Recent cases of misuse of power by govt officials taking up elected non-profit roles to extort money have taken the debate around non profits to a whole new level.
It is indeed a very thought provoking debate. Govt servants draw their power from the position that they occupy. It is not a power that they have earned as such. And this power is not meant to be monetised for personal gain.
The govt had allowed government servants to accept honorary jobs with the objective of encouraging them to play a responsible social role outside of their jobs . The thought was indeed noble. But recent cases of tax terrorism are showing blatant misuse of their position by working IRS officers.
An ingenious playbook has recently come to light. The IRS officer takes up a honorary job claiming that no government permission is required to accept such a role.
But there is a huge difference between doing honorary work and ascending an elected post. The latter is an attempt to monetise the official power granted by virtue of their jobs to monetise for personal gains.
Here are some almost hilarious examples:
1. In order to help resolve problems within a residential welfare association, the IRs officer threatens to get an income tax raid organised on the member. It is not a threat. He carries it out. After doing one, the fear spreads and there is no problem in monetisation for personal gain.
2. Once in a position of some law enforcement position, the officer takes on some “honorary role” in a non profit and then makes himself irreplaceable. He does so the digital way. So you get the IT department to disable his PAN number or TAN number making it impossible for the hapless assessee to file his tax returns or to deposit tds
And when the assessee complains, he is asked to:
A. Submit an indemnity bond to the tax department (tax dept receives taxes, doesn’t pay the assessee – so why should we give an indemnity bond to be able to pay taxes
B. Give a detailed explanation as to why he got his Pan or Tan disabled. The hapless assessee is on his knees and there is no one to hear that he did not ask for his digital number to be disabled. Best of all, an officer can change the password from the system making it impossible to log into an existing account.
This is just about the beginning of digital terrorism and monetisation of this terrorism. Seems there are tens of thousands who have faced this extortion. And in most of the cases, the concerned IRS officer is head of a ngo doing honorary work. And payments are collected by the front ngo.
In general civil servants are not corrupt in my personal experience. As an accountant, if you see the letters IRS outside the officers room – one was sure of being heard and problem if any getting resolved
But now it is all supposedly faceless and digital.
Welcome to digital tax terrorism.
The first step for both CBIC and CBDT is to prepare a list of honorary jobs held by their officers. And to put it up on a public portal.
