NEW DELHI: Making his displeasure known over the Goods and Service Tax department’s functioning in Delhi, Finance Minister Manish Sisodia has ordered the transfer of 26 officers to the Department of Services.
Sisodia took the decision last week to send back the officers, ranging from the rank of inspector to assistant commissioner, to the services department as he suspected their involvement in irregularities.
“The minister was upset with the reports of around 100 cases in which the sales tax department failed to submit reports and many of them did not bear the expected results,” said a senior officer.
Only Rs 70 lakh was recovered after 107 raids by the sales tax department in Delhi, the source said. What raised many eyebrows within the government corridors was that nothing substantial was coming out from many of these raids — giving the impression that some officers were allegedly involved in corruption to let-off tax evaders. It needs no saying that raids are done only after there is substantial information of illegal cash hoarding.
On Tuesday, the CBI caught an assistant commissioner of the GST department red-handed accepting a bribe of Rs 6 lakh. The assistant commissioner allegedly sought illegal gratification from a Karol Bagh-based private firm where the GST department had raided. The officer is said to have illegally contacted the firm through a middleman.