NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued instructions to all chief commissioners of income-tax (CCITs) to ensure that Group ‘A’ income-tax officers do not get posted to “sensitive” posts or stations in excess of the two-year tenure prescribed in the CBDT’s transfer and placement policy of 2005.
The CBDT issued the instructions following the finding by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) that the transfer and placement policies for senior tax officials, which were formulated in 2005 as a part of reforms in tax administration, have largely remained unimplemented.
It is not clear how the policy will be enforced since CBDT, as noted by CAG, lacks central control and has no central data base of Group ‘A’ officers.
CBDT had told CAG that the database for Group ‘A” officers, other than commissioner of income-tax, was being maintained by field offices. The disposition list of officers of the rank of commissioner of income-tax prepared by CBDT indicated the stations of their posting, but it did not contain the date from which they were posted at a particular station. CBDT’s transfer and placement policy in 2005 categorised all stations into three classes and prescribed tenure of officers in different classes of station. The posts were categorised as sensitive and non-sensitive. The tenure of an officer in a sensitive post is to be restricted to two years at one stretch.
For Group ‘A’ officers of customs and Central excise are concerned, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) is the cadre controlling authority. Here also, a CAG test check of the disposition list as in May 2006 had found that the transfer and placement policy of May 2005 had only been partially implemented. As per the policy, the continuous stay of a Group ‘A’ officer should not exceed six years in a Class ‘A’ station (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and all posts in Customs Overseas Intelligence Network) and four years in Class ‘B’ stations (Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Goa, Surat, Kandla and Nagpur). The CAG noticed that 75 officers were yet to move out from a Class ‘A’ station after 7-15 years and 4 officers remained in Class ‘B’ station for 8-10 years.
The CBEC policy also categorised posts as “sensitive” and “non-sensitive”. The CAG test check revealed that seven officers were holding “sensitive” posts for 7-9 years against the prescribed tenure of not exceeding 2-3 years.
The policy also restricted the tenure of officers in the directorates of revenue intelligence, Central excise intelligence and vigilance for three years along with the condition that no officers should spend more than six year in these directorates during his entire service career. The CAG check, however, found that five officers of the CBEC were posted in these directorates for 7-10 years.
