Business People are Cheats, Government Servants are Thieves

 

A Chennai based NGO was sending a few computers to a tribal school located in Western Odisha. Form 402A was required to bring in goods from outside the state. The office issued this form. If the person did not have Form 402A, he had to pay tax at the check post. The objective of the form was to substantiate the goods were not for business purpose. Goods brought in for business were taxable, and for personal use were exempt.

The advocate of the Chennai organisation resided in Bhubaneswar. The town where the school was located was more than four hundred kilometres. The advocate went to the town and reached on Friday. The officer who would issue the forms was absent. He had not taken permission of his higher authority to leave the headquarters, had availed of French leave. The office people told the officer would return on Monday. The advocate did not return to Bhubaneswar again to go on Monday traversing four hundred plus kilometres. He stayed there in a hotel.

The advocate went to the office on Monday. The officer had not returned. The office people told the officer would start his journey from his home that day and reach the office on Tuesday. The advocate waited and went again to the office next day, met the officer and requested to issue the form. The officer said, “The school is not in my jurisdiction; the officer of that area is on leave.”

The advocate argued, “Sir, I have been waiting for the last four days, paying for the hotel for a single form. The officer of that area is on leave, but you are in charge. You should give the forms.”

The officer, irritated, threw the application at the advocate and said, “I shall not give, do what you like.”

The advocate rang up an officer of the head office he knew, told him the situation and requested him to help. The head office officer telephoned to the joint commissioner of the range. The officer issued the form only after the joint commissioner intervened.

 The officer wanted money, had he got he would have issued the form without rancour. But the advocate, after waiting for the officer for four days and paying the hotel bills, felt humiliated and harassed, and did not want to bribe.

The officer had to issue the form under compulsion, but he, out of anger, issued a notice to the head master of the school receiving the computers. He asked the head master to inform him about his sources of income, and submit statement of annual income and expenditure of the school. The head master of the school was not a businessman, the officer did not have the authority to issue notice to him. The head master did not understand law; a notice from a government office was enough to perturb him.

This incident provoked me to write an article. Sambad published the article under the caption, “michha banija, chakara chor” (Business People are Cheats, Government Servants are Thieves) on 17.06.2013. I stressed on three points:

1. The officer has the power to allow the forms, and he has, at the same time, also the scope to misuse the power; that induces an unprincipled officer for rent seeking behaviour.

2. The officer never thinks the organisation he is working for as his own. He is callous of the ill repute the organisation earns for his misdeeds.  He is least bothered.

3. Power arrogates; this officer is so arrogant that he goes beyond his jurisdiction to notice a head master who is in no way concerned with business and VAT law.

I suggested in the article to make available the form 402A online. If issue and obtaining the forms were made online, the person did not need to go to the office, and it would reduce scope of rent seeking.

J.K.Mohapatra, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Finance read the article from the newspaper and rang up commissioner, Monoj Ahuja to take action against the erring officer on the basis of the allegation. Manoj Ahuja read the article. He asked, “ACS says to take action against the officer. What action we should take?”

I said, “I have neither mentioned the name of the office nor the name of officer in my article. I have pointed out the flaws in the system that encourages this to happen. A phone call,  warning and reprimanding the concerned officer, will suffice. We may go for making the forms online to avoid these embarrassing happenings.”

Commissioner was convinced. He told his OSD (officer on special duty) to reprimand the officer over phone, and ordered for making the forms available online.

This article caused consternation among the officers of CTD and Finance Department. It was usual, people criticised me whenever a newspaper published my articles on tax and tax administration. They did not have guts to speak in front, but spoke behind my back. Those backbiting, however, reached me. I did not care, I wrote, rather they provoked me to write my next piece.

Criticism on this article was most vigorous this time. The reason being, though I did not take names, I had discussed on corruption by the CTD officers. Officers working in the finance department, including my friends in OFS, wanted some action should be taken, I should be punished in some way or other. They did not know the finance secretary had seen the piece and telephoned the commissioner to take action against the delinquent officer.

I had been to the finance department at this time. I met the special secretary. He said, “Do you think we can’t know what you write?”

Sahadev Sahoo, IAS was former chief secretary and vice chancellor, OUAT. He was an acclaimed writer. Often, many confused me with the former chief secretary when any article published by the name Sahadev Sahoo. I said, “I never hide me, my address is always given below the article.” And I asked, “Why do get you so perturbed? Are these concocted?”

The special secretary snapped back, “How can you write against the officers you being yourself an officer of this department?”

I argued, “Where is wrong? When I write against a BDO or police, you don’t react. Then you enjoy, but when it is on you, you shout.”

He remained silent. Finance Department sent a letter with photocopy of the article attached asking the commissioner for his ‘opinion’. Commissioner marked the letter to me to send a reply. We replied steps were being taken to make form 402A available online.

The matter rested there.

One day, after a fortnight or a month of this episode, Manoj Ahuja sent for me and asked, “Will you not be in trouble?”

I did not get, and asked, “What for?”

“Some of your senior officers are annoyed with you for your writings.” He said.

I did not ask who those officers were; I knew them. I said, “Sir I have been writing for the last thirty years. I have not had any till now. Let me see what happens in future.”

Manoj Ahuja smiled. He said, “I am glad that you are writing. Go on, and send me a copy when something you publish.”

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