Tax Officials Seeking Voluntary Retirement! Why?

The tax collection target given under the governance of the Prime Minister has created a troublesome scenario for the tax authorities. To give stimulus to the sluggish economy, the government wants tax officials to collect 17% more direct tax These types of taxes are directly imposed and paid to the government of India. Example of Direct Tax is Income Tax, TDS, Securities Transaction Tax, Fringe Benefit Tax, etc . The government has not reduced this target even after drastically cutting the corporate tax, so there is a crisis in front of the tax authorities as to how they will meet this target, especially when the government has also instructed the officials to not to deal with businessmen in a hard-nosed manner.

Government Officials are Under Pressure

According to reports, many tax officials say that they are stuck amid fears of meeting unrealistic collection targets and being over-zealous over tax evasion from tax evaders. According to data released by the Vice President of the Income Tax Gazetted Officers Association, 24 top-level officials of the Income Tax Department have applied for voluntary retirement this year. Last year, 34 officers took VRS. He says that even experienced officers who are working since 25-30 years are unable to withstand the pressure by the government. One by one, many applications are coming for VRS, while no voluntary retirement or benefit scheme is running at the point of time.

IT Department’s Discontentment

An official from North India said that the pressure is steadily increasing. According to these officials, they are under pressure to meet the collection targets, due to which they are doing things which they do not wish to do. Although only a few of the thousands of Income Tax officials left the job, many officials say that this gives a glimpse of the discontentment in the department, which has led to many transfers and resignations of many small level employees.

Actual Tax Collection is Far Away from the Target

The government had fixed a total collection target of Rs 13.35 lakh crore for the current financial year, of which the government has so far collected approx Rs 6 lakh crore, less than 50 percent.

In the first six months of this fiscal year, the direct tax collection has raised only by 3%. According to Aditi Nayyar, head economist of Moody’s Indian unit ICRA, the tax collection needs to increase by 42 percent between October and March to meet the government’s target.