New Delhi: Two major associations of Income Tax department employees Wednesday declared they have slowed down the work of revenue collection and threatened to stop all work on this front if their service-related demands are not met by early next month.
The two prominent groups-- Income Tax Employees Federation (ITEF) and Income Tax Gazetted Officers' Association (ITGOA)-- claim to represent about 97 percent of the department's workforce and have informed the apex-policy making body of the I-T, the CBDT, that their cadres have stopped reporting to senior officers and will go on a day-long strike on October 8.
The officials of these two associations form the major chunk of the manpower deployed to collect revenue under the direct taxes category in the country.
The government has set a Rs 7.98 lakh crore tax collection target for the I-T department during this financial year.
"We have stopped reporting to our seniors beginning today and we have also informed the CBDT that we are not going to be a part of government's latest initiative of widening the tax based which aims to include about 25 lakh new assessees every month," ITGOA President Ajay Goyal said during a press conference here.
ITEF President Ashok K Kanojia said their major demands of not getting due promotions in the ranks of Income Tax Officer (ITO) and Assistant and Deputy Commissioner of I-T, lack of work space and infrastructure are some of the major demands which are not being met by the CBDT and the government over the last two years and hence they have resorted to this boycott.
"On one hand the CBDT has promised to the government that the department will add about 1 crore new assessees this fiscal but at the same time there are huge number of vacancies in the cutting-edge and ground-level workforce of the tax department. We feel that as the revenue collection target was missed last year, it will be missed this time too," Kanojia said.
The associations, in their memorandum to the CBDT, said they have stopped work related to cases of "verification and scrutiny assessments" and that related to widening of tax base from September 9 itself.
The threat of a work slowdown and strike in department comes at a time when the Finance Ministry and the Central Board of Direct Taxes are looking for various measures to meet the direct taxes collection target and initiate a slew of measures to bring more and more assessees under the tax net.
"The irony is, on one hand there are promotions and work space availability for senior ranks of Indian Revenue Service, but there is virtually no facility or promotion for 97 percent of the workforce which actually goes on the ground to collect taxes for the government," Goyal said.
The two associations are considered powerful in the department as they represent the largest chunk of employees with the third group being of the IRS officers who constitute only about 3-4 percent of the I-T department.
The agitating associations also blamed the CBDT of implementing a flawed cadre restructuring project in the department which is making it "top heavy."
"Over 20,000 posts in cadres are lying vacant.Promotions from one rank to the other are delayed by over ten years but at the top levels of IRS, which are largely supervisory roles, there is no such problem. We believe the CBDT is biased towards us and hence we have decided to begin this boycott which will pick up speed if our demands are not met soon," Kanojia said.
The ITGOA and ITEF said there are serious concerns about the ability of the department to achieve the set tax collection targets at the end of the current fiscal in March next year, if a majority of the workforce is "demotivated and demoralised" because of these developments.
The associations alleged that a number of charges in the department, after the implementation of the new cadre restructuring policy, are being held in a dual capacity which is taking a toll on the healthy working of the department.
"The loss of work days because of the agitation will surely reflect in the overall state of direct tax collections," they said.
The two associations have created a Joint Council of Action (JCA) and their memorandum said they will "intensify their agitation" after October 8 if no solution is arrived at."
"We will also hold black flag demonstrations before CBDT Chairperson and the members. A half-day walkout is planned on October 1 as part of our agitation," Kanojia said.
The groups added that against a target of Rs 7.98 lakh crore collections this fiscal, the I-T department, by September 21, has collected RS 2,85,766 taxes.
