NAGPUR: Two of the union finance ministry’s biggest departments — central board of indirect taxes and customs (CBIC) and central board of direct taxes (CBDT) — are facing a massive crisis with over 70,000 posts collectively lying vacant in its branches across the country.
These facts came to the fore through an RTI application filed by activist Sanjay Thul. Officials said that CBIC has over 40,000 vacancies while CBDT’s 30,000 posts are yet to be filled up. The respective websites of both organizations have information about vacancies.
City-based Thul, also the national president of All India Federation for Customs, Central Excise, and GST, SC/ST Employees’ Welfare Organisations, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to fill up all these vacancies at the earliest.
According to Thul, the staff shortage has led to a big burden on the existing employees and is affecting their efficiency. “Lots of citizens have lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. The country is facing a massive problem of unemployment due to the pandemic like never before. This shortage has a direct impact on goods and service tax (GST) collections,” said Thul.
In some ranges, where only one superintendent and inspector are working, the number of allotted taxpayers was running into thousands, making monitoring work effectively meaningless. “Important work such as maintaining database for the purpose of reports, correspondence with erring taxpayers, issuance of demand notices and compliance of objections is not being properly done due to manpower shortage. Unscrupulous elements are taking advantage of this situation and it’s the main reason for shortfall in estimated GST collections,” he said in the letter.