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A stir by officials from both the direct and indirect tax departments at a time when the government was going after evaders would jeopardise the finance ministry’s efforts to meet collection targets, putting further pressure on the fiscal deficit. “All the superintendents of central excise & service tax will tender their resignations on April 30, being fed up of no promotions, lower salary and lack of working conditions,” said Ravi Malik, secretary general, All India Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers. Ahead of the Budget presentation, the officers also plan to protest between February 25 and March 1.
And, the Income Tax Gazetted Officers Association has resolved none of its members would participate in any search and survey action, including those on Tax Deducted at Source, inspection, verification, study or recovery, from February 20. The Association comprises the second-rung officials, who supervise the overall work of revenue collection.
The revenue department says it is negotiating with these associations. The excise and service tax officials have said they’d perform only official duties in relation to the budget and revenue collection till April 30, without any extra efforts. The income tax officers say they will not cooperate at all in tax recovery drives and will not file any official reports from Monday.
The associations are demanding implementation of cadre restructuring without any cuts, promotions, parity with counterparts in other departments, and upgrades in pay scales, among other things.
Net indirect tax collections were Rs 308,919 crore during April-December 2012. The budget estimate for the entire financial year (ending March 31) was Rs 505,044 crore. This leaves another Rs 2 lakh crore to be covered in the last three months of the year. The task for the income tax department is equally challenging. Net direct tax collections in between April 2012 and January 2013 were Rs 390,310 crore, whereas the budget target is Rs 570,257 crore. The finance ministry has started issuing warning to suspected evaders to pay the due tax or face action. Recently, notices were sent to some companies asking why they’d paid less service tax and excise duty this year, although the rate had gone up from 10 per cent to 12 per cent. This exercise would be hit with an officers’ agitation.
