VISAKHAPATNAM: KV Mohana Rao set a new example when he received the Presidential Award for Specially Distinguished Record of Service. The criteria for the award selection, when it comes to tax and customs sleuths, is usually made on the basis of tax revenue achieved or the number of cases dealt. However, Mohan Rao, additional assistant director at the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics (NACIN), Visakhapatnam, was given the award for training several government officials on the Goods and Services Tax Act and amendments made to it.
The officer took more than 1,000 sessions on the subject and taught officers from the Central and State GST departments, as well as the members of trade associations. Nevertheless, his road to success was not smooth. Born in Tekkali of Srikakulam district, a backward region in Andhra Pradesh, Mohan Rao struggled to pursue his education, given the region had only a few educational facilities back when he was growing up.
Speaking to TNIE, Rao said his father, K Bhimalingachari, was a senior assistant at a government department and had won accolades from his higher ups for his honesty and sincerity. When he was in class 10, the family suffered a severe financial jolt. On the other hand, his father had to retire abruptly as the then government lowered the retirement age from 58 to 55 years. However, Rao managed to complete his Intermediate and B.Sc from Telugu medium institutions in Tekkali.
Mohana Rao recalled that he borrowed newspapers from his neighbours as he was very fond of reading. His love for reading made him visit libraries regularly. After his B.Ed in 1989, he moved to Visakhapatnam in search of employment and secured job at a private school as a maths teacher for a monthly salary of Rs 235. He also took private classes to meet his needs. It was during this time, Rao started preparing for competitive examinations by reading books from the Andhra University library, in the evenings. “I enhanced my skills through hard work and self-motivation.”
Mohana Rao cleared many competitive exams and even got selected for 16 government jobs. He joined the Indian Railways as a Commercial Clerk in 1992. Later, he joined as an auditor in Defence Accounts (C&AG wing) in 1993 and as an Inspector of Central Excise in 1994. Since then, he has been continuing in the excise department.
Stating that Yandamuri Veerendranath’s writings influenced him during his childhood, he said he was a senior under officer (S. U/O) at NCC and led a group of 160 cadets at Govt Degree College, Tekkali, which helped him imbibe leadership qualities at an early age.
After securing a job in Visakhapatnam, Rao said he continued his passion towards education. Rao wrote a dissertation, ‘Leadership of Madhuravani’ (a fictional character from noted Telugu drama Kanyasulkam) and submitted his Ph.D thesis on “Grief experience and social support of survivors of farmers’ suicides-A study in Anantapur district.”
Even before the GST rollout, given the need to train officers to ensure smooth transition to the biggest indirect tax reform in the country, Mohan Rao took initiative and started conducting training sessions on the subject in 2016. With the Union government setting up a training centre in Visakhapatnam in 2017, he joined there as trainer.
Rao’s lecturers on GST at National e-Governance Division (NeGD), Delhi were recorded. He was also an active member of the Union government’s prestigious ‘Integrated Government Online Training (IGOT)-Mission Karma Yogi’ project.