Even as the TNGOs Association is opposing any move to allocate State-level officers on “as is where is basis”, the Commercial Taxes Department in Telangana State is likely to face a huge staff crunch, particularly at senior level, if nativity is adopted as the criterion.
There would be a near vacuum at the cadre of Joint Commissioner and above, while the situation is expected to be somewhat better from the rank of Commercial Tax Officer to Deputy Commissioner. The department currently has 288 sanctioned posts of Commercial Taxes Officers (CTOs), 73 Assistant Commissioners, 42 Deputy Commissioners, eight Joint Commissioners and four Additional Commissioners.
After bifurcation, Telangana domiciled officers working in the State cadre posts would be far less than the required number -- total number of officers would be 65 as against 163, according to Telangana Commercial Taxes Department JAC chairman T. Vivek. He said, for instance, there would be 40 CTOs as against the requirement of`121. Similarly, there would be only 17 Assistant Commissioners while 24 would be required. Only eight Deputy Commissioners would be available as against the requirement of17. None were available for the posts of joint commissioners and additional commissioners.
He said the JAC has proposed an alternative mechanism to overcome the staff crunch. He said that as many as 45 Deputy CTOs were currently working as in-charge CTOs and they could be posted to run the circle administration. The JAC would also take up with the government to recall some of the retired officers for rendering service till regular promotions and recruitments were taken up.
Setting up border check posts between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was one of the important issues that brooked no delay. At least nine check-posts should be in place when the two States get bifurcated, he said.
The JAC suggested check-posts at nine places- two in Mahabubnagar, three in Nalgonda and four in Khammam districts.
Regarding the massive exercise of seeking option from 2.8 lakh VAT dealers by the department, he said it was ill-timed and a meaningless exercise. Instead of the existing TIN numbers with prefix of 28, the Telangana dealers would substitute it with 36 and those in successor State of Andhra Pradesh with 37. “Where is the need to ask for options. It will create unnecessary fears among dealers”, he added.
