Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurates Aaykar Sindhu in Mumbai.In her address to IRS officers she said ‘Don’t make them run from pillar to post where your authority is required; do the work for them,”

July 26, 2026

Nirmala Sitharaman Union Finance Minister on Sunday called on the Income Tax department to work in a manner that benefits ordinary citizens and stops them from being made to run from pillar to post.

Inaugurating Aaykar Sindhu, a 13-floor, 1.13-lakh-square-foot building in Mumbai’s Nariman Point, Sitharaman used the occasion to highlight the difficulties even senior officials face when dealing with other government agencies. She noted that the land for the building had been with the Income Tax department since 1973, yet illegal occupations had still come up on it. This, she said, reflected a laid-back approach in governance where assets are not properly protected.

Drawing from the experience of obtaining clearances for the new building, the minister told IRS officers that despite the authority the department’s name carries, they themselves had to struggle for permissions. She asked them to use that experience to understand what a common citizen goes through when approaching the tax department. “Don’t make them run from pillar to post where your authority is required; do the work for them,” she said.

Union Finance Minister