The Finance Ministry has forced another 22 senior Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) officials, facing corruption charges, to retire, sources said. The CBIC has sacked officials from a total of 12 zones, including Nagpur, Bhopal, Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Meerut, Mumbai, Bengaluru Customs, Mumbai Customs Zone II, and Chandigarh. On June, 12 officers from Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and 15 officials from CBIC faced a similar fate and were compulsorily retired under Fundamental Rule 56(J) of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
As per the rule, the appropriate authority has the absolute right to retire any Government servant by giving at least three months’ notice in writing or three months’ pay and allowances.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance’s attempt to project itself as the government that fights corruption and takes a tough stand against it. Also, Modi said in his recent interview, “Some black sheep in the tax administration may have misused their powers and harassed taxpayers, either by targeting honest assesses or by taking excessive action for minor or procedural violations. We have recently taken the bold step of compulsorily retiring a significant number of tax officials, and we will not tolerate this type of behaviour”.
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