Staff shortage may hit direct tax collection

The government's direct tax collections could fall short of the budget target by about Rs 25,000 crore due to shortage of manpower, income tax gazetted officers association or ITGOA has said. Keeping a large number of posts vacant, in the grade of ACIT (assistant commissioner income tax) - incumbents of which handle all high revenue yielding cases - and/or JCIT, for a period ranging from 3 to 5 years is bound to adversely affect the revenue collections. The association has demanded that all new vacancies in the assistant commissioner created grade created due to cadre restructuring should be filled up by promotion and it must be in one go. The body has about 9,000 members working in the I-T department across the country. The government in May had approved a large scale and ambitious cadre restructuring of the I-T department and created 20,751 posts in various ranks. "Worst part is that the Central Board of Direct Taxes does not have any plan to fill-up these posts immediately or in near future," said Rajesh Menon, National Secretary General, ITGOA. Menon said the ITGOA's calculation shows that the targeted working strength at the level of deputy commissioner of income tax and assistant commissioner income tax will be reduced to 1528 as against the sanctioned strength of 2914.