COURTESY MIRROR MAY 16

Gujarat’s I-T chief has his hands full
In-charge Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax since November 2018, Ajai Das Mehrotra promoted to the position; he also gets charge of all chief commissionerates of Guj except Vadodara
Ahmedabad Mirror Bureau
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Ajai Das Mehrotra, who served as in-charge Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (PrCCIT) of Gujarat since November 2018, has been promoted to the post effective May 13.

The transfer order issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes under the Finance Ministry has also given Mehrotra additional responsibilities of CCIT-1 Ahmedabad, CCIT-2 Ahmedabad, CCIT Surat, CCIT Rajkot and CCIT TDS as these positions are currently vacant.

Mehrotra, a 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was made in-charge PrCCIT of Gujarat in November 2018 when then I-T chief of the state AK Jaiswal joined the Income Tax Settlement Commission in Mumbai as Vice-Chairman.

The newly added charge of CCIT-2 Ahmedabad came after the transfer of Asha Agarwal last year and of CCIT Rajkot which was passed down from AK Jaiswal who had also held the additional charge.

Mehrotra has acquired the additional charge of CCIT TDS after the retirement of RK Shrivastava at the end of March 2019.

With this order, Mehrotra now holds charge of all chief commissionerates except for CCIT Vadodara where Dr Rananjay Singh is currently serving as Chief Commissioner.

While some see this development as consolidation of pending works before the election results are announced, senior officers at the I-T department denied political reasons for the order. A senior IRS official said, “It is an annual exercise which takes place between May and June. After the order of postings of Principal Chief Commissioners, the orders to transfer/promote Chief Commissioners of Income-Tax (CCITs) and Director Generals of Income Tax (DGITs) is expected soon.”

Coincidentally, the decision was taken on March 9, a day before the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into force for the LS elections while the order came on May 13.