Daily Analysis of 'The Hindu' - 14th May, 2020 | Additional Study Material for UPSC PDF Download

 Page 1


It’s time to give IRS officers their due
Forced to adopt new habits
Local motif
Liquidity lifeline
A plan to revive a broken economy
Page 2


It’s time to give IRS officers their due
Forced to adopt new habits
Local motif
Liquidity lifeline
A plan to revive a broken economy
It’s time to give IRS officers their due
?CBDT a wing of the Ministry of Finance, has initiated
disciplinary proceedings against some Indian
Revenue Service (IRS) officers for a report they
submitted to the government recently.
?The officers are not corrupt, nor did they abuse any
Minister or any functionary of the government. So,
what was their crime?
?A group of 50 IRS officers thought it their duty to help
the government in this hour of crisis.
?They prepared a report titled ‘Fiscal Options and
Response to Covid-19 Epidemic ’, or FORCE, and
submitted it to the government.
Page 3


It’s time to give IRS officers their due
Forced to adopt new habits
Local motif
Liquidity lifeline
A plan to revive a broken economy
It’s time to give IRS officers their due
?CBDT a wing of the Ministry of Finance, has initiated
disciplinary proceedings against some Indian
Revenue Service (IRS) officers for a report they
submitted to the government recently.
?The officers are not corrupt, nor did they abuse any
Minister or any functionary of the government. So,
what was their crime?
?A group of 50 IRS officers thought it their duty to help
the government in this hour of crisis.
?They prepared a report titled ‘Fiscal Options and
Response to Covid-19 Epidemic ’, or FORCE, and
submitted it to the government.
?In order to tide over the financial crisis, the report
suggested
?Raising the highest slab rate to 40% for income above ?1
crore or re-introducing the wealth tax for those with
wealth of ?5 crore or more.
?Providing an additional one-time cess of 4% on taxable
income of ?10 lakh and above for COVID-19 relief.
?Providing tax relief for sectors hit hard by COVID-19
?Re-introducing the inheritance tax.
Generalist versus Specialist
?FinMin is always headed by IAS
Page 4


It’s time to give IRS officers their due
Forced to adopt new habits
Local motif
Liquidity lifeline
A plan to revive a broken economy
It’s time to give IRS officers their due
?CBDT a wing of the Ministry of Finance, has initiated
disciplinary proceedings against some Indian
Revenue Service (IRS) officers for a report they
submitted to the government recently.
?The officers are not corrupt, nor did they abuse any
Minister or any functionary of the government. So,
what was their crime?
?A group of 50 IRS officers thought it their duty to help
the government in this hour of crisis.
?They prepared a report titled ‘Fiscal Options and
Response to Covid-19 Epidemic ’, or FORCE, and
submitted it to the government.
?In order to tide over the financial crisis, the report
suggested
?Raising the highest slab rate to 40% for income above ?1
crore or re-introducing the wealth tax for those with
wealth of ?5 crore or more.
?Providing an additional one-time cess of 4% on taxable
income of ?10 lakh and above for COVID-19 relief.
?Providing tax relief for sectors hit hard by COVID-19
?Re-introducing the inheritance tax.
Generalist versus Specialist
?FinMin is always headed by IAS
?The Revenue Secretary, the Expenditure Secretary
and the Finance Secretary are all drawn from the
IAS despite the fact that they have little
experience in handling the economy.
?Starting as local administrators they later hold top
posts in the Ministry of Finance.
?On the other hand, the CBDT is managed by IRS
officers with rich field experience.
?There were suggestions time and again that the
Chairman of the CBDT should be of the rank of
Secretary to the Government of India. The
government raised the status of the Chairman to
that of a Special Secretary and not a full-fledged
Secretary.
Page 5


It’s time to give IRS officers their due
Forced to adopt new habits
Local motif
Liquidity lifeline
A plan to revive a broken economy
It’s time to give IRS officers their due
?CBDT a wing of the Ministry of Finance, has initiated
disciplinary proceedings against some Indian
Revenue Service (IRS) officers for a report they
submitted to the government recently.
?The officers are not corrupt, nor did they abuse any
Minister or any functionary of the government. So,
what was their crime?
?A group of 50 IRS officers thought it their duty to help
the government in this hour of crisis.
?They prepared a report titled ‘Fiscal Options and
Response to Covid-19 Epidemic ’, or FORCE, and
submitted it to the government.
?In order to tide over the financial crisis, the report
suggested
?Raising the highest slab rate to 40% for income above ?1
crore or re-introducing the wealth tax for those with
wealth of ?5 crore or more.
?Providing an additional one-time cess of 4% on taxable
income of ?10 lakh and above for COVID-19 relief.
?Providing tax relief for sectors hit hard by COVID-19
?Re-introducing the inheritance tax.
Generalist versus Specialist
?FinMin is always headed by IAS
?The Revenue Secretary, the Expenditure Secretary
and the Finance Secretary are all drawn from the
IAS despite the fact that they have little
experience in handling the economy.
?Starting as local administrators they later hold top
posts in the Ministry of Finance.
?On the other hand, the CBDT is managed by IRS
officers with rich field experience.
?There were suggestions time and again that the
Chairman of the CBDT should be of the rank of
Secretary to the Government of India. The
government raised the status of the Chairman to
that of a Special Secretary and not a full-fledged
Secretary.
?At the time of the Budget, it is an IAS officer who
accompanies the Finance Minister for the press
briefing.
?The IRS officer is totally invisible, despite the
Budget being the handiwork of hard-working IRS
officers.
?Senior IRS officers know the intricacies of
taxation, whether national or international.
?On the other hand, IAS officers know little about
base erosion and profit sharing, transfer pricing,
etc.
?And yet Revenue Administration is not in the
hands of an IRS officer, but an IAS officer.