As job promotions were held up last year, there’s an acute shortage of manpower in the city’s Income Tax Department



Lakhs of people deposited over R10 lakh in their bank accounts after PM Modi’s note ban move on November 8. Representational Pic



Demonetisation brought in a lot of work for the income tax department, what with lakhs of people depositing more than Rs 10 lakh in their bank accounts in Mumbai and coming on the I-T radar. And the department has been struggling with the workload due to acute shortage of manpower. The reason being promotions have been held up since the last one year — inspectors are promoted to the rank of officers, who are the ones who have to look into cases of unaccounted for income and deposits.

There is a sanctioned strength of 740 I-T officers in Mumbai, out of which 75 posts have been lying vacant for the last one year. The data collected is huge. Several jewellers showed a five-fold jump in sales as compared to business in the previous years.

A source said, “The I-T department is overloaded with data after demonetisation, and because of the shortage, has been unable to do justice to the work. The present officers are overburdened as nearly 10% of the posts are vacant.”

“The Central Board of Direct Taxes should immediately take note of the shortage of staff and issue necessary instructions to the administration,” he added, saying that employees have planned to go on a strike next month.

The officers union had taken up the matter with the administration, but in spite of assurances, no action has been taken to promote the employees till date. The situation has now become worrisome as the department is functioning with 90% officers, of which half are posted in non-assessment charges or are handling administrative jobs.