Inordinate delay in appointing members of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex body of the Income Tax Department, is puzzling the entire revenue service and tax bureaucracy; the Board has four crucial vacancies while its chief P.C. Mody and member S.K. Gupta are both serving extended tenures.
Mr. Mody was given a three-month extension effective from March 1, 2021. Apart from being Chairman, he is also holding additional charge as Member (investigation) and Member (administration), both crucial positions. That one person is holding three highly important positions has led to concentration of powers and left the tax bureaucracy concerned.
In the Board, the posts of Member (investigation), Member (legislation), Member (income tax and revenue), and Member (administration) are vacant.
In January this year, the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) had shortlisted names for the CBDT members among 10 contenders. According to sources, after that meeting, CoS had further shortlisted a few names for the post of the members and these names were sent to the government for approval.
However, there appears to be no progress on the appointment process and the government appears to be in wait and watch mode. One possible reason could be that the way the Revenue Department in the Ministry of Finance worked during the tenure of ex-secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey has apparently not gone down well with top bosses in the administration.
Mr. Pandey was Revenue Secretary and designated as Finance Secretary and superannuated in February this year without any extension. After his superannuation, Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj has been given the additional charge of Secretary, revenue.
“It is very intriguing for the entire tax bureaucracy that no appointment is happening in the apex body. The last appointment in the CBDT was that of S.K. Gupta, who was brought in the Board out of turn, bypassing almost half a dozen senior most Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers,” a retired IRS officer, who was superseded for a post in the Board, told The Hindu.
Mr. Gupta, Member (tax payers services and systems), is holding an additional charge of Legislation and his extended tenure will end in July 2021. According to insiders, he is now eyeing a slot in the UPSC as a member.
In July 2020, Mr. Gupta was given a one-year extension with re-appointment in the Board in a precedent-setting decision.
Many now retired and serving officers blame the ex-Secretary for opacity in the working of the Revenue Department, the most important branch in the Ministry. The officers who were superseded to accommodate Mr. Gupta in March 2020 include Nina Nigam, Sunita Puri, Asha Agarwal among others.
Sources in the Income Tax bureaucracy claim that delay by the government in appointments is leading to unnecessary speculations and manipulations by vested interests. For example, though the CoS has shortlisted candidates for final approval but two names, who apparently did not figure in the list, are doing the rounds. Of the two officers, one is posted in Nagpur while the other’s brother is a top secretary in the government.
“Hope the government takes the decision in due course so that all conspiracy theories, gossips and speculations are put to an end,” a serving IRS official told The Hindu.
Recently, Shiv Sena MP from Rajya Sabha Priyanka Chaturvedi had raised the issue of vacancies in the CBDT during the Budget session of Parliament.