By Vijay K Kumar

TAXINDIA deserves to be given a Bharat Ratna - for the service to the nation in the last two years. Or at least the Finance ministry should give it a large grant for the enormous amount of money it has saved for the ministry. Like so many good things of life, this has never been quantified and never will be. And like so many necessities of life like air and water, we take them for granted as they are always there. But modern city man is realising the hard way that good water and air are not just available there for his use. I hope it will be realised soon that good information is also not available just there. We may have to pay for it.

It is unbelievable that Taxindia is only two years old. In the last two years it has become the daily habit of thousands of officers across the country. Many officers now start the day with Taxindia and wrap it up with Taxindia. There are many senior officers who have given standing instructions to their PAs to give them print-out of important flashes from taxindia daily. Our expenses for printing must have gone up, but that's peanuts compared to the huge telephone bills. Two years ago, the daily routine of many officers was to come to office and immediately call up their friends in Delhi to know the latest gossip. Now it is available at the click of a mouse and for a local call. The bonus is our officers have become more computer friendly.

What is the best form of publicity? Word of mouth of course. Shailendra has proved it. There has never been an advertisement about taxindia. But in two years it has become the most popular tax site in the country. Over a Lakh of hits per day! That's simply great and superb for a tax site. I am closely associated with our official web site www.cbec.gov.in and I feel genuinely and professionally jealous about taxindia. They are miles ahead of us with a fraction of our capabilities and infrastructure. Many in CBEC believe that taxindia is maintaining a fleet of staff and has tremendous infrastructure. I am closely associated with taxindia too. I cannot avoid the temptation of a little personal aside. I hold the privilege as the second officer from the department to write an article for taxindia and I also hold the record as the writer of the highest number of articles in taxindia. I have also attended the two post budget seminars hosted by taxindia, which had the top revenue brass of the country including the two chairmen of the Boards and the revenue secretary. So perhaps I am eminently qualified to write about taxindia. Coming back to the infrastructure of taxindia - In 2001, I had come to Delhi to update our website and by that time I had already written a few articles for taxindia. So I very much wanted to include a visit to the Headquarters of taxindia in my Delhi itinerary. So I travelled all the way to Chattarpur to see how taxindia works. A little more aside. In 1988 Mr. LK Advani was interviewed by BBC as the leader of the party hoping to come to power. The BBC correspondent asked Mr Advani how many members he had in the present Lok sabha. Mr. Advani was reluctant to answer that question, but the reporter persisted and poor Mr Advani confessed that he had only two members, yes all of two members! When I met Shailendra, he talked to me for over an hour, but was not prepared to show me how and from where taxindia worked. I persisted like the BBC correspondent and he like Advani took me to his bedroom and there sitting in a corner was the headquarters of taxindia - an ordinary computer with a telephone line to connect to the net! It is from this small room that the great army of taxindia with one solid soldier fighting against all odds is providing hot material to over a Lakh of individuals all over the world.  

My colleagues do not believe me when I tell them that taxindia does not have reporters like Star News or it doesn't have computers and high-tech hardware and unlimited financial resources like we in the department have, and rightly so - because when there is news taxindia is fast, it is first. The latest notifications, the latest transfer orders, the latest court orders and of course the latest gossip. We have an official web site and many a time we are not able to upload the latest notifications or transfer orders and by the time we put them in the site, they are stale and people have already seen them in taxindia. I cry with frustration whenever taxindia steals a march over us and I cry often. I jumped up in sadistic pleasure when we could upload the budget on 28.2.2002 much before taxindia. I am jealous of taxindia but I am prepared to concede its superiority with half our infrastructure. Sometimes I feel that as part of our privatisation measures we should hand over our site to taxindia. Paying them to run our site would be much cheaper and more productive in the long run. Even departmental officers who are not aware of our site are regular visitors to taxindia.   Why even the ladies in the IRSLA get their photos published in taxindia and not the official web site.

Even now after the budget is enacted, taxindia was the first to put the new notifications. And the new section " What's new" is simply great. Anyone who wants to update his knowledge has to just click there and it's free.

It was through taxindia that our officers spread all over the country came to know about the arrest of Messrs BP Verma, SP Singh and Someswar sending the whole department to a collective numbness. Taxindia is also good at predictions. When nothing about the BP Verma case was known, it had reported that Mr. Sukumar Shanker will be the new Chairman. Nobody, perhaps not even the chairman to be believed taxindia at that time. Obviously the prediction was backed by solid source.

A report in taxindia has been the subject matter of a case in the Central administrative tribunal. The judgement of the CAT in SK Chaudhury v Union of India, started with " Applicant SK Chadhury having known from the website, "Taxindiaonline" that he has been included in recommendations made by Committee of secretaries and subsequently learning that Appointment committee of Cabinet has not included his name in the panel for appointment as Member of CBEC ....."   So a news ticker in the taxindiaonline became the basis for an interesting court battle in which the CAT ruled that appointment to the CBEC has to be made from among the Chief Commissioners following the general principles applicable to promotions. The myth that anybody can be appointed as a member of CBEC has been blown away. A great victory for the Indian Customs and Excise Service. There has been a fear ( and in some quarters a fond hope) in the service that IAS officers may take over these posts also. Of course I must add that the CAT made an observation, " Thus, so far website ' Taxindiaonline' is concerned, it did not give correct position in respect of the panel." Only goes to prove that all that is given in taxindia is not always correct. Sometimes rumour takes precedence over facts.

In a situation where there is nothing more stale than yesterday's news, taxindia has managed to deliver news - on the dot, before any body. The seniority list of officers was available in taxindia much before it reached some members. And this brings to my mind another incident about which I personally know. The seniority list was available with taxindia on payment of a small amount of Rs. 250/-. But anybody who asked for it was sent a copy with or without payment. I know an officer who got the list but did not pay for it. Taxindia is ready to serve even without payment. It may be surprising but true that there are departmental officers who ask taxindia for clarifications on the law and taxindia gives them effectively. It is a mystery to me how such a small organisation is doing such a great job covering vast subjects and reporting the latest happenings.

The publisher of a leading tax publication once told me that people in India are not yet ready to buy electronic information. When they are ready, Taxindia would be already there with the best possible information. As of now at least for Excise and Customs it is the best journal available with all the required information available in pleasing formats. This crowded site provides everything for laymen as well as lawmen.

Taxindia has provided a great opportunity to many departmental officers to 'air' their views and this has produced some wonderful budding writers whose latent talents have been projected to the whole nation. Free, frank and fearless opinions expressed especially by lower rung officials have made the site highly browsable. I only hope, wish and pray that the top brass read and consider the views of the lower copper or whatever lower metal the junior staff are made of.

Can I use this article to give some suggestions for improvement to taxindia? The problem is when you are the best, there is hardly anything you can do to improve. My only suggestion is "continue" !

A HAPPY ANNIVERSARY AND ALL THE BEST IN THE YEARS TO COME.

(The author is working with the Department and the views expressed are personal)