Coronavirus COVID-19: 3 IRS officers chargesheeted for report proposing hike in taxes for super rich

The Union Finance Ministry on Monday (April 27) chargesheeted three Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officers for "misguiding" young taxmen and "unauthorisedly" making public a report that proposed for a steep hike in taxes to tackle the economic crisis caused due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

The three IRS officers who are chargesheeted are Sanjay Bahadur (principal director investigation, northeast region), Prakash Dubey (director DOPT, IRS Association's joint secretary) and Prashant Bhushan (principal commissioner of income tax, Delhi, and IRS Association's general secretary). The officers have been given 15 days to submit a written response in their defence. It is to be noted that Prashant Bhusan's wife Amita Bhushan is a Congress MLA from Begusarai in Bihar.

Preliminary inquiry into the matter showed that Dubey and Bahadur asked junior officers to prepare a report and gave it to the IRS Association, while Bhushan unauthorisedly put the report in public domain.

The report titled 'FORCE (Fiscal Options & Response to the COVID-19 Epidemic') prepared by 50 IRShad suggested raising tax rate to 40% for those with income above Rs 1 crore, from 30% at present, and levy of wealth tax for those with over Rs 5 crore annual income.

The report also proposed charging an additional 4 per cent 'Covid Relief Cess' to meet the government's revenue shortfall and contain the coronavirus outbreak. The Centre had junked the report and termed it "irresponsible". 

The Centre has also directed the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to seek an explanation from these 50 IRS officers for writing such "ill-conceived views" in public without having any authority to do so. The CBDT has slammed the sugestions and launched an inquiry against the officers claiming that "suggestions on official matters is a violation of extant Conduct Rules."

"An ill-conceived report named 'FORCE' put up by a group of officers through IRS Association giving suggestions on increasing the taxes, etc., in the difficult time of Covid-19 pandemic. The release of proposals in the media through the IRS Association's twitter and the website is "an irresponsible act" of few officers. Neither the IRS Association nor any group of officers mentioned in the said report was ever asked by the Government to give any report on the subject," said the Union Finance Ministry.