It may not be very good news for the tax payers as a portion of their tax paid on their hard earned money is being drained as incentive to the IT officers. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has decided to award Laptop to each and every Officers starting from ITO and above. They said this money will be spent to improve the infrastructure of the department.
As per CBDT instruction, Rs 196 Crores{Approx} has been awarded as excess collection over target fixed in the F.Y. 2006-07. This is only one percent of the money in excess of the target achieved by the department.
You may rightly think, “Are the officers only responsible for the huge collection?”
CBDT was kind enough to offer a very small portion to the greater chunk of the lower employees. They offered a reimbursement of mobile bill of Rs 500 per month for 3 years for Group C staff and a handset and free life time connection to the Group D employees. But the Service Associations bluntly refused the proposal without being able to suggest any better alternative. In the meanwhile, an order to allot 15 handset per Range has come but not implemented from pressure of the Unions as only a few portion of employee may be benefited. Since then the matter of incentive relating to Group C and D employees is jeopardized.
There is a burning question. If a Chief Commissioner and an Income Tax Officer has equal contribution achieving the excess collection and share equal incentive, why the same analogy be drawn between an ITO and a Gr C or Gr D employee? As per our day to day experience we can see that the maximum of workload is being carried by the ground line staff. Is it not the responsibility of the authority to see that their morals are not down?
If anything is to be given as incentive to boost up the morals, the amount should be equal. Let us see the role of the Service Associations in this matter. But they should get the message that anger is mounting between the lower level employees.
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