Central excise and customs has ordered internal transfers of service tax superintendent and two inspectors found guilty of negligence and alleged corrupt practices during a raid conducted on the premises of a city-based realtor on Friday.

Commissioner of central excise and customs had ordered a departmental inquiry against the service tax superintendent and two inspectors for their involvement in corrupt practices to shield the realtor from paying huge amount of service tax and thereby causing a big loss to the government exchequer last week. Sources said the superintendent of service tax department under Surat-I commissionerate had raided the office of the realtor at Ghod Dod Road following information about tax evasion on October 4. The officer was accompanied by two inspectors when around 100 brokers were present inside with token payment of apartments sold at Vesu.

The amount paid to the realtor by the brokers was said to be Rs12 crore. Within 20 minutes, all the brokers were allowed to leave the premises when the superintendent had a fair chance of initiating a quality case against the brokers as well as the realtor.

Official sources said the commissioner has ordered transfer of service tax superintendent to division-5. "The officer and two inspectors have been found guilty and thus have been transferred internally in a separate department," said a senior officer.