An incisive inside story of administration

 

(Book Release: From left Sadhana Misra, Swaraj Misra, Paresh Patnaik, Baishnab Charan Mohanty and the author)

This is a memoir of an officer about his professional experiences in a government organization which the Supreme Court has once termed one of the most three corrupt departments in India. The book is a revelation of the difficult situations that an honest officer typically has to face. Due to his bold and blunt behavior, he has to face five transfers in a span of a decade, and finally the authorities bring him to the head office. He has to stay his twenty remaining years of service here, where no officer wants to work; the job he is assigned is dry and drab to others.

                                              (The news of book release reported in the newspaper)

The author gets his first posting after his training in a check gate where he has to check the vehicles to prevent tax evasion. Very soon he realizes dealing with real life situations are totally different from the induction training imparted in the institute. He wonders how his education, a masters in history, his studies of Marx and Hegel, Russian and French Revolutions or Indian history, help in dealing with truckers, anti socials and tax evaders. The training imparted in no way helps one in the field when a goon brandishes his knife and threatens him to take his life. At one place, a few people barge into his room forcing him to do unethical things, the MLA pressurizes on behalf of a BDO with whom he is hands in glove, to do something beyond the rules and procedure. He has to handle these situations.

Not only from the field, but his seniors and colleagues in the office are also no help. The concern of the people he has to work with is primarily to please the boss and earn by fair or unfair means. Their rent seeking attitude is in conflict with the author’s nature and they do not miss an opportunity to put him in a soup. His seniors, not being satisfied, harass him, for he does not collect booty and share with them. He has to deal with these elements in administration.

Being part of the policy making, he has been an integral part in the formulation of policies in the state in both the tax systems, namely; VAT and GST. He is associated with reforms in indirect tax system in the state and country, involved in drafting and implementation of VAT in 2005, and subsequently, GST in 2017. He has firsthand knowledge of making the law. Though the law is passed by the legislature after approval of the GST Council, that is, the ministers of the states and Centre, the law is, in reality, drafted by the officers. The tax officers’ main objective is to maximize taxes and protect their fraternity, not to see the interest of the taxpayers, and often ignore the business interest and taxpayers’ comfort. The result, the GST Act and Rules have been amended forty times within first two years of its implementation. The Council is yet to make a simple return form. The memoir is, in fact, an inside story told by an insider.

The author is an acclaimed writer; he writes fiction and non-fiction, both in Odia and English. He has used his skill of being a fictionist in writing his memoirs that will be read like a novel and appreciated by all sections of the society. Lucid language and reference to day-to-day life are the USPs of this book. The book divulges some aspects of administration, particularly tax systems, usually not known to the general public. The book is an interesting read.

(By Deepa Nayak, in The Pioneer)

                                                        (Review of the book in The Pioneer)

The memoir in Odia, Anichhuk Prasasak (A Reluctant Bureaucrat) was published in October, 2021. The book has registered encouraging sales and received rave views. Parambrahma Tripathy, poet and writer has posted the following in his Facebook timeline during Akshara Book Fair, Bhubaneswar:

 

[There is a demand for a book in the Akshara Book Fair. The book is Anichhuk Prasasak (A Reluctant Bureaucrat) of Sahadev Sahoo. Readers are buying this book. Perhaps, this is the Odia best seller during the last five years.]

On request from non Odia speaking people and to reach wider audience, I wrote the book in English, published by Shalandi Books.

                                                                *****

A Visit to Jeypore

 

I had visited Jeypore thrice, but all those on official business. I was put up in government guest houses. I met the office people, did the office work and returned by evening to reach Bhubaneswar by the next day, to attend the office in the morning. I did not have the opportunity to interact with the local people or to see the town outside the office, in other words, get the feel of the town. This time when Surya (Poet Surya Misra) proposed to attend Nirvan Sahitya Parisad as chief guest in their twenty-ninth annual meet on 19^th December, I readily agreed.

My son warned me of the biting cold of Koraput and Jepore, and suggested me to go with sufficient winter garments. I had to take my coat which was not in use since I retired from government service four years ago. (One does not need to wear coat in Bhubaneswar climate and I have not undertaken journey outside in winter because of Covid during these four years.) But I found cold in Jeypore not harsh, rather pleasant and enjoyable.

I travelled with Surya by Hirakhand express. Chandrakant Biswal, a writer and a resident of Jeypore came to receive us at Koraput railway station. An affable person, Chandrakant who looks younger than his age greeted us with warmth and affection and put us up in a lodge. The meeting began slightly late as it took time for the members to reach from faraway places like Damanjodi, Raygada and other places of undivided Koraut district. Besides the speakers Chandra Sekhar Hota, Surya Misra, the other dignitaries on the dais were Dr Surendra Das, Dr Pradeep Misra and social worker Prakash Nayak.

Nirvan Sahitya Parisad felicitated writers Umakant Das, Rabi Panda, Swati Chatarjee, Bijay Kumar Jena, Srikant Misra and poets Sushant Kumar Nayak, Suranjan Patra and Rabi Satpathy. The way the poets and writers were felicitated with blowing of conch cell and ululating by  women, the poets and writers felt special and really honoured. The post lunch session had poetry recitation. A day of literary festival and intellectual merry making!

                                                ( Writer Rabi Panda is being felicitated)

Surya, a great conversationalist and a mine of information, enthralled me with anecdotes and behind stories of writers and litterateurs’ acts and deeds. The next day we woke up late, went to have tea at a road side tea stall and chitchatted with Chandrakant and his friends and had our breakfast without taking bath and morning ablutions. A young officer of the organisation I had worked for thirty years had seen me while going to the office when I was taking breakfast, standing and gossiping with friends in a road side eating joint. Later, when I visited their office, she said, “Sir, I have seen you eating there in your night pyjama and T-shirt, but could not believe, and thought, perhaps I was wrong in my presumption.”

We returned by the evening train, Hirakhand Express with the dinner packets of paratha and fried cauliflower, prepared by Chandrakant’s wife.

                                                    Sambad (Jaypore edition) has reported the event)

*****

 

Travails of a Tax Officer

 

I am a bibliomaniac; I am tempted to buy, if I happen to see books of my taste. My favourite place in the railway station or airport is bookshop. I have purchased a good number of books from railway stations and airports. But I am unable to read all those books. I may have purchased five, read three and if I come across good books I will purchase another five. The unread books get piled up in my library.

I decided to read all those unread books after I retired from service. I politely declined an extension of my job when offered to me, to read and of course, to write. I retired in 2019. I found a little difficulty initially to cope with post retirement life from an active routine service life. During this time I decided to write my memoirs, and to write without procrastination, before memory faded away. I started arranging the old notes, journals I had maintained, although irregularly, to overcome post retirement adjustment problem.

Then Covid-19 from China reached India and government imposed lock-downs, shutdowns and all kinds of restrictions. I got myself confined to my house. The communication to outside was through telephone, internet, face book or WhatsApp. A feeling was there that the future was uncertain, anything could happen to anybody at anytime. A few of my known or near and dear ones died of Covid. The conditions were quite depressing, I  went into depression. Then I felt the urgency to finish my memoirs which I had started a few months before the onset of the pandemic.

I finished the first draft by December, 2020. Bharat Bharati published the book Anichhuk Prasasak and released it in October, 2021.

The book received, to use a cliché, mixed reactions. Most of the readers appreciated the book and were full of praise and a few condemned me. Those who appreciated the book telephoned me, sent messages through WhatsApp or posted their views on Facebook timeline. I am quoting here some of the views, particularly sent through WhatsApp or posted on Facebook timeline in English only:

 

(Manisha is a school teacher and Sudhansu, a student of English literature, a was special commissioner, GST)

(Sailendra is a banker, resident of Mumbai)

                                          (Radharanman is a banker, residing in Mumbai)

Those who condemn me does it on my back, except one who wrote two pieces in a web magazine, of course, without mentioning my name, but castigating me and casting personal aspersions. The persons to whom they vilify me duly inform me. It pains me when I learn some of those who malign me were once my friends; at least, I considered them so. They speak one thing in my front and the opposite behind; of course, this peculiar behaviour not unusual with the persons in administration I have witnessed during my thirty years stint in the tax department. The appreciation elated me and vilification amused. I am grateful to those who admire and thankful to the condemners. For, both have contributed to sale/promotion of the book. The publisher of Anichhuk Prakasak, for the first time, paid a handsome royalty for half yearly sales of the book.

My friends of outside the state, on learning the publication of my memoirs in Odia from the Facebook and WhatsApp, urged me to write it in English so that they could read, and I obliged them, and now “A Reluctant Bureaucrat.” Shalandi Books has published the book within a very short time. Thanks to Shalandi Books.

(Sibabrata Das, IAS (Rtd.), retired bureaucrat  is reading A Reluctant Bureaucrat)

Love for the Princess

 

It was 1977. The emergency was lifted. The press, muzzled during emergency, was now enthusiastic to expose the emergency excesses. Perhaps, they were making up what they could not or were debarred from doing during the emergency. First time, a non congress party, Janata Party formed government; Moraji Desai was the prime minister.

We used to sit on a bench of the tea stall and hold our Khatti (adda in Bengali) everyday in the afternoon in the college square in front of the block office in Jajpur. Then, I was studying in  N. C. College. The driver of the BDO sat with us and was also a member of the Khatti.

The driver told us a story; he claimed to be privy to the incident. One top bureaucrat, a senior member of the IAS, was corrupt and oppressive. Field officers were mortally afraid of him. Wherever this IAS officer visited, he stayed the night and a woman served him fried fish with whisky in the inspection bungalow. He enjoyed his whiskey and the woman.

The driver told us that this IAS officer had visited the Block where he was driving the jeep of the BDO, and had driven a woman employee in the night to the inspection bungalow.

The story Behind the Scene is based on the incident told by the driver. The story was originally published in ‘Jhankar’ in 2000, the twenty-fifth year of emergency.

When I was treasury officer in Satyabadi (1992-96), my batch mate was the BDO in Kanash. He was honest and sincere, but his honesty did not go well with his political and administrative bosses. He could not withstand the pressure, and harassment inflicted on him by his collector and the minister. He committed suicide. This incident provoked me to write the story Chakravyuha.

The story then created a sensation in Puri district, as it was published in Katha within one year of his death and the incident was fresh in the memory. The story upset the collector, the petty politicians sent me hate and abusive mails; but the officer in charge of the police station treated me with a sumptuous lunch in a dhaba. This story also facilitated my transfer from Satyabadi, which I could not get despite all my efforts.

During my school/college days I was a member of the students’ wing of a leftist party. Of course, party and politics disillusioned me and I left soon. But I have not forgotten those friends. Whenever we have chanced meeting we exchange greetings.

One day (in 1999) I met such a friend. He was a committed member of the cadre. He was doing party works and for a livelihood, he sold books supplied by USSR. The persons having a taste for literature might have bought Dostovesky, Gorky, Turgenov, Tolstoy, Gogol, Puskin, etc in 1970s or in early 1980s at a cheap price and have enjoyed the books. This was before Gorbachev and his glasnost and perestroika. Gorbachev’s reforms broke up USSR and Russian supply of books stopped. Communist movement in India weakened. This friend of mine did not give up his ideology, but became a pauper. Once he was dreaming of bringing revolution and changing the society, now he was struggling hard to eke out a living to survive. His case inspired me to write the story Just for a Living. The Jhankar had originally published this story.

Love for the Princess contains nine stories including the above three. The stories are translated from original Odia by me, except one translated by Deepa Nayak.

*****

 

 

Repugnance of Check Posts

 

The objectives behind setting up of the check posts to check evasion of tax was a misnomer. I felt there was no necessity of check gates. The purpose of the check gates was to check evasion and collect taxes from registrants and casual dealers. The tax evaders escaped the gate in connivance with the officers manning the posts. The officers and inspectors were in the monthly pay roll of the transport agencies. They were afraid of the local goons of the villages or towns adjacent to the check posts and did not touch, out of fear, the vehicles of the dealers of the locality. The officers of Girisola at Andra border and Lohurachati at Chhatisgarg border let the vehicles pass unchecked of the dealers, those who were notorious, of Berhampur and Bargarh, to give example.

To show the check posts functioning and earning revenue, the check post people collected taxes from the registered dealers. What the registered dealers paid at the check posts, they adjusted against their due tax payment while filing monthly or quarterly returns. The government did not gain. The gates had always allegations of corruptions against the officers. MLAs raised questions in the assembly; the newspapers, time and again, published alleged corruptions of the officers. The department earned a bad name.

Haryana had check posts under Sales Tax Act. They abolished in 1994. I, in a team of six officers, had gone to Haryana in 2004. We saw, within four years, their tax collection had doubled. Abolition of check posts, of course, had not increased the revenue; but, the abolition did not have any negative impact on revenue collection, for sure.

G.C.Pati, when he was commissioner, abolished twelve internal check posts in 1999-2000. There was no impact on the tax collection the next year or years after.

The state went for VAT in 2005. There was absolutely no necessity of the check posts under the new Act. Under the VAT, the buyer got the credit of tax paid on purchases when he sold, in other words, he availed of input tax credit. To give an example, if a buyer purchased goods worth Rs.100 and paid tax Rs. 10 @ 10%, and sold the goods at Rs.150 and collected tax on sale Rs. 15, he would pay to the government Rs.5. To avail of input tax credit he should have invoice. The assessing officers or the audit, in case of suspicion, could cross verify the invoices, the purchase invoice of the buyer with the sale invoice of the seller, to prove authenticity of the transactions. The dealer got waybills from the office to bring goods from outside the state. The office had the information of the dealers’ business since the latter produced a copy of the waybill. The way bill mentioned the quantity and value of goods. An alert officer had all the information, if he desired, to know the integrity of a dealer.

Not only in Odisha, but in all the states, ten percent of the dealers contributed more than eighty percent of the total tax.  In Odisha, around fifteen hundred of about one lakh and fifty thousand registered dealers paid ninety percent of tax. These dealers did not evade tax; they might avoid paying on some legal loophole. The law or legislature had to plug the loophole.

One day I proposed A.P.Parhi, the commissioner, to consider abolishing the gates, referred to the nuisance the check posts caused and argued against their continuance. He told me to draft a letter to the government with the proposal. He was, all on a sudden, transferred before I prepared and put up the draft.

T.K.Pandey recommended the government to abolish all the remaining internal check posts in 2008-09.

The senior officers had vested interests, and were not in favour of abolition of gates. Some were in a dilemma; the abolition might boost evasion, but their vested interest weighed in favour of this argument and the gates.

The file on recommendation of the commissioner was with the minister. A few officers and inspectors, those who had access to the minister pressured him not to approve the abolition. At this time, state vigilance raided the house of an officer of Jagatpur check post on disproportionate assets (DA) charges. The gate where he was working then located after Cuttack on the Balasore route. The vigilance unearthed huge property, much more than his known sources of income. The print and electronic media highlighted the raid. The minister inquired. Pradeep Biswal, then working in the finance department, told the minister about the officer and reminded the file for abolition of gates was with him. The media might raise a question, the gates bred corruption, the department had suggested for abolition, but the minister kept the file pending with him. The minister signed the file.

There was no impact on revenue collection after abolition of all the internal check posts.

Border check posts, seventeen in all, located at borders with different states stayed. I wrote a few articles on no-necessity and the need for dispensing with the gates in newspapers. The Prameya published my article ‘Kua O Tanakhiphatak Upakhyana’ (The Episode of Well and Check Posts) on August 1, 2015. The Pioneer published my article, ‘Abolish the Checkgates for Ease of Doing Business’ on October 1, 2016. My articles, of course, discomfited the seniors and my colleagues.

Manoj Ahuja, the commissioner was against the check posts. One day I told him about the issue I had discussed with A.P.Parhi. Mr. Padhi had told me to draft the letter, but he was transferred. Mr. Ahuja told me to draft the proposal. He recommended to the finance department to abolish all the check gates.

The government abolished all the check gates from April 1, 2017. With introduction of GST from July 1, 2017, all the states abolished the gates.

[An excerpt from my book Anichhuk Prasasak (A Reluctant Bureaucrat)]

                                                                   ******

 

Art of Drafting Letters

 

G.C.Pati started preparing the ground, and brought changes in tax administration for smooth transition to VAT. The Empowered Committee had decided to go for VAT in 2003. The government had not notified the VAT cell, but the commissioner posted me to the Cell. I was doing VAT related work. The commissioner instructed me to draft proposals or letters to the government. I did as instructed.

Everybody had his own style of writing. G.C.Pati wanted the proposals, circulars or letters should be brief, preferably within one or two pages, but it should contain all the points he desired. He believed people did not have the patience or much time to read lengthy discourse in a letter. He used to entrust me with a few drafting. I drafted, and with his corrections, those were sent to government or issued for the department officers.

G. Mohan Kumar succeeded G.C.Pati. He saw one letter drafted by me and remarked, “Is this the way the proposals drafted to send to government?”

I asked, “Sir, how should it be written?”

He explained, “First, you write the present provision. Second, you describe the shortcomings or pitfalls of the provision. Third, you give your suggestion or proposal. Fourth, you mention how our proposal addresses the shortcomings. The sentences should be simple and direct; and writing should be lucid and logical.”

I tried to write as he told.  If the draft was good and it satisfied him, he noted on the file ‘good drafting’ or sometimes, ‘very good drafting’. I often got his encomiums.

Dr. Taradatt saw my draft and said, “Are you writing essay? Write in the first paragraph what we want. Who has the patience to read an essay?”

So I had to write as he desired. He often took copies of the letters by hand and got the things done in the government or finance department.

Tuhin Kanta Pandey had his style. By the time he became the commissioner, computers had completely replaced the typewriters. Pandey insisted on the notifications not only be drafted well, it should look well also. He looked into the fonts and size of fonts also; font size should be twelve and heading should be in fourteen, the matter should have well margin, heading and sub heading written in bold. The letters should be in Ariel, later he changed to Times New Roman. The language, of course, should be lucid.

All the commissioners made changes or corrections in the draft. It’s obvious, most of the times, the proposals were theirs. The bloke who originally drafted might have mistakes, which was natural, and the senior did detect, and correct, like an editor editing an article or a book. But there were a few, who made changes whether it was required or not; they thought they should make some changes, just because they were the boss. They did not touch the subject matter, but only the language.

 Once, one commissioner made some changes; substituted words in some places, changed a few sentences. He went on a tour; the letter could not be issued. Giving effect to the corrections he did, the final corrected letter was put up before him for approval, after he returned from his tour almost a week later. He saw the letter, again made changes in the draft and said, “Sahadev Babu, improve your English standard.”

He had forgotten it was the draft he had corrected and redrafted a week back. Of course, I did not remind him of the fact.

******

An excerpt from the book Anichhuk Prasasak (A Reluctant Bureaucrat)

 

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.”

*****