some of the comments posted here are downright venal and lack any application of mind to the issues raised by the author. Other comments are a plain outcome of misdirected frustration. The author has raised a few pertinent questions - the balance between generalism and specialism, the need for a 'superior' class of civil service as against subordinate services, the need to address 'aspirations'of certain services, the need for greater efficiency as well as effectiveness in delivering what a government department is expected to deliver. In a debate that seeks to address issue of governance, it may be worth our while if we go back to a set of 'FIRST PRINCIPLES, that could act as path-finders or guide-rails - (a) All services exist for effective governance - at the heart of which - is the citizen. Therefore Citizen First must be a cardinal principle that guides such debates as against narrow parochial turf battles that are being fought out here. (b) Governance will need enforcement of law and therefore people with knowledge of the law. An Engineer, a CA, an Arts graduate, a doctor, cannot be a part of the judiciary in this country till they earn a law degree and/or practice. Given the rigour with which the ICAI conducts the CA exam, it is anyone's guess as to how many of the existing IAS, IPS, or even IRS officers would ever clear that examination. (c) Competence and Capability must be the hallmark for career advancement beyond a point - not just the sterling achievement of having cleared an examination once in your lifetime. The Prime Ministr of this nation and senior functionaries like the Head of the Planning Commission are not career civil servants. Whilst the Armed Forces have a Short Service as well as Permanent Commission, civil services have a Permanent Commisssion that in many cases becomes permamently permanent - look at the no. of commissions, governors that are headed by retired bureacrats, look at what happened to the RTI Act (d)If we are here in service of the State whose responsibility is primarily to its citizens, we MUST find ways and means of making our service relevant to the citizens, we must reinvent our 'cause for existence'. Alas we are more focused on cadre control, inter-service rivalry, read beacon car versus none, number of ministerial staff, judicial/ quasi judicial powers. Can we stop and ask ourselves the question each day - Hey! How will I make a difference to the lives of ordinary citizens today? Are our services structured well to cater to the rapidly changing needs of our citizenry in this modern digital world? Are we geared to 'efficiently'and 'effectively' deliver services to the common man/woman - have bothered to identify non-value adding proceses/ systems and structures in order to bring down the cost of this delivery?
ReplyDeleteI am an ordinary citizen of this great nation. An engineer by education and a management professional by vocation. I have done well at my age and some day I dream of serving the country and the government. But as long as the discussion on the table is restricted to this level of banality, I shudder to think about what ordinary citizens like me should expect!
Dear author,IRS is "Indian" Revenue service and is called as a "CIVIL SERVICE".It is not a service of Accountancy.It is more concerned about an important work of earning revenue to govt through assessments,investigation etc.This revenue is being used for all the welfare works of the poor and the needy.Such an important work cannot be simply given to a CA just beacuse he can handle accounts.It requires proper aptitude,attitude,an interest for serving the country.Thus UPSC exam is the correct selection procedure for IRS.If CAs are keen to join this service,take the UPSC exam,one of the most toughest exams of INDIA.Lets see how many CAs can clear this exam through theie knowledge of accountancy.Last but not the least,IRS is the SECOND MOST preferred service.
DeleteDear DR,I m not at oll worried about ur dept commissioners or chief commissioner as im not a subordinate to any of u.Please try to understand the essence of my comments.Because CTO retires as a joint commissioner,it is not necessary that ITI should retire at a rank below to the CTO.commercial tax dept officers are not conferred with IAS except a few so they retire as joint commissioner,but ITO are conferred with IRS hence are eligible for promotions equal to their colleagues.ITIs are the second rung officials of IT,similarly CTOs are second rung officials of commercial tax.AND I agree that IRS is the supreme service and is the only service capable of dislodging the IAS from its position.I have a great respect for IRS and hence am trying to point out loopholes in the service so that the DRs take the necessary steps to solve the problems.jai hind!!
ReplyDeleteThere are many courses of various duration funded under DFFT scheme. One issue which should be raised here for the information of all non-IAS Group A services to ponder over. See who are eligible for all these training schemes. Go and check the eligibility criteria under DFFT scheme. The IAS hegemony is very apparent. Only IAS officers, Central Secretariat officers and those Group A officers who are on deputation are eligible. That means all IAS officers are eligible whether they are on central deputation or not. But other Group A officers are eligible only when they are on central deputation. What a farce. All civil servants recruited by the same civil services exam are not treated the same way here. All Group A Central Services officers are not eligible for this funding even though they work for the central government. IAS officers even though they are working for a state government are eligible. Why should central govt fund for state govt employees? Otherwise follow equal treatment. The present system violates Right to Equality. Every Group A officer should be eligible for funding under DFFT scheme whether on central deputation or not. Otherwise the alternative is all those on central deputation should be eligible no matter to which service he/she belongs to. The Scheme has been tweaked to benefit IAS officers. This is another example of the IAS greed. Civil servants of India rise up, understand and fight for your rights. Otherwise the IAS raj will break the country into pieces.
ReplyDeleteBoI once again appeals its esteemed readers not to use objectionable language. We have rejected many comments because they deviate from the main piece and are meant to belittle a cadre or a section within a cadre. Let's discuss those points which will improve the system as a whole. Happy reading
ReplyDeleteSince IRS is a service which faces threats in day to day life beacuse of literally no protection to its officers,I think IRS officers and ITOs should be provided with service revolver and strict rules should be implemented regarding the usage of revovlers/weapons and should be used only in cases of serious life threats.No officer should be allowed to use revolvers during the routine course of assements/investigation unless there are serious life threats.Alteast the investigation wing officals and officers holding sensitive post should be provided with revolvers/security personnel with guns.
ReplyDeleteservices having weaponry needs to have strict hierarchical discipline and there should not be any level jumping, else the gun culture will usher in new culture of indiscipline. first set right internally before asking for anything drastic.
ReplyDeletedo not waste time. concentrate on overall development of the department and its functioning
ReplyDeleteNow that the cadre restructuring proposal has been cleared by the cabinet,can anybody tell me if the CBDT Chairman can hold the post of Secretary,Revenue and has the status of Chairman of the board been elevated to the rank of secretary from special secretary?
ReplyDeleteHow many special secretary level post have been created?
I am an ordinary citizen. Hence, I pay part of salary of all of IAS/IRS,DR/PR etc.All of you officers are supposed to be my servants.I am saying this because my opinion should matter. I think all promotions should be strictly performance-based. If a PR or clerk uncovers big scam,recovers lot of money for govt.,he/she should be promoted rapidly and if continues to perform should be able to reach Secretary level. If a DR is recovering less than average taxes he should be demoted to ITI or ITO and if does not improve should be dismissed from service.Currently many promotions are based on length of service.This should be stopped and performance-based promotions only should be introduced in all departments.Results of UPSC should not determine the fate for all life.DRs have chance to enter at higher level because of UPSC exam but whether they remain there or go up or down should be based on performance.
ReplyDeletecome on man it is very clear that you are a promotee govt. officer. Please dont claim that you are an ordinary citizen. Dont think readers are naive and fools. Part of your argument is correct. But what if promotee officers underperform? You have not talked about that issue. Any under-performing Govt employee should be penalised. Nobody objects to it and there is no second opinion about it. But do not try to fool readers here by claiming to be what you are not. One thing is very clear here is that you are not a direct recruit officer and definitely not an ordinary citizen. You are an ITO or ITI or in least probability a promoted IRS officer.
DeleteNo clue why the ordinary citizen is following this thread???
DeleteYou can think what you want but I am not in govt. service. My interest is only to see India develop with the help of a capable civil service.
ReplyDeleteWhen I said everything should be based on performance it was implied that PR officers should also be demoted or dismissed if they don't perform.
To avoid misuse of this system, quantifiable parameters for performance should be established. For IRS, it can be taxes recovered. For IAS, it can be how many people were uplifted out of poverty since posting of officer. For IPS, crime statistics and opinions of ordinary people should count since police sometimes avoid registering complaints in order to show low crime. This should be accompanied by security of tenure for a fixed period. At the top level, the best performing officers from all central services should be evaluated and if for example an IRS shows aptitude, he/she should be trained and deputed to other departments to gain experience. Secretaries of department and cabinet secretary should be selected from such officers.It can be called higher civil service. Officers who don't get selected in this service will retire in their parent cadre by reaching dy. Secretary/additional secretary etc of their respective department. As I said, results of UPSC when one is in their 20s or early 30s, solely should not determine fate of individual. Cream should be allowed to rise to the top based on experience and performance. We should decide who is cream by observing how an officer performs in real life and not in exam hall as current system does.
your amended suggestion is good. If you are/were not from I-T department, remove the veil of anonymity.
DeleteI had posted this under Most Powerful Bureaucrats, 2012 list. What ever this officer has posted on his blog is just a first step, and the same have been in reports written by previous committees and commissions. To just say it is this officer's sour grapes and throw cold water is a shame. If a majority of you disagree with what he has posted, then what is your solution. Now before you write your solution, please take into consideration what I have posted below.
ReplyDeleteI passed the IAS and IFS and yet I did not join the civil services. I went abroad to a very prestigious university, did extraordinarily well and continuing, have got worldwide recognition in my area of specialization and am a frequent consultant to some of the most advanced countries at the highest levels in government. So those who are myopic in their mindset and constricted in their views, and are of the belief that IAS is GOD's gift to India's mankind, is spewing utter nonsense. A brief note about my family. Our family has connections to the old ICS service and members of our family have stood All India First in IFS, IAS, IRS and RBI exams. Indira Gandhi had many non-IAS officers as her close aides and advisers. Why? Because of loyalty, sharp intellect, discipline, and smooth governance. People disagreed with many of IG's policies, but that did not change the fact that IG had many non-IAS officers as her close aides and advisers. So to smear those who are not IAS officers, as losers and that ONLY IAS officers can govern and the rest are incapable and do not have the capability is absolutely false, and predicated based on condescension and moral superiority. The Tata family ran Air-India smoothly for decades, profitably, and Air-India earned a good reputation. What happened once Air-India was nationalized? Air-India's good name got severely bruised (tarnished), quality service was left by the wayside, to be replaced with sub-standard service, and last but not the least malfeasance became the way of governance. Who were the CMDs of Air-India? Not the Tatas, nor other Indian industry titans and experts in operating airlines, but the great IAS babus. Look what 65 years of IAS babudom has done for India? Two thirds (900 million) of Indians live in poverty, poor governance seems to be the norm, coupled with nepotism and corruption both in public and private sectors. Like a great soul once told many of us during our younger days that we Indians rest on our past glory. Yes I am proud of my heritage and glory, but that dies not automatically translate that the future is fantastic too. Have a good day.
Bravo Sir for your candid post. The decline of India is due to politicos and bureaus working hand in hand. Within them there are very good officers who get sidelined routinely. The ones who help generate the moolah are most liked. Other alternative is to be honest but rubber stamps to politicos will
DeleteCongratulations to the service that is considered least important.IRS has bagged 26 additional number of special secretary posts.Though the figure is not considered supernumer,it is considered just sufficent for most of the IRS officers to rise to the level of special secretary.Days are not far away when we may see CBDT Chairperson as the functional head and full secretary of the department and the IRS reaching the apotheosis of civil services.Anyways congratulations once again!
ReplyDeleteThe PRs are trying to divert all the newly created posts (786 in no) at AC (JTS) level to the PRs, which is illegal, because 50% of those posts would go to the DRs. Further, even those 50% posts of PRs cannot be filled in single year, which otherwise leads to placing 388 odd PRs senior to the subsequent DRs in violation 1:1 ratio. They have been manipulating the system for the last 2 decades (1991 and 2001) and are hopeful of repeating the same this time also. Judicial interference is the only way to prevent the illegal and illegitimate designs of the rich and powerful promotee and Group B lobbyists of I-T Department.
ReplyDeleteDear PR,PRs are not trying to occupy the posts of DRs.Every year 135 Drs will be recruited and subsequently 135 PRs will be promoted.This was as per Restructuting order.Ur malicious intent is obvious from the above comment,u r increasing the animosity between the 2 groups.every year 135 Drs will be recruited whether or not cadre restructuring took place,but ITOs with even 12 years seniority are not getting promotions,there are large no of ITOs with enough seniority to get promoted.So the newly created posts can be used for promoting ITOs with no loss to DRs,as they will be constantly recruited at 135/year.So dont try to hoodwink people with unfounded arguments!!
ReplyDeleteWhat I find most interesting is that none want to be named or linked in any manner. Seriously, when only 3% of the Indian population is int he tax net, should not personal IT be abolished altogether and made voluntary. Suggestion is 3% tax on all incomes. For avoidance, penalty should be 30% tax rate to act as a deterrent. Any arm twisting or abuse by IT assessing officer of his authority should result in half his PF and gratuity to be forfeited for those with 10years service and more, and full prior to that, plus reduction in pay by 25% for accountability, of which half should go to the harassed person for relief for a year.
ReplyDeleteThe DRs do not take away ur share, the PRs. But you do not try grab the posts of the DRs. If all of you are promoted to Inspector, ITO and AC, who will the do the ground work? Work will suffer if we leave huge vacancies at Inspector level. First ask for filling up these vacancies and seek promotion if you people are really bothered about the Department. The Superintendents (ITO cadre) in CBEC get promotion after 25 years. So be happy that the ITOs are getting much faster than their counterparts in other Departments. There are very many cases in some states that Inspectors (without reservation benefit) became ACs in 15 years of joining the Department. Does this happen in any other department that a Group C recruited person raises to Group A (that too in Organised Civil Services) within combined period of 15 years? Enough is enough do not try to snatch what is not yours, guys?
ReplyDeletethe staffs and ITOs want only promotions. they are ready to work as ACs even without the aid of newly created vacancies of staffs. the new vacancies of ACs(700+) will have meaningful work only with the presence and existence of newly created vacancies of 19000 staffs. The staff unions of ITD do not want their fellow vacancies to be filled because these people feel that any filling up of the staff vacancies spoils their chances of getting into IRS.Hey PR guys and staff have patience.
ReplyDeleteanimosity between two groups? very funny you! there is only single group in ITD that is the department.
ReplyDeleteU too!!
DeleteU should have made this comment with regard to ur fellow DR IRS MR.Satya prashanth when he spoke about the friction between the two groups!!!
This shows how much ur biased.
Dear staff please do not try to project a very wrong perception to the readers here that there is delay in promotion from ITO to ACIT. Let us see the real reason for this delay. The recruitment to Group B in Income Tax Department is done at Inspector level by Staff Selection Commission. Inspectors get promoted as Income Tax Officer (ITO) and ITOs are promoted as Assistant Commissioner (IRS), which is Group A. So there are only two levels in Group B before being promoted as IRS officers. Compare this with other services. Ex: In Indian Audit and Accounts Department, the recruitment to Group B is done at the level of Assistant Accounts Officer (AAO), who are promoted as Accounts Officer (AO), who are then promoted as Senior Accounts Officer (SAO). SAOs are then promoted to Group A (IAAS). That means there are 3 levels in Group B before being promoted to Group A. Working as ITO for 12 yrs before promotion as ACIT is is not delay. Let there be 3 layers in Income tax Dept also. Create a level between ITO and ACIT or between OS and ITI like Sub Inspector. Recruit Sub Inspectors at Group B. Then from ITI you will be promoted as ACIT in 5 years. Only in Income Tax Department people who are recruited at Group B raise upto the level of SAG. In all other depts they retire at the level of JTS or STS. The situation in IT Dept is akin to a SI of Police retiring as IG and Deputy Tahsildar retiring as Secretary. This is not heard of in other depts. You are not satisfied with this also. You want to get HAG and Apex scales also. Come on guys if you want to get it come through UPSC. Nobody prevented you. But do not resort to illegal means. Do not present false facts to people.
ReplyDeletePlease dont try to create wrong impression in the readers by ur seemingly plausible arguments.Because some other dept is following different structure does not justify that ITD has to follow it.Compare ITD with its counterpart i.e. C&CE.Then u may say that C&CE guys' promotions are dilatory.But the situation is so in that dept because there are 6 categories of contenders for the promotion to IRS and the ratio is maintained at 1:6,in addition to very few vacancies.But the situation is entirely different,ITO has worked in that cadre for 12 years and in feeder cadre i.e. ITI for another 12 years for a total of 24years!!
DeleteUr comparision of ITI with SI of police is disparaging to ITI as SI of police is one rank below an ITI.In police dept,There are different levels of entry into officer level ranging from SI to IPS with DSP in between.But in ITD there is no direct entry at the level of ITOs.Since ITOs are counterparts of DSP,as DSP are promoted to IPS in 12 years,same must be followed in ITD.Though ITI is group-B,they are promoted to group-B only after which they are promoted to Group-A.Yes we want the dept to improve in terms of strength and service even at the expense of our career,this can be observed by the way in which the previous 2 cadre restructurings took place which embodied giving a huge chunk of benefit to DRs.But inspite of our sacrifices,we are denied promotions.Is it justified?By simply quoting an example of other depts,we cant be denied promotions.If it is the case,then many other group-A services have been bereft of SPl.Secy level,the same should have been accorded to IRS also.The theme of restructuring is the improvement of all cadres not just DR IRS.One way of removing this anomaly is direct entry at the level of ITOs(similar to appraisers of C&CE).
what's the need for justification? the anomaly and the deviation need to be removed.
DeleteTo ,
DeleteAnonymous
Do you even have a clue as to what you are talking about. To reach the grade of an ITO for promotees takes at least 10- 15 years of service (which includes tough field experience/struggle as an inspector). Your views are a blatant discrimination of an experienced, equally capable officer who probably has more knowledge and experience than a direct recruit IRS. In a department where only age is the criteria for promotion, it is not necessarily a fair playing ground where contribution to the department, stupendous work year after year is simply blindsided by a simple praise of appreciation from a babu with a so called IRS tag. Y so, just because he could crack a exam (not to discredit the hard work he puts in while doing so). FYI ITO is a gazette rank and the roles and responsibilities are the same as that of a direct recruit (IRS- ACIT), he refers the same books while, has the same judicial powers (if not he will not be able to execute a single assessment order). I will tell you the difference here only cases above a certain amount(which i don't wish to disclose) comes under the scrutiny of an ACIT/DC (IRS).btw the struggle of an understaffed ITO to execute his duties takes a toll from all the multitasking and pressure to execute/reach the budget for the financial year. And now you disrespect the sentiments and plight of a capable officer by calling him/naming him as a senior inspector for the sake of your egoistic selfish so called hierarchical order by holding back their deserving promotions for years...(for them to always be a subordinate to a IRS even if he is equally or more capable to a direct recruit)Now that my friend is a sadistic view point which brings more chaos than order.!!!
P.S: I am stating you the facts of the condition inside the department.
How do i know all this, well thats for you to speculate on.
i am surprise after reading this baseless and fact less comments. there are lot of issues which i need to discuss here...
Delete1. there is a comparison between ITO and DSP as equal people which is not correct on facts because ITO is promoted from the grade of ITI who has cleared SSB exam and DSP appointment after clearing State Civil Service exam...tell me how these two guys are equal..there is a huge differece in two official in terms of aptitude, knowledge and ofcourse attitude also....
2. One more issue is that DSP will become IPS after 12 years of service which not correct. It will take atleast 18 years of service to become IPS and in some bigger states like maharshtra, UP, Mp it may take even more ti,e...
i didnt understand how PR officers better that DRs?? this is a million dollar question....????
Ur so called million dollar question in itself is a harbinger which shows u have a very little knowledge of the services and Govt.administration.U have to understand the ways by which an employee can enter the ITD as an officer.
DeleteFirst and the foremeost,it is the IRS(UPSC exam) through which one can rise to the level of Spl.secy to GOI.This is inline with the IPS.
Secondly,the very next level of entry into the ITD is Income tax inspectors(SSC exam).This is in lines with CI of police.Through 1 promotion CI of police becomes DSP,now U cant deny that a person promoted as DSP is not equivalent to a direct recruit DSP(through state PSC) as both perform the same work and both draw the same payscale.similarly,ITI is promoted to the cadre of ITO.The latter draws the same pay scale as that of DSPs and this fact is often considered for deputation post and both ITO and DSP are treated equal.
If ITO cant be an equivalent of a DSP keeping in view the kind of work and aptitude,then similarly an IRS cannot be equivalent of an IPS,IAS or for that matter any civil servant considering the nature of the work they perform.
So MR.DR please dont try to create false impression among people by ur specious arguments.
PRs are accustomed to performing the assesments tasks from the very beginning of their career and they become IRS after atleast 24 years,with merely 1 and half yr experience in NADT DRs come out with their heads high and start considering themselves as superiors and experieced just because of clearing one of the toughest exams of the country(not to undermine ur efforts).
"Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced"
Mr.PR before showing knowledge of ITD dept to others please clear ur basics...these are the issues which u have ignored purposefully before writing ur comments....
Delete1. what u said is correct that ITI (SSC Exam) are equivalent to PSI of Police Dept. and after promotion PSI will become DSP and will be equivalent to ITO..right..but the promoted DSP will retire as DSP only because he promoted to DSP just before the retirement...but ITO (promted from ITI) will go further upto Addl.CIT (after cadre restructuring may be CIT) which is equivalent to DY secretary of GOI...just imagine guys the person joining GOI as Group C employee and retiring as DS GOI is it not funny? above and all they want to become CIT and retire as JS of GOI....it happens only in ITD...)
2.SECONDLY u said IRS is not equivalent to IAS/IPS...it shows ur poor knowledge of recruitment of Civil Service in India...all IAS/IRS/IPS officers are recruited from same Civil Service exam then how they are so different...for ur kind information now days IRS will preferred as second choice after IAS...
3. u r basic knowledge of the work system is pathetic...see Mr PR any individual requires skill, IQ, aptitude etc to learn the things and perform the work...if somebody having lowest IQ and aptitude doesnt able to clear the UPSC exam....the people who has cleared the exam is just required few months trg to perform excellently....please dont say that ITI who clears SSC exam and become ITO has same IQ who clears UPSC exam ( as u said toughest exam in the world)...
Hey poorly enlightened PR/ITO/staff of ITD, the comment made by the Anonymous on June 28, 2013 at 12:17 PM appears to be of a DR-DSP but definitely not that of IRS Officer. As DR-IRS, even we do not agree with him about his remarks. An ITO is equivalent of DSP irrespective of the source of DSP's recruitment. The DR-IRS always say that ITOs are equivalent of DSP/SDMs and so are required to maintain the dignity expected of your office. How can you think that the DRs would ever remark that the ITOs are inferior to the DSP. An ITO has quasi-judicial powers in addition to executive powers of inquiry, whereas the DSP does not have any quasi-judicial powers. Powers apart, DSP and ITO are at the same rank classification as per GoI Rules.
DeleteIf you people do not want to respect the senior officers of ITD and want to make reckless comments under the veil of anonymity, all of you in course of time will be losers. I do not know what level you are working in the department, but if we want we can trace you and subject you to deep trouble in the clutches of Police action. I am warning you finally not to make hatred comments. I am telling you once again that if you are individually in trouble nobody comes to your rescue in ITD.
Hey poorly enlightened PR/ITO/staff of ITD, the comment made by the Anonymous on June 28, 2013 at 12:17 PM appears to be of a DR-DSP but definitely not that of IRS Officer. As DR-IRS, even we do not agree with him about his remarks. An ITO is equivalent of DSP irrespective of the source of DSP's recruitment. The DR-IRS always say that ITOs are equivalent of DSP/SDMs and so are required to maintain the dignity expected of your office. How can you think that the DRs would ever remark that the ITOs are inferior to the DSP. An ITO has quasi-judicial powers in addition to executive powers of inquiry, whereas the DSP does not have any quasi-judicial powers. Powers apart, DSP and ITO are at the same rank classification as per GoI Rules.
DeleteIf you people do not want to respect the senior officers of ITD and want to make reckless comments under the veil of anonymity, all of you in course of time will be losers. I do not know what level you are working in the department, but if we want we can trace you and subject you to deep trouble in the clutches of Police action. I am warning you finally not to make hatred comments. I am telling you that if you are individually in trouble nobody comes to your rescue in ITD.
whoeer the staff writng the comments in this thread needs to choose proper word while addressing the IRS officers. Mind you, u guys are going to work under IRS. Do not create troubles for your brothren. Times are really changing, the current generation of IRS is ready to take Dept to new heights in future and in the process will remove any weeds out of the way.
ReplyDeleteThis IRS is ready to take the dept to new heights by debasing the foundation which results in a collapse.So the aphorism must be "Give and Take respect".We are ready to
Deleterespect seniors at the same time ready to command from juniors(newly entered ACITs).
If the IRS is really willing to take the dept to apotheosis,then get ready to challenge ur conuterparts i.e. IAS,IPS not the hapless ITOs who are subordinates.
DeleteThere have been many instances where a DR IRS has been harassed by even SIs of police!.
An on bail DSP beats up an IRS officer in Amritsar with impunity.No case was lodged against the DSP even with the entire IRS asscoation backing the IRS officer and complaining the DGP.This is the fate of an IRS officer outside.
One more example is that of a DRI,ADG in Chennai who was widely known as honest outside was arrested by CBI by fabricating a case against him which is derogatory to the entire service.MOst often IRS officers are vindictively targetted by CBI as they are a vulnerable and pliable lot among the Civil Servies.Im sorry it it caused umbrage,but something that must be thought about.
Hey Mr... control your tongue. Nobody can beat anyone and the least is the government servant. When u quote instances, be responsible. If that were true and correct, give the name of that IRS officer in Amritsar and also narrate what happened afterwards. Without knowing the fate of that police official and without knowing the full facts do not dare to write anything here.
DeleteOn the contrary there were many instances wherein the lower staffs touched the feet of Commissioners and Chief Commissioners for best postings within the Department and later the same staff retired as JCITs. If you see on the contrary, can a future JCIT stuff officer bow down to the feet of the senior officers in the department.
There were innumerable number of cases wherein the staffs and the PRs approached IRS Officers for solving their problems involved with Police and other departments because the colleague Civil Servants of IRS are manning the other departments. Hey Mr.PR (and staff)! do not try to write anything anonymously to mislead the readers but rather you show the same belligerent attitude to your CC/CIT/Addl.CIT/DCIT/ACIT and then narrate here their reactions.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060924/punjab1.htm
ReplyDeleteThe last post in that website quotes all the things required for u.If I quoted the name of officer in my previous post,it amounts to defamng him.Also check this website
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060922/main3.htm
Now u respond.
Good, you have given at least half information source.
ReplyDeleteBut what do you want to say?
Rowdies and Goondas have beaten up and even killed police officers including IPS Officers for instance young IPS in recent times in MP. So for you! the wrong doers are much more powerful than the system.
Some greedy ITOs have been beaten up by the Contractors. So do you think anyone supports the Contractors?
First you do not spread dislike and hatred about the staffs/PRs in the minds of the Senior Officers.
How come IRS or any civil service claim to be a specialist, when their qualification required in the Civil Service exam are too generalistic. If working on a type of job for a long time makes one a specialist, then even IAS can be called a specialist- in General Administration, Public interfacing, Coordination etc etc.
ReplyDeleteGreat article from the trade union point of view. However, it is silent on how public interest will be served by accepting any of the suggestions.
ReplyDeleteCreating monolithic cadres creates inbreeding and corruption. The IRS and corruption are well connected. In fact, other services should be taken to administer the non-taxation parts of the IRS, like administration, accounts, procurement, etc. There is a need to create a system of checks and balances to create accountability. And ClassI oficers should be punished if they start behaving like a trade union.
Clarification regarding misconceptions stated in above post and blog comments:
ReplyDeleteTo reach the grade of an ITO for promotees takes at least 10- 15 years of service (which includes tough field experience/struggle as an inspector). Your views are a blatant discrimination of an experienced, equally capable officer who probably has more knowledge and experience than a direct recruit IRS. In a department where only age is the criteria for promotion, it is not necessarily a fair playing ground where contribution to the department, stupendous work year after year is simply blindsided by a simple praise of appreciation from a babu with a so called IRS tag. Y so, just because he could crack a exam (not to discredit the hard work he puts in while doing so). FYI ITO is a gazette rank and the roles and responsibilities are the same as that of a direct recruit (IRS- ACIT), he refers the same books while, has the same judicial powers (if not he will not be able to execute a single assessment order). I will tell you the difference here only cases above a certain amount(which i don't wish to disclose) comes under the scrutiny of an ACIT/DC (IRS).btw the struggle of an understaffed ITO to execute his duties takes a toll from all the multitasking and pressure to execute/reach the budget for the financial year. And now you disrespect the sentiments and plight of a capable officer by calling him/naming him as a senior inspector for the sake of your egoistic selfish so called hierarchical order by holding back their deserving promotions for years...(for them to always be a subordinate to a IRS even if he is equally or more capable to a direct recruit)Now that my friend is a sadistic view point which brings more chaos than order.!!!
P.S: I am stating you the facts of the condition inside the department.
How do i know all this, well thats for you to speculate on.
In the era of right to information act, every action of an officer working in the department should be put to public scrutiny so that infighting within the department can be eliminated, thereby the so-called good/plum postings concept will go away. The officers should realise that the tax office is not their property. The public have right to know why taxes have not been collected by the tax officers at the desired level/rate.
ReplyDeleteWhile the bold/right decision makers and performers should be rewarded and at the same time officers of inaction/wrong decision makers and non-performers should be punished.
Incompetence and lack of initiavite of top IRS officers(DRs,since only they can rise to the top),has led to the failure of Directorate of Income Tax,criminal investigation(DCI) which had exhaustive powers to carry out search and seizure operations and even had provisions to carry fire arms.Affected by avarice,some top IRS officers in the investigation wing had sought closure of the DCI because of their misconception that DCI is obstructing their work and subsequently got it abandoned.These officers will never allow others/country to develop,they are mostly egocentric and self-serving,otherwise the DCI would have burgeoned into a premier investigation agency setting examples to other agencies.Now DRs,please stop imputing this cause to PRs since they have a vestige of or literally no say in decision/policy making.And these incompetent people call themselves better than other service officers.However,officers of other services have always championed in the development of their working conditions with many subordinate agencies which inturn would be salutary to all people,but the so called "IRS" have literally shown no interest in development of organisation and always fought for personal benefits like pay scales and re-structuring of their cadre in the name of re-restructuring of ITD.And now,they say that ITOs are occupying the posts of IRS.So sad!!
ReplyDeleteOne ITO has been commenting here regularly. He is trying to mislead the readers here. In one comment there was a comparison between Police and Income Tax Department. He argues that PSI is equivalent to ITI. Let me clarify some things here. In IT Dept recruitment is done at ITI level through SSC but in Police it is done at SI level. This SI gets promoted as CI, then DSP and ASP before being getting IPS cadre. So to be SP an SI has to pass through three layers - CI, DSP, ASP. Then only he will get IPS. In some cases he will be promoted as SP but not conferred IPS. This SP will be called non-cadre SP. In IT Dept. recruitment is done at ITI level. An ITI gets promoted as ITO and then as ACIT. So an ITI has to pass only through one layer before getting IRS cadre - ITO. So the stagnation being projected by Promotee IRS or ITOs is a strategy to mislead the public, Govt. and other Departments. This stagnation at ITO level is due to absence of one level between OS and ITI and one level between ITI and ITO. Once ITO gets promoted as ACIT he will automatically get IRS cadre. There will be no exam or interview for this. ITOs also do not come under the administrative control of ACIT/DCIT. Every person recruited as ITI (Group 'C') retires as Addl.CIT or CIT (Director or JS level). This is unheard of in any other Dept. But these people are not satisfied even with this. They want to retire as CCIT or Secretary to GOI. This is nothing but greed. The comments passed here by this ITO clearly shows that he doesn't have any respect to his senior officers. This is the way many ITOs behave in IT Dept. They are interested only in promotion by any means. They are not happy because they get IRS cadre. They are least bothered about the cadre. They only see a bigger opportunity to earn more money as ACIT/DCIT. Ask any taxpayer or CA, he will tell you how these ITOs and promotee IRS work in the Dept. They have taken corruption to new levels. Assessment powers should be taken out from ITOs and they should be made subordinate to ACIT like in all other Departments. The country and its people are important. Not the illegal promotion prospects of ITIs and ITOS to enable them to earn illegal money through dubious means.
ReplyDeleteI have been following this post and its comments since long. I wanted to comment many times but controlled my emotions. Now I believe I have to give my piece of mind here. I was earlier an IRS officer and later made it to IAS. I am currently working as an Additional Secretary in the State Government. I naturally have mixed reactions here. I had the opportunity to see the functioning of the Income Tax Department and State Government. The Income Tax Dept functions very professionally. The State Govt is a mess. There is huge difference in the functioning of IAS and IRS officers. In IAS we are generally given huge responsibilities from the beginning though the postings are not very favourable. But there is lot of respect from subordinates. There is lot of authority. Coming to subordinate employees, I must say that the Income Tax Dept. offers the best promotion and posting oppotunities when compared to any other central or state Govt. In state Govt, even a person recruited in Group A as RDO, will take atleast 15-20 years to be conferred IAS. A person recruited at Group C will never be promoted to Group A cadre. In IT Dept, a person recruited in Group C will become Group A in just 15 years. Every Group C recruit will retire in Group A in IT Dept. Group B (ITO) in IT Dept does not report to ACIT so ITO is almost equal to ACIT in functioning. I do not agree with most of the comments made by promotee IRS officers or ITOs here. My sympathies are with direct recruit IRS officers, particularly ACIT/DCIT level officers. Most of the comments made by promotee IRS or ITOs here are wrong and completely misleading. Coming to IAS and IRS issue, I too personally feel there should be some functional area of operation for every service. More importance may be given to specialist services. The promotion prospects of other Civil Services have to be improved. Every service has its importance and relevance. A unified civil service may also be thought off here. I have seen both the services from within and I can say that IRS has arrived and can be called as the future service of this country. But IAS has its relevance and will continue to flourish. Complete restructuring of the administrative system of the country is necessary. As Gandhiji said, the country has enough to satisfy everybody's need but not everybody's greed. I am pained by the some of the comments here both by IAS and IRS officers & both by DRs and PRs. But finally a word for the author Mr. Sathya Prashant. I do not know him personally as I have left the IRS long back and he might have not joined the service by then. But I have enquired about him from my batchmates in IRS. They all have high regard for him and his work. He is known to be a bright and promising officer. Congrats for your article but I personally feel you should show some restraint. You may be right but sometimes it is better to be mum and diplomatic. Concentrate your energies for the development of the Dept and the country. Humans by their nature will never be satisfied. Believe me I am not completely satisfied as an IAS officer. IRS was far better in some issues. IAS is better in some. Take along your colleagues in other departments and also your subordinates. But I also salute your guts for taking on the powerful and mighty. Continue to be bold but try to be diplomatic and subtle. Having said all this I would always prefer boldness over cowardice. You may face some small problems if you are bold but will gain and be respected the end. Cowards, even though they are appealing to one and all will be dumped at the end. I also request all to stop spitting venom and malice here. Please work for the country and its people. That's what we are here and that's why we are called public servants.
ReplyDeleteexcellent, this is the type of control for a civil service officer, not like Mr Satya Prashant.
DeleteCBI Press Release
ReplyDeleteNew Delhi, 12.07.2013
TWO YEARS RIGOROUS IMPRISONMENT TO THEN INCOME TAX OFFICER AND INCOME TAX INSPECTOR IN A BRIBERY CASE
The Special Judge for CBI Cases, Coimbatore has convicted Shri N.Gopalsamy, then Income Tax Officer and Shri C.U.Ashokan, Income Tax Inspector, Tirupur and sentenced them to undergo two years Rigorous Imprisonment in a bribery case.
A case was registered by CBI on 11.09.2008 against Shri. C. U.Ashokan and Shri. N. Gopalsamy, the then Inspector of Income Tax and Income Tax Officer respectively of Income Tax, Tirupur, based on the complaint alleging that Shri. C. U. Ashokan and Shri. N. Gopalsamy had abused their official position and demanded illegal gratification of Rs. 25,000/- each from the Complainant for not taking action on a Tax Evasion Petition/ complaint against her. Subsequently, a trap was laid by CBI and both the accused were caught red handed while demanding & accepting the bribe of Rs. 25,000/- each from the relative of the complainant. After completion of investigation, a chargesheet was filed against Shri. C. U. Ashokan & Shri. N. Gopalsamy before the court of Special judge for CBI Cases, Coimbatore u/s. 7 and sec 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
On completion of trial, the Special Judge for CBI Cases convicted both the accused.
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It is very difficult to understand that how DR IRS officers claim to be specialists. One can easily see DR IRS struggling with the technical financial nature of the work, specially in the beginning of the career. These officers generally are very weak with Mathematics as well as accounts. They are also very weak in Law as one can see them struggling with appeals.
ReplyDeleteRecently a statement came from the department that 97% of the tax assessment in litigation is not possible to be recovered. This shows their weakness with Accounts as well as Law. Many come with Arts (History, Sociology etc.) background with no quantitative aptitude. Things must improve with the New CSAT pattern of UPSC exam.
The author of the post P Satya Prashanth seems to be less concerned about performance of the Department and more concerned with empowerment of Direct recruit IRS. This power hunger may be natural as he belongs to the same group.
This simplistic solution can be claimed by other departments also but has such solutions worked in past and with precedents is the golden question?
It appears that you wrote UPSC examination but terribly failed in clearing it. The optional subjects mentioned by you are, perhaps, popular of your time. The candidates' educational background is many a time different from the OPTIONAL subjects chosen.
ReplyDeleteIt can be seen from some of your writings that you feel you are the most BRIILIANT person and further feel that the country unfortunately missed you to select you into Civil Services. You may keep this feeling to yourself and do not try exhibit before others.
If you still have a feeling that you only are the best, appear for CAT/GMAT/GRE/TOEFL (not UPSC, because you may be over-aged) and join the best University.
Coming back to assessment orders, the CIT-Appeals and ITAT are the best forums to comment about the efficiency of DR-IRS and PRs. I am a DR-IRS and do not want to comment about the subject knowledge, efficiency and drafting capability of PRs. Let us leave this matter to CAs, the staffs, CIT-Appeals and ITAT.
Leave me dear friend; personal attacks probably do not suit your high stature. That said the fact remains here http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Difficult-to-recover-97-of-Rs-4-82-lakh-crore-tax-arrears-Central-Board-of-Direct-Taxes/articleshow/20724690.cms.
DeleteNow such a massive figure of loss of 4.7 lakh crores itself speaks of the inability of the department's wizards. This is probably the real and undisputable scam in the country. The departments was saved of the hue and cry like 2G only because of its low profile nature. Now such huge amounts cannot be the legacy of the small fishes as they are given small work only.
The facts prove that DR IRS has also failed and in the instant article P Sathya Prashath is only trying to pass the buck on seniors as well as juniors which are lower staff and the IAS.
I do not say that PR IRS and IAS are all-right but the bigger share for failure goes to DR IRS itself and in such scenario blaming others for once own fault is the thing which the author has done. Afterall blaming others is the easiest thing to do in this world.
Unfulfilled desires make the souls, the Ghosts. Realise your position and be satisfied with what you have and what you are in the Department. Your SSC (Staff Selection Commission) batchmates might not have reached in their respective departments, the level you reached and the status you started enjoying in the society by virtue of your position.
DeleteThe direct recruit IRS officers are a disgruntled lot. They had to join IRS simply because they could not make it to IAS. Thus they are necessarily inferior to IAS. This inferiority complex remains with them throughout their life. It is very ironical that they want to get equal status with with IAS knowing fully well that their competence level is less than their IAS counterparts.
ReplyDeleteIf the issue is the welfare of the department and improvement in the administration of the department, then there is a need for drastic change in the recruitment process for the IRS officers. Such officers can not be recruited through an examination which is basically meant for recruiting generalist administrators (IAS). When there is no dearth of people having specialised knowledge, there is no reason that left over people are recruited to head the Income Tax Department. There should be a separate process of recruitment for IRS officers so that only those people with right aptitude join the IRS.
Moreover in a specialised service there is no reason why system of horizontal entry should not be introduced. It will ensure that highly competent people remain at the leadership of the department.
So far as the grudges of direct recruit IRS officers against the promote officers are concerned, the overt reasons being given are:
i) The ACITs are not supervising the work of the ITOs
ii) The relaxation of 1:1 qouta at the time of restructuring of 2000-2001 may cause the losing of status of organised Group A service for IRS
iii) The promotee officers are sometimes goes to very top level
The ACIT are not the supervisory officers of the ITOs because of the nature of the work with which these officers are entrusted with. A directly recruited IRS officer through an exam which is basically meant for recruiting generalist officers can not effectively supervise the work of an ITO till he gains some practical experience in the department.
The fear of losing the status of organised Group A service does not have any basis. A one relaxation of the 1:1 quota can not be ground for losing the status of organised Group A service.
An analysis of the last 30 years of history of the department will make it clear that no promotee officer can become a hurdle for the promotion of a DR officer. The maximum level to which a promotee officer can reach is CIT that too he can serve a that level for a very small period. But in other services a large number of officers reach the level of Joint Secretary.
The grievance of the directly recruited IRS officers are totally unfounded and it shows that although they are members of the elite Group A service yet their outlook is very parochial.
Dear Editor - BOI,
ReplyDeleteFirst I would like to thank you for the publicity given by BOI for the pressing issues raised by me in my article on my blog. It has stirred emotions among many people. It has highlighted many injustices being perpetrated in the governance. I have gone through all the comments here to my article. Some were encouraging and some were horrible. Many people gave good suggestions but many also resorted to demeaning other services or other classes of employees. These reactions are vindication of inequalities among the services and between different classes of employees. There is a solution for everything provided the political leadership shows a will to act.
After going through the comments made here I have decided to request you to remove this post of mine posted by BOI on Feb 18, 2013. A lot of negative comments are being passed here. The actual purpose has been swept aside and people with personal agendas have taken over. This is only creating bad blood among the various groups of employees. I personally believe that we are all civil servants - servants of the people but not masters. We tend to forget the servant part after entering the service. I request the BOI to please remove this post. I think it has reached its purposeful end. Its time to move on. I once again thank BOI for raising all good issues here and request you to continue doing it. You are doing a great service to the country. Thank you very much.
Dear Mr Satya Prasanth. First, we want to extend our congratulations once more to you for such a wonderful piece of writing. The issues you have raised fearlessly are pertinent for a healthy civil service in our country, and more importantly, you have articulated your viewpoints in a straightforward manner. And the kind of responses it has generated demonstrates that this is a piece to be preserved for the future generation who will have interest in the evolution of Indian bureaucracy. Having said this, we are ready to do the following:
ReplyDelete1. Kindly ask one of your friends to go through each of the comments, and ask him to write to us at feedback@babusofindia.com and tell us which are the comments (time and the date of publication) which we need to disable (so that viewers can't see those). Let us add here that we have rejected at least 100 comments on the ground that those have crossed our Laxman Rekha. Yet, a few others must have slipped into it. We are ready to correct that.
2. If you wish, we can immediately stop accepting any more comment on the post.
But let's repeat, you have actually created history by writing this wonderful piece. No future writer can attempt to write a book on corridors, particularly the equation of IAS and IRS, without factoring in your viewpoints. Let's preserve it for posterity.
1 thing needs to be added. SSC & UPSC exams are quite different but both are difficult. Nitika Pawar IAS 2011 batch got 18th rank in Civil service exam but 150th rank in SSC CGLE. S Divyadarshini IAS topper 2010 could not clear SSC CGLE 2010. Many such examples are ther. SSC CGLE is based on aptitude & analytical skills while Civil service exam is based on general knowledge & presentation skills. SSC recruited officers are also quite smart since most of the toppers join IT department precisely because promotions are fast. If Inspector level officers are not promoted in a reasonable time frame, then only the bottom rankers of SSC exam will join IT department which will be really sad.
ReplyDeleteThe same rankers had not even figured in 1000's in +2 exams. So you want to conclude that +2 exam is more difficult than IAS exam. Very funny!
DeleteDear Editor,
ReplyDeleteIf you leave the responsibility of editing the comments to the author himself, he would allow only those comments which favour his article and some generalized comments and leave out all the others which are critical of his writing. All the fitting answers that were given against some scathing comments made by the DRs would be eliminated. Hence I request that let it remain as it is and disable any future comments or remove it as a whole as suggested by the author.
funny analysis of the apparently inspector recruit (Aug 10, 4:53 pm). He created a great feel good factor for all the unsuccessfuls in the Civils Exam. Do not have permanent grievance for your failure in Civils Services Exam.
ReplyDeleteLet's put an end to this debate, and go ahead in one's career and service to this great nation. Thanks all for participating in this six-month-long debate, perhaps the longest debate on any issue related to Indian civil services ever. Do enjoy reading Babus of India, and continue to post your valuable comments on other posts.
ReplyDelete