I-T staff bodies cry over manpower blues to PM Modi

Say old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes coming back to banking channels in much higher proportion than expected

Burdened by the deluge of suspected black money cases after demonetisation of high denomination currency, two staff associations of income tax (I-T) department have in a recent letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said they are reaching the breaking point.

"Personnel and infrastructure are severely short," the Income Tax Employees Federation and the Income Tax Gazetted Officers' Association — representing almost all the staffers — wrote in the note.

"The entire department is totally de-motivated due to the huge shortage of manpower in lower cadres and huge stagnation in officers' cadre," they said.

"(We) must have adequate manpower, especially at key positions, be provided with proper infrastructure facilities so that the workforce stays motivated, committed and highly spirited right at this moment," the memorandum added.

They say the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes are coming back to banking channels in much higher proportion than what was initially expected, indicating those with undisclosed money are circumventing the process of demonetisation. 

"There are confirmed reports about misuse of (the) Jan-Dhan (scheme), as well as other bank accounts, foreign exchange mechanism, gold & bullion purchases, and adoption of various other dubious means for investing the unaccounted cash.."

"One thing that is visibly clear is that there is an extensive battle ahead, primarily for the I-T department, to significantly curb the menace of black money, if not wipe out," it further said.

"Given the current manpower, we will be able to focus only on high-potential big-ticket cases and not the small ones. The scrutiny over Rs 2.5 lakh being talked about is keeping in mind that Rs 2.5 lakh is the basic tax exemption limit," said an official.

"Our situation will be like that of the bankers at the moment. The investigation teams are making enquiries at full swing but these additional cases arising out of demonetisation would add to the existing backlog and only reduce the quality of assessment," said another official.

The associations said they'd written to the PM on November 17, suggesting several measures to effectively fight the battle against black money. They said the lower rungs of the department are facing "30-35% of vacancies at cutting-edge positions" like additional commissioner and deputy commissioner and their junior ranks.

The letter also mentions the "severe space problems" being faced by assessing officers, who have to take hearings in cases on a rotational basis.

They added that though the policy makers have been strongly advocating e-governance and e-communication, the internet and intranet connectivity of the department is still quite poor.