Over 8,000 income tax officials in the country including 1,000 from Mumbai will go on an indefinite strike from Monday against the pending promotions of officials from the rank of income tax officer (ITO) up to the rank of assistant commissioner of income tax (ACIT)/deputy commissioner of income tax (DCIT) for the last two years.

While in the city, 80 promotions on these levels are pending, the number in the country is over 400, leading to the countrywide protest.

Officials have decided to protest till the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex body of the I-T department, comes up with an amicable solution on the issue.

The field officers have stopped taking part in surveys. I-T officials estimate per day loss of tax collection in the city at Rs25 crore and Rs80 crore in the country this financial year, as Mumbai is expected to garner around Rs9,000 crore by way of searches and surveys. For the country, the amount is expected to be around Rs30,000 crore. While Mumbai requires to collect Rs2.04 lakh crore in direct taxes this financial year, the target for the country is Rs5.85 lakh crore.

Confirming that officials (from ITO to ACIT/DCIT level) would not take part in searches from Monday, Rajesh Menon, secretary general of Income Tax Gazetted Officers’ Association said that for the last two years the promotions have been pending. “We have taken up this issue with the board (CBDT) many times, but there is no solution yet,” he said.

Officials said that four officials in Mumbai, who retired on Wednesday, would get retirement benefit of a lower post. “These officials got adhoc promotion as joint commissioner of income tax (JCIT) but their promotions were not regularised. Hence, they would get benefit of ACIT/DCIT,” said an official from Mumbai circle of I-T, requesting anonymity. “Had the promotions been on time, these officials would have got retirement benefit of JCIT.”

When contacted, chief commissioner of income tax, Mumbai, PP Srivastava said since the matter is nationwide, the board would take some action on the demands.

Officials (from ITO to JCIT level) from all over the country would write 8,000 post cards to the chairman of CBDT from December 15 in support of their demands. 

Officials said the post cards, marked as “wake up call” would be posted to the residential address of the chairman.