Transfers Of All Tax Officials Put On Hold

The finance ministry has decided to stop transfers of all revenue service officers for the time being after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recovered documents that could unearth more corruption cases involving tax officials who paid bribes to get favourable transfers.

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh yesterday suspended the transfer order of 54 assistant and deputy commissioner officers. All further transfers have been put on hold till a systemic review is undertaken. On average around 1,000 tax officials are transferred at this time of the year.

CBI Director P C Sharma is learnt to have disclosed this to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today while briefing them separately about the case and the recoveries made from R Perumalswamy, personal assistant to Minister of state for Finance Gingee Ramachandran, and Chennai-based chartered accountant A Krishnamurthy, who were arrested yesterday for accepting bribe from revenue officer Anurag Vardhan.

The CBI also arrested Padmanabhan, a project associate at the Centre for Atmospheric Science, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, late last night. He had driven Perumalswamy to the residence of Vardhan and was allegedly present when the money changed hands. He was questioned for several hours before being placed under arrest.

A special court remanded two of the accused