With reference to A K Bhattacharya’s article, “Choosing the tax implementers well” (December 7), it is necessary to choose the tax implementers well but I cannot agree that “no officer with less than two years left in service can be considered for the top job”. This will have a deleterious effect on the service.
First, it is not that the lead is given only by the chairman. The members have an almost equal amount of service as the chairman. They lead along with competent joint secretaries as a team. The chairman alone does not matter much.
Second, all members belong to the same batch and maybe the top of the next batch. So they are almost the same age. If there is a two-year criterion, then the sixth man may supersede all five seniors at one go. That will be ruinous for the board. In one service when the officers have worked together side by side, the sense of seniority is ingrained in them for decades. If they are superseded en masse at the end of their career, they will not tolerate it and the administration will collapse.
Third, if such a strict rule is followed, the political master may simply bypass an honest and upright officer by not making him chairman for a few months because he has less than two years of service left. At that stage his junior would stake claim for the post. This would lead to distrust and bickering. I know that such a thing has happened in the past.
Fourth, honesty and efficiency are more important than a long term. Several times, revenue departments did not have chairman who satisfied this criterion. So prolonging the service of a bad officer is not a good idea.
As the author has taken the name of Najib Shah and said that his departure would be a handicap, I would like to point out that the next incumbent, Vanaja Swarna, is equally competent, honest and dynamic. She will do equally well. The goods and services tax will not suffer.
Sukumar Mukhopadhyay, New Delhi
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