Protesting I-T employees decide to boycott search ops

Stepping up their agitation, two large employee associations of the Income Tax department have announced non-cooperation and boycott of search and survey operations undertaken by the department to check tax evasion across the country.
The agitating groups comprising members of the Income Tax Employees Federation (ITEF) and Income Tax Gazetted Officers Association (ITGOA) today also 'gheraoed' and waved black flags at CBDT Member S K Ray who visited the main department office building at Civic Centre here for a meeting.
"The black flags were shown to him as per our scheduled agitations programme to protest against the Chairperson and Members of the Central Board of Direct Taxes whenever they visit any local Income Tax building all over India," ITEF President A K Kanojia said.

A joint statement issued by the two associations added it has been decided that "no officers or officials (of these two associations) will attend the search and survey action from October 15 onwards."
The ITGOA and ITEF have over 50,000 employees under their umbrella and represent about 97 per cent of the workforce of the Income Tax department. The remaining three per cent work force comprises officers drawn from Indian Revenue Service.
The employees are agitating for their demands like timely promotion in cadres and providing them with the required infrastructure for work.

They had said if these demands are not met, the work of budget collection and taxpayer services are "bound to fail" in the coming days.

"The joint council of action again reiterated that the policy of the government of India to provide tax friendly services to taxpayers is bound to fail and budget collection targets likely to fall short as in the financial year 2014-15 due to shortage of officials, demotivated work force and lack of proper infrastructure," the declaration issued today said.
The two associations had held a day-long strike in pursuance of these demands on October 8 and had said they will further escalate their agitation including boycott of search and survey operations which are a vital tool for the tax department to check tax evasion and collect hidden revenue.