india

Updated: Jun 18, 2019 23:51 IST

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Tuesday forced 15 senior Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs officials to retire over allegations of corruption, according to people aware of the development.

The forced retirements are a part of a clean-up exercise in the revenue department, the people added, linking the move to the compulsory retirements of 12 Income Tax department officials last week.

The 15 officials include one principal commissioner, four commissioners, one joint commissioner, three additional commissioners, two deputy commissioners, and four assistant commissioners.

“Government of India compulsorily retires 15 Senior Officers of the Indian Revenue Service (C&CE) with immediate effect,” the Union finance ministry said in a tweet. C&CE is short for Customs and Central Excise.

HT has accessed the 15 government orders issued on the forced retirements on Tuesday. The orders cited public interest and added the officials had been forced to retire with immediate effect.

The orders added that the 15 will be paid salaries and allowances for three months.

The orders were issued against principal commissioner Anup Srivastava (1984 batch); commissioners Atul Dikshit (1988), Sansar Chand (1986), G Shree Harsha (1991), Vinay Brij Singh (1995); joint commissioner Nalin Kumar (2005); additional commissioners Ashok R Mahida (1990), Virendra K Agarwal (1990), Raju Sekar (1992); deputy commissioners Amresh Jain (1992), Ashok K Aswal (2003); and assistant commissioners SS Pabana (2014), SS Bisht (2014), Vinod K Sanga (2014) and Mohd Altaf (2009).

HT could not reach any of the officers for comment.

Also read: 12 top tax officials told to retire over allegations of fraud, harassment

According to people cited above, who requested anonymity, some of the 15 officials were under suspension because of corruption charges. In one case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a criminal conspiracy case against one official in 1996 for allegedly favouring a construction firm, the people added.

In another case, the CBI booked a commissioner rank official in 2015 for allowing the fraudulent withdrawal of over Rs 74 crore, the people said.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (j) of rule 56 of the Fundamental Rules, the President of India has retired 15 Officers of Indian Revenue Service (C&CE) in public interest with immediate effect on completing 50 years of age,” the finance ministry said in another tweet on Tuesday.

“All these 15 Officers shall be paid a sum equivalent to the amount of pay & allowances for a period of 3 months calculated at the same rate at which they were supposed to be withdrawing them (pay & allowances) immediately before their retirement.”

The revenue department forced 12 Central Board of Direct Taxes officials to retire on June 10 over allegations of misconduct such as fraud, extortion and sexual harassment. HT last week reported that the move to “clean up” the bureaucracy was likely to be extended to other departments.