Nearly, every third sanctioned post in the two tax bodies—Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Custom (CBIC) is vacant, said a parliamentary panel report tabled in the House on Friday. It also highlighted that nearly 85 per cent in case of indirect taxes and nearly 65 per cent in case of direct taxes of total arrears are difficult to collect.
CBDT is the nodal policy making body for Income Tax while CBIC manages indirect taxes such as Central GST, Central Excise and Custom Duty.
According to a report by Department related Standing Committee on Finance, CBDT reported that against the sanctioned strength of over 78000, working strength as on September 1, 2024 was little over 50, 000. This means 36 per cent posts are vacant. At the same time, CBIC reported that of the total sanctioned strength (excluding Special Economic Zones) of over 84000, strength is little over 52000, which means over 38 per cent posts are vacant.
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Deposing before the committee, the Revenue Secretary said: “This is actually not an issue not only with us. All the other departments are facing this because there is a huge vacancy. People, who get selected to a department a year, want to improve and will appear for examinations next year. If they get through, they will leave the department, creating vacancies again.”
Still, he said, an effort was made in the whole government including CBDT, CBIC and it has yielded some good results. “We will continue to take it up with the authorities concerned. We cannot directly take up the recruitment,” he said while adding that bulk recruitments are happening either through SSC or UPSC. Effort is on to ensure good number of people is recruited.
The committee noted that in some posts, there are 100 per cent vacancies. Even for the crucial post of Inspector of Central Excise, there are 7,744 vacancies. “Such vacancies may be hampering the smooth functioning of the organisations and providing optimum services to the taxpayers,” it said while adding that filling these vacancies promptly is essential to maintain the efficiency and effectiveness of our tax administration, ensuring it can meet its revenue targets and support the country’s economic growth.
It also noted that the department has attributed these vacancies to candidates leaving the department once they get better opportunities elsewhere. Nonetheless, the committee feel that having such vacancies is not in the best interest of the government or the taxpayers. Therefore, the committee recommended that the department urgently take up this matter with the concerned authorities to recruit an adequate number of candidates.
Tax Arrears
The Committee found that tax arrears are accumulating rapidly. In regard to CBDT, the cumulative tax arrears, which were over ₹10 lakh crore in 2019-20, stood at over ₹42 lakh crore as on October 7 in the current fiscal. In the case of CBIC, the arrear amount has risen to over ₹4.26 lakh crore in 2023-24 form over 3.02 lakh crore in 2021-22.