Committee formed to examine the transfer policy of Group A service of Income Tax.

The Govt. has formed a committe to examine various aspect of the transfer policy and suggest suitable amendmends to the existing transfer policy. The committee was asked to submit it's report within one week of it's formation.

View the order.

Though the time frame of it's report is already over, the Govt. yesterday, on 16th March added three new members to the committee. Most significantly, the Secretary General of ITGOA {the organization of promotee officers of Income Tax} is included in the committee.

View the order adding new members.

Cadre review and restructuring would be finalised by April this year.

The cadre review and restructuring of the Department of Income Tax would be finalised by April this year.

The exercise has been initiated in the wake of Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and the changing work scenario due to technology integration and automation of many functions.

Talking to mediapersons here today on the sidelines of the state level joint conference of IT Employees Federation and IT Gazetted Officers Association, Member (Personnel) Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Sk Naimuddin said that the 19-member Cadre Review Committee would be submitting its report on the basis of consultations with all stake-holders across all sections and regions within April first week.

Action would be taken accordingly. The last restructuring was done in 2001-02.

Naimuddin emphasised on a fresh look into the cadre structure in order to enable and equip the IT Department to meet challenges ahead.

The move also assumes significance as the Department is undergoing a massive computerisation of its offices which would be completed in three to four months, he said.

The Direct Tax collection target which have been pared down to Rs 3.45 lakh crore under the impact of the global economic downturn for the 2008-09 fiscal would be met.

Already Rs 2.61 lakh crore have been achieved, he added.

Enlargement of scope of Tax Return Preparer (TRP) Scheme

he Government has decided to enlarge the scope of the existing Tax Return Preparer (TRP) Scheme and authorize them to prepare and furnish returns of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) and Service Tax, in addition to income-tax returns. To carry out the aforesaid decision, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has decided to retrain the TRPs. For this purpose, a retraining course consisting of 15-day self-study followed by classroom training will be organized for TRPs relating to Income Tax and for Service Tax

View the press release here.

View the details here.

Income Tax Employees charter of demand adopted at XXVII All India Delegates Conference of ITEF.

The XXVII All India Delegates Conference of the ITEF held at Mumbai from 10^th to 14^th February, 2009 after the deliberations on the report submitted by the Secretary General resolved unanimously;

 

That the ITEF should embark upon agitational programmes including strike action, if no settlement as assured by the CBDT earlier is not brought about on the charter of demands and especially on the following issues immediately.

 

(i)                            assigning grade pay of Rs. 4600 as per Government of India notification to Inspectors, Private Secretaries and Administrative officers and Rs. 1800 to all Group D employees;

(ii)                          all employees are provided with mobile phone facility out of the infrastructure fund;

(iii)                         no outsourcing of any departmental functions, especially the return processing, as per the recommendations of the BPR report;

(iv)                        the BPR should not be acted upon without reaching an agreement with the ITEF

(v)                          all Group C employees be provided with desktop computers to facilitate and speed up the functions entrusted to them immediately.

 

The Conference decided that the newly elected CHQ Secretariat should meet immediately to chalk out necessary campaign programme to popularize the demands and mobilize the members for the eventual action, to be organized;

 

The Conference regretfully noted that the DG (Systems) and the Directorate of System have totally failed in providing the software programme and hardware tools in time resulting in inordinate delay in processing returns.  The migration of data to the National Server and the delay in connectivity have compounded the problem.  The Conference decided to demand that no new system be introduced before the present scheme is stabilized and made effective.

 The Conference after considering the Accounts submitted by the CWC for the three years came to the conclusion that the financial health of the ITEF CHQ has to be improved and the renewal fees which are the only sustainable income should be significantly increased.  It was also considered by the house that in the event of the revision of wages on acceptance of the 6^th CPC recommendations, the income of members of the ITEF has also gone up and in the circumstances an increase in the rate of renewal fees would not be a financial strain for the members. Accordingly it was decided that the renewal fees would be raised from April, 2009 onwards as under:

 

            1. for those employees who are in PB 1.                       Rs. 20/=

            2. for those who are in PB 2                                         Rs. 30/=

 

            The Conference also took note of the fact that the dues on account of salary and allowance for the outgoing Secretary General are huge as is depicted in the Balance Sheet for the year 31.3.2008.  The Conference asked the CHQ Secretariat to immediately pay off the dues to Com. K.K.N. Kutty from out of the existing funds.

Pranab disappoints; no tax sops

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also managing the finance ministry, said in Parliament on Monday while presenting the Interim Budget for 2009-10 that tax rates must fall and our ability to pay taxes must rise.

However, he disappointed big time by not announcing any relief in taxes or change in the tax structure to bring relief to the common man.

So, in effect, the tax structure for the common man remains what it was the last year.

He did not announce any major sops and stuck to highlighting the achievements of the United Progressive Alliance government and just reading out a lackluster statement of accounts and achievements of the government over the last five years.

The stock markets sank as Mukherjee's speech continued, especially concerned over no fiscal measures or duty cuts or tax sops being announced.

Of particular concern to the industry and the markets is the rising fiscal deficit and the fact that the nation will have to wait for a full Budget to get any relief.

Source : Rediff.com.