CBDT demotes four I-T officers over vigilance issues

A day after the government forcibly retired a dozen senior Income-Tax Department officials over charges of corruption, the CBDT on Tuesday demoted four officials on the basis of "pending" vigilance cases against them.

The four officials have been demoted from the rank of Joint Commissioner of the I-T to the Deputy Commissioner rank, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) order reviewed by PTI said.

A Joint Commissioner rank in the I-T department is the senior scale level of the Deputy Commissioner post. IRS officers, while entering service in the department after clearing the UPSC exam, are first posted as Assistant Commissioners and their first promotion is the Deputy Commissioner rank.

"In view of pending disciplinary/vigilance cases against the four officers, the competent authority has decided not to extend the term of ad-hoc appointment of the officers... Accordingly, the officers are reverted to their substantive post - the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax - with immediate effect," the order said.

The order identified the officers as Ashutosh Verma, Sanjeev Ghei, Jai Singh and Waghmare Vipul Digambar.

Verma, a 1999-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was once arrested by the CBI for allegedly diluting tax appraisal reports of arms dealer Suresh Nanda's companies.

Officials sources said the action has been undertaken after the four cases were reviewed by the Union Finance Ministry.

On Monday, the government had compulsory retired from service 12 senior income tax officers, including one in the ranks of the joint commissioner, on charges of corruption and professional misconduct.

The action was taken under clause (j) of rule 56 of the Fundamental Rules.