I-T services likely to be hampered owing to severe staff crunch

Kolkata: Income Tax Gazetted Officer's Association (ITGOA) alleged that the Income Tax (I-T) department is going through a staff crunch and as a consequence, service to the common people is suspected to get affected.

On the eve of all-India biennial general meeting of ITGOA, which would take place from January 16 to January 18 in the city, a press conference was organised at the Aayakar Bhavan, Kolkata, where association leaders stated the situation.

According to the ITGOA, every regional office across the country is currently going through immense work pressure due to staff crunch. It is alleged that after reducing corporate tax rate during September last year, the department is finding it hard to meet the target.

As a consequence, the growth rate has also come down to -6 percent compared to the tax collection of 2018-19 financial year.

According to Sayantan Banerjee, general secretary of ITGOA, West Bengal unit, due to shortage of staff in every rank, working without any flaw cannot be guaranteed.

He informed that the scrutiny of I-T assessment since demonetisation has been completed in December last year. After the scrutiny, demand of Rs 41,000 crore has been raised, among which a good percentage is suspected to be fictitious, due to lack of time to scrutiny each and every document thoroughly.

Also, the staff working in the department are not provided with proper training despite new schemes being launched based on digital platform. "Apart from all the problems, promotions are also being delayed," said Banerjee. ITGOA leadership stated that the issues will be raised during the general meeting.