Government sacks 15 more senior Income Tax officials over corruption charges

Sending a tough message to bureaucrats taking kickbacks for facilitating tax evasion by companies, the Centre sacked 15 senior tax officials facing probes in corruption cases, said a government statement today. According to a Finance Ministry tweet, "In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (j) of rule 56 of the Fundamental Rules, the President of India has retired 15 Officers of Indian Revenue Service (C&CE) in public interest with immediate effect on completing 50 years of age."

Ministry of Finance further stated, "All these 15 Officers shall be paid a sum equivalent to the amount of pay & allowances for a period of 3 months calculated at the same rate at which they were supposed to be withdrawing them (pay & allowances) immediately before their retirement."

All these 15 Officers shall be paid a sum equivalent to the amount of pay & allowances for a period of 3 months calculated at the same rate at which they were supposed to be withdrawing them (pay & allowances) immediately before their retirement.

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) June 18, 2019

The FinMin tweet added, "A separate Order in each case to that effect has been issued today by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India."

Last week, the government had dismissed 12 income tax officials who were facing corruption charges. In the twelve senior income tax officers, included joint commissioner Ashok Agarwal, on charges of corruption and professional misconduct.

Besides Agarwal, the eleven officers who were compulsorily retired by the Ministry of Finance includes SK Srivastava, Homi Rajvansh, BB Rajendra Prasad, Ajoy Kumar Singh, B Arulappa, Alok Kumar Mitra, Chander Saini Bharti, Andasu Ravindar, Vivek Batra, Ram Kumar Bhargava and Swetabh Suman. 

Notably, Swetabh Suman was reportedly sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in a 14-year-old case pertaining to disproportionate assets by a special CBI court, in February 2019.

Agarwal was suspended between 1999 and 2014, but was reinstated on the Supreme Court order in December 2013. He was a Joint Commissioner rank officer against whom there were serious complaints of corruption and extortion from businessmen.

The 12 other officers were compulsorily retired under FR (fundamental rule) 56 (j) of Central Civil Services (pension) Rules by the Finance Ministry.

Notably, India has improved its ranking, among 180 countries, by three points to 78th on a global corruption index in 2018, according to the annual index of the Transparency International, an anti-graft watchdog.