Three Senior IRS Officers Including Congress MLA’s Husband Stripped Of Charge For Controversial Tax Hike Report

Three senior IRS officials have been chargesheeted for conduct rule violations and stripped of their charge for preparing a controversial report suggesting measures to tide over the economic crisis emanating out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The suggested measures included calling for a 10 percentage point increase in taxes on those earning over Rs 1 crore per year, reimposing wealth tax on net income of Rs 5 crore, levying a Covid-19 cess of 4 per cent on those earning over Rs 10 lakh per year.

This report caused a furore on social media which soon resulted in the Finance terming it ill-conceived and ordered an inquiry.

Further, indicating that the association's act of releasing the report was "irresponsible", the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said that neither the IRSA or any group of officers mentioned in the report were ever asked by the government to prepare such a report.

Now, as per a Hindustan Times report, three senior IRS Officers Prashant Bhushan, Prakash Dubey and Sanjay Bahadur are now in the dock for the same.

Bhushan a 1988 batch IRS officer and the general secretary of the Indian Revenue Service Association is said to have placed the report in the public domain.

He is reportedly the husband of a Congress MLA from Begusarai named Amita Bhushan who is also the president of Bihar Mahila Congress.

Dubey a Joint Secretary and Bahadur reportedly got 50 young Income Tax officials to prepare this report without any authority.

The trio have been accused of making the report public, rather than pass it through the official government channels.

The government officials quoted by the report said that the IRS officers had no business circulating such a report at the time when the country is reeling under economic stress.