GST to do a vanishing act on four tax department roles

State likely to eliminate roles of assistant, junior assistant, record keeper and office assistant in Commercial Tax Department.

COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu government is thinking of eliminating four lower-level posts in the Commercial Taxes Department, as it feels that the amount of work has come down after the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST). The posts are those of assistant, junior assistant, record keeper and office assistant.

The government is now working on reorganising the department and plans to relocate those holding posts below that of Deputy Commercial Tax Officer to other departments, according to informed sources.On July 27, it announced that the department’s employees in the assistant cadre with more than five years of experience could move to the Library Department if they were interested. Details have been collected from them on their willingness to move to the Library Department.

The State government has also changed the names of some posts. While Commercial Tax Officer (CTO) is now State Tax Officer, Deputy Commercial Tax Officer (DCTO) will become Deputy State Tax Officer. Names of all higher level posts have been changed.

Following the changes, employees at the lower level fear that they might be transferred to other departments. “After GST came into force, we met the Minister and the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes Department many times. We have made a representation demanding that the lower-level employees should not be transferred to other departments,” said a state-level office-bearer of the Assistant Commissioner (AC), CTO and DCTO Association.

“The Commissioner did not give us any assurance on reallocating staff. However, he determinedly said that hereafter vacancies would not be filled, considering the work level. As per the sanctioned strength, the department should have 10,600 staff. But 4,600 posts have been vacant for many years,” he added.
He accepted that the government had a plan to eliminate the lower-level posts and said that the government might make policy-level changes in this regard.

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