Modi govt sacks 22 more senior officers for corruption The decision taken after PM Modi's recent remarks that "some black sheep in the tax administration may have misused their powers and harassed taxpayers, either by targeting honest assesses or by taking excessive action for minor or procedural violations"

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has compulsorily retired another 22 senior officers of the rank of Superintendent/AO over corruption and other charges. The decision to sack these official came after PM Modi, in his Independence Day address, said that "some black sheep in the tax administration may have misused their powers and harassed taxpayers, either by targeting honest assesses or by taking excessive action for minor or procedural violations." He had said the government recently compulsorily retired "a significant number of tax officials", and  that this type of behaviour would not be tolerated.   

Notably, 27 high ranking IRS officers, including 12 officers from CBDT, were compulsorily retired under Fundamental Rule 56(J) earlier in June.

The CBIC has sacked officials from a total of 12 zones, including Nagpur, Bhopal, Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Meerut, Mumbai, Bengaluru Customs, Mumbai Customs Zone II, and Chandigarh.

The officials who have been sacked include KK Uikey, superintendent Bhopal; SR Parate superintendent Bhopal;  Kailash Verma, supdt Bhopal; KC Mandal, supdt Bhopal; MS Damor, supdt Bhopal; RS Gogiya, Supdt Bhopal; Kishore Patel, supdt Bhopal; JC Solanki, supdt Bhopal; SK Mandal, supdt Bhopal; Govind Ram Malviya, supdt Bhopal; AU Chhapargare, supdt Bhopal; S Asokaraj supdt Channai; Deepak M Ganeyan, supdt Bengaluru; Pramod Kumar, supdt Delhi; Mukesh Jain, supdt Jaipur; Navneet Goyal, Supdt Jaipur; Achintya Kumar Pramanicik, supdt Kolkata; VK Singh, supdt Meerut; DR Chaturvedi, supdt Mumbai; D Ashok, supdt Bengaluru; Leela Mohan Singh, AO Mumbai Customs Zone II; and VP Singh, Supdt Chandigarh.

The government in June had retired 15 commissioner-level officials of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. According to finance ministry sources, the ousted officials were charged with corruption, collecting and giving bribes, smuggling and even criminal conspiracy.

A week before that, the government had compulsorily retired 12 senior IRS officials from the Income Tax department over charges of corruption, sexual harassment, disproportionate assets under Rule 56(j) of Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules.

Edited by Manoj Sharma

ALSO READ:GST council to discuss proposal to levy GST on extra-neutral alcohol on June 21