Punjab: Future of 6 ETOs attached with headquarters now rests with CM

LUDHIANA: Almost a week after the state taxation department, in an unprecedented move, withdrew the power of six excise and taxation officials (ETO) and attached them with the Patiala head office after unverified reports of them having indulged in an extortion case emerged, a preliminary probe has been conducted and inquiry report has been sent to the chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh as he holds the taxation portfolio.

Confirming to TOI about the development, financial commissioner taxation MP Singh said, “We have sent the first inquiry report to the chief minister for his consideration, as of now I can't say anything more than this on this issue.”

In an order dated February 13 , excise and taxation commissioner (ETC) Punjab Vivek Pratap Singh had withdrawn the powers of six ETOs, including Shalinder Singh of range-2 Ludhiana, Anish Sharma, Ved Prakash Jakhar and Mukti Gupta of range-1 Ludhiana, Tanul Goyal of range-3 Ludhiana and Neetu Bawa of Fatehgarh Sahib. As per the orders of ETC, all the investigations and all the routine work which was under process in the offices of these officials were allocated to other officials and they were asked to report to the department’s headquarters and attached there until further notice.

So far ETC and other officials of the department have remained tight-lipped over the incident and apart from confirming the attachment of these officials with headquarters and withdrawal of their power no other information regarding the case has been made public.

Mystery of affidavit of no extortion

If sources are to be believed the action against these officials was taken after a Congress leader from Ludhiana complained to the senior officials about these officials extorting money from a businessman. In an interesting chain of events, on February 12 an affidavit by this businessman was submitted in the state GST (SGST) department, Ludhiana in which he had claimed that neither any official of SGST extorted any money from him nor he never paid any bribe to any official of the department. Taking the affidavit had brought a lot of embarrassment to the state taxation department Ludhiana as several businessman and politicians had questioned that if no scam or extortion had taken place what was the need for department to take affidavit from the businessman?