The government has sacked 22 more tax officials accused ofcorruption and serious irregularities in line with Prime Minister NarendraModi’s commitment to purge the “black sheep” in the tax department, thegovernment announced on Monday. The finance ministry had earlier sacked 27senior Indian Revenue Service officers including 12 from the income taxdepartment.

“The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) hascompulsorily retired yet another 22 senior officers of the rank of Superintendent/AdministrativeOfficer under Fundamental Rule 56 (J)... due to corruption and other chargesand CBI traps,” the CBIC said.

The crackdown on officials facing corruption and otherserious charges comes against the backdrop of a concerted effort by thegovernment to end any possibility of tax officials issuing notices and summonsto individuals and businesses on the sly to make money.

From 1 October, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hasannounced, the all notices, summons and orders by the income-tax authoritieswill be issued through a centralised computer system and will contain acomputer-generated unique Document Identification Number.

“Any communication issued without computer-generated DINshall be non est in law”, she told a news conference last week. If the taxdepartment doesn’t decide a case within three months of a company’s response,the tax notice shall lapse. Many of the indirect taxes and customs departmentofficials compulsorily retired in the latest string of orders had been arrestedby the Central Bureau of Investigation in the past. Some others had facedinquiries for irregularities, cases for disproportionate assets or collusion.Like9 of the 22 officials sacked on Monday from Bhopal were facing accusations thatthey colluded with a cigarette manufacturer to facilitate excess unrecordedclandestine production and clearances of cigarettes.

Another officer from Bengaluru faces charges of conspiracyto smuggle mobile phones and computer parts into India and removing them from theBengaluru international airport when these were seized by the Directorate ofRevenue Intelligence way back in 2003.

In another case from Delhi, a tax official working at theGST office in Delhi was caught last year when he was trying to help a personsmuggle 10 bars of gold weighing 1,200 gm from Dubai. He was caught by customsofficials.