The arrest of Additional Commissioner of Income Tax S.M. Keshkamat in a Rs 4.5 lakh bribery case has stirred up the department.
Nine additional commissioners have sent applications to Chief Commissioner of Income Tax P.C. Chhotaray asking for a transfer out of the assessment department.
These officials now want any posting where they do not have to directly deal with tax assessees.
The anti-corruption branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Keshkamat on Saturday.
His arrest came close on the heels of the trapping of a junior of his, Income Tax Officer T.V. Mohan, in the case.
Mohan was caught accepting the bribe in question on Thursday evening in the Borivli office of tax consultant Deepak Vaccharajni.
The CBI arrested Keshkamat after Mohan supposedly said he was only receiving the bribe on behalf of his superior.
The CBI had said Mohan demanded the bribe to give an assessment order to the complainant, a real estate agent.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, many senior income tax officials said they were unwilling to work in conditions where a senior’s freedom depended on what his junior said.
“If one additional commissioner can be arrested just because a junior takes his name, then it could happen to any one,” said a senior income tax official.
{{/usCountry}}“If one additional commissioner can be arrested just because a junior takes his name, then it could happen to any one,” said a senior income tax official.
{{/usCountry}}An emergency general body meeting of the Indian Revenue Service Officers’ Association has been called on Tuesday.
There are around 150 additional commissioners in the city, of which about 100 supervise assessment work.