Government officials find tax offices lucrative

The government officials’ priority for transfer has changed, as unlike earlier, majority of them want to get transferred to the tax offices like Inland Revenue Department and Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI), according to a survey.
Some 70 per cent of the government officials surveyed said that they want to get transferred to tax offices.
Earlier, customs used to be their first priority. "But the survey revealed that customs has become the second priority at present," said senior training officer at the Revenue Administration Training Centre Basu Sharma.
Earlier, customs used to be lucrative but the current trend showed the officials started preferring tax offices as they found it even more lucrative in recent years, may be due to some ‘unseen’ benefits,” according to a Finance Ministry official.
“Finance Ministry comes to the third priority and nobody wants to get transferred to research and academic departments," Sharma said, adding that the results could be an eye-opener for the Finance Ministry.
The officials also said that there is massive political interference and unpredictable environment in the government job. “Government employees’ image has taken a plunge," they said, adding that the frequent transfer on the basis of ideology has forced the officials to believe that system does not work.
The unions in the government machinery are so powerful that they have no more them on their ability. The bureaucracy needs a complete revamp as it’s not professional, they said.
They are not satisfied with the current organisational structures too. “The current government organisational structure offers nothing for growth and development, neither personal nor organizational, they said.
The Revenue Administration Training Centre had conducted a 45-day long training for over 60 government officials from senior to junior level including that from Revenue Department and Finance Ministry.
The frequent changes in the government coupled with the bureaucracy have been making it harder for the government employees to maintain their professionalism and discouraging them from believing on the system.