Three senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) Public Servants have been sacked for leaking a contentious report advocating tax increases to boost the country’s pandemic-ridden economy.
The report, Fiscal Options & Response to Covid-19 Epidemic, made several recommendations on measures that could be taken to boost the economy after the lockdown.
These included a super-rich tax and the reintroduction of wealth tax and inheritance tax.
Once it came into the public domain the Government of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi unequivocally distanced itself, calling the report “irresponsible” and sanctioned the three officers Prashant Bhushan, Prakash Dubey and Sanjay Bahadur (pictured).
However, other IRS officers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the reaction was disproportionate and the latest in the Government’s clampdown on the Public Service.
“The fact that all three IRS officers have absolutely unblemished records is a source of further demotivation for young officers of the cadre,” one officer said.
Another IRS officer said the biggest evidence of how clean these officers were was the fact that even the Government orders against them mentioned no other allegations.
“It is very easy for the Government to find a case against any officer who has spent 20 or 30 years in service… but for these three, it has only said that their actions created panic,” the officer said.
Mr Bahadur is also a respected novelist, whose debut novel, The Sound of Water, was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prizein 2007.
New Delhi, 2 May 2020
