CBEC Chairman Najib Shah is only “Acting” as Chief

• Action against Adani comes in the Way

• Complaints by in-service Competitors Holds up Promotion

Sukumar Mukhopadhyay, Former Member (Customs) in CBEC writes to editor in BS on 29.09.2015

Business Standard has done a yeoman’s service to the cause of lifting the morale of the bureaucracy by writing a well researched report on September 24 about the delay in the appointment of Najib Shah (pictured) as chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). The Prime Minister’s Office has not okayed Shah’s appointment as CBEC chief. He is holding the post as member for the last three months. It has been pointed out that in his previous posting as director- general of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Shah had issued demand of duty of Rs. 2000 crore to Adani Power for alleged overvaluation of machinery imported by it. Shah also alerted the Income Tax Department for consequent evasion of income tax.

If it is true that the delay in his appointment as chairman is caused by the action he had taken against Adani, it would have serious repercussions on the morale of not only the Indian Revenue Service, but also the whole bureaucracy. The bureaucracy will realise that such coercion of honest and courageous officers, which was rampant during the time of the Congress, has come back again. As a retired Member of the CBEC, I share the view of S K Choudhury, supporting Shah in his letter to the editor published in Business Standard on September 28.

I hope that among the Prime Minister’s advisers there is somebody who can make him understand that the political loss for such a slide back in reputation of the present government will be much more than the gain in trying to punish a senior officer by denying his due promotion in time.

The government must also realise that one officer can be punished but there are so many dedicated officers in the bureaucracy now who will carry on the investigations once the process has been started.

One great thing, which has happened in the bureaucracy in recent times, is that while there are many bad eggs, there are equally many honest and determined officers, who are ready to fight for the cause of the country at the cost of their own career. That is also because ministers in the National Democratic Alliance government are definitely more honest than in an earlier dispensation. So there is nobody to tempt and spoil them.

I have been a great supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That also entitles me to suggest to him where he is going wrong. For, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.