What would you do if you were a corrupt Joint Commissioner of Income Tax (which ones are honest?) and were in the habit of demanding large bribes to settle income tax cases?
What everyone else in the country does I suppose. Get your underlings to be the 'bagmen' and have nothing to do with the acceptance process. If the poop hits the fan you say you say you were completely in the dark. Or perhaps like a Goa PWD minister you set up your daughter in private premises near a local PWD office (after all the briber must be reminded why he is giving the bribe) and get her not only to assess the amount but also to take it (the father is not responsible for the sins of the son er.. daughter). What you don't do is negotiate a 10 lakh bribe with the jeweller-assessee, especially knowing that this individual was responsible for trapping another top income tax official in 2006. During the process you realize that he might do the same thing to you and you want to drop the whole thing off but then you dread the wife's lecture on how everyone else is doing it and how she needs to come up with the downpayment for the ninth Bombay three-bedroomed flat she has invested in. So you take what you think is a good precaution. You break off direct talks with the jeweller and ask him to send his chartered accountant to carry on where he left off. Safe course and good idea indeed. But Indian CAs being Indian primarily, he haggles with you, bringing down the illicit amount to 3.5 lakh, all the while never intending to pay you even this paltry sum. While your talks with the CA are in progress, the jeweller is going to the local Thana range CBI office and making preparations to trap you with marked notes. Cash after all is King and the currency of all bribes. Long story short, you are now getting your much-needed rest in the CBI lock-up (what a quaint British Indian term, that) but your wife is still safe and sound with her eight flats, 14 kilos of gold and 6 crores in stock certificates, not to mention that Portuguese-style house in Goa. The 57 lakhs cash in the cupboard on top of the medicine cabinet may be at risk, but that is acceptable. What were you thinking? Roland. Toronto. Sent from Samsung Mobile
