GAZETTED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
President:
Address for communication:
Secretary General:
Lokanath Mishra 240, Razapur,
Ghaziabad-201001 (U.P.) Ravi Malik
Mob. 09437314941 mail Id: ravimalik_sweet@yahoo.com
Mob. 09868816290
Vice Presidents: SampatRai, VatanKamble
(Central); Anurag Chaudhary, Ravi Joshi (North); A. Ravinder Singh, Rajan G.
George (South); A. S. Roy, Shubhrangshu Deb (East); P. D. Nimhan, S. K. Jha
(West)
Joint Secretaries: Anand Kishore, LaxmiLalSinghvi
(Central); N. N. Lal, R. K. Solanki (North); G. Srinath, S. Chandrasekar
(South); AshwiniMajhi, V. N. Jha (East); G. K. Jhala, M. K. Misra (West)
Office Secretary: C.S.Sharma (Mob. 09313885411) Treasurer: N.R.Manda (Mob.
09871483585)
(Recognised by G.O.I., Min. of Fin. vide letter F.No. B.
12017/10/2006-Ad.IV A Dt.21.01.08)
Ref. No. 107/M/14
Dt.
19.05.14
To,
Ms. Neerja Shah,
The DG, HRD of CBEC,
New Delhi.
Sub: Unification of Group ‘B’
Non-gazetted Executive grades into three all India cadres, viz Inspector CE,
Preventive Officers and Examiner-regarding.
Madam,
Kindly refer to
letters F. No. 8/B/36/HRD (HRM)2014 Part-I/1652 dt. 07.05.14 and even No. 1747
Dt.09.05.14 on the above subject.
2. Also refer to the letter F. No. 8 / B / 44 / HRD (HRM) /2011
Pt.1/996 Dt. 04.04.12 on the subject of ‘Merger of three Group ‘B’ Executive
Non gazetted cadres into one cadre-regarding’ as well as the Ref. No. 59/M/12 Dt. 15.04.13 and 77/M/14 Dt.
15.04.14 of the Association.
3. Before discussing the issue of the Unification of Group ‘B’
Non-gazetted Executive grades into three all India cadres, it is necessary to
know about the fate of the issue of ‘Merger
of three Group ‘B’ Executive Non gazetted cadres into one cadre’ as repeatedly
initiated by the CBEC on various occasions including above referred letter Dt.
04.04.12. It seems that CBEC don’t want to take any decision on
inter-grade merger even after more than two years of its fresh initiation or
have merely diverted it to the present issue of intra-grade unification. The
CBEC authorities seem not to be serious to solve the actual problem by keeping
the Central Excise executive officers to work under their extreme juniors of
Customs recruited in the same cadre through same competitive examination in the
same organization under the same department of Revenue of the same Ministry of
Finance due to the reasons best known only to the concerned authorities. It
seems that no authority is interested to undo the injustice being faced by the Central
Excise executive officers for last many decades. Perhaps no body in CBEC
understands the pain of working under the juniors. Inter-grade (Central Excise
vs. Customs) disparities are being diverted to the intra-grade (Central Excise
vs. Central Excise) disparities by the CBEC to benefit a particular category of
Customs. By it, the Central Excise executive officers will keep retiring on a
PB2 post barring some (who will retire on PB3 entry level temporary post)
whereas the Customs personnel recruited as Examiner & Appraiser shall keep
enjoying PB4 levels like ever. The CBEC will have to show the honest intention
& will power to solve the problem instead of always making unfulfilled assurances.
4. It is again submitted with due regards that the Inspectors of
Central Excise, Preventive Officers and Examiners of Customs all are mentioned
as Inspector only (belonging to one
& the same single cadre of Inspector) in the recruitment rules as below-
i) Inspector of Central Excise & Land Customs.
ii) Inspector (Preventive Officer) and
iii) Inspector (Examiner).
5. It is very clear from the above that Central Excise Inspector is
also mentioned as Inspector of Land Customs in the recruitment rules. Thus, he/she doesn’t only perform the duties
relating to Central Excise & Service Tax but also performs the duties
relating to Customs. All of above 3 categories of Inspector are promoted to the
post of Superintendent of Central Excise & Land Customs, Superintendent of
Customs and Appraiser of Customs respectively and re-merged as Asstt. Commissioner at group ‘A’ entry level belonging
to one & the same single cadre. But the Inspector of Central Excise &
Land Customs is placed far behind the Examiner during this process. As a
result, the Inspector of Central Excise & Land Customs becomes junior even
by decades to the Inspector (Examiner) of same year despite of being recruited
to one & the same cadre. As a consequence, the officers joining as
Inspector in 1975 are still waiting to enter into group ‘A’ JTS while the
Examiner of 1992 or even later has already entered into the group ‘A’ STS. It
is also well pertinent to mention again that the Examiner of 1984 has already
become Joint Commissioner. In terms of bulk of work also, the former category
of officers is performing more bulk of Customs work under the Central Excise
formations than the later one. This very well depicts that the former category
of officers is more expert than the later one not only in Customs work but also
in the work of Central Excise & Service Tax whereas later one has no work
experience on account of no exposure to any work relating to Central Excise
& Service Tax. Due to the faulty recruitments rules & discriminatory
promotional policy, the officers belonging to Central Excise & Land Customs
are forced to work under their extreme juniors of Customs (Examiners and
Appraisers). This injustice & discrimination is required to be undone
immediately by granting the parity in promotions to the former category with
the later one keeping their relative seniority intact after common entry into
the job.
6. Not only the recruitment rules but also the merger of above 3
categories at group ‘A’ entry level prove that all of these relate to one &
same single cadre. Despite of it, there is huge difference in their promotional
avenues placing the officers recruited as Central Excise Inspector at the worst
position to force them working under their extreme juniors of Customs against
all norms. This extraordinary situation of discrimination, disparity &
injustice happens only in the CBEC under the Govt. of India. As far as the
ratio system for entry into group ‘A’ from group ‘B’ gazetted level is
concerned, even DOPT guidelines doesn’t mandate it on account of the number of
regular posts meant for promotion too less.
7. The extraordinarily acute stagnation being faced by the Central
Excise executive officers has also very well been admitted by the CBEC on
various occasions including the Board meetings of 12.01.11, 18.02.11 &
09.04.14 and also in the proposal of cadre restructuring as well as file F. No.
8/B/36/HRD (HRM)/2014 as below but taking no step to resolve the issue-
i) that the Central Excise executive officers are retiring with
single promotion in their service span of 35 years while the Examiners of
Customs are reaching the level of Additional Commissioner.
ii) that the 1992 batch Examiner has already been promoted to the
post of Asstt./Deputy Commissioner while 1975 batch Inspector is still waiting
for promotion as Asstt. Commissioner. Not only it, the 1984 batch Examiner has
already been promoted to the post of Joint Commissioner.
iii) that the Central Excise executive officers are retiring even
without second promotion due to the gap of 17 to 18 years between the Inspector
and Examiner in entering group ‘A’ and
iv) it is required to give equal opportunity for promotion to group
‘A’ to these officers.
8. The mere simple merger or preparation of unified seniority list
will never undo the above said injustice, disparities & discrimination. These disparities can only be removed by
bringing all Inspectors, Preventive officers and Examiners of same year to same
level of promotion as also admitted by the CBEC on 18.01.11 during the
presentation on cadre restructuring saying that the matter is already under
examination. The counting of combined length of service or implementation
of base cadre seniority for promotion to group ‘A’ has also already been
rejected by the Board on 12.01.11. Thus, the simple merger of above 3
categories or unification of single category is of no use until batch to batch
parity in promotions is not brought for the officers belonging to above 3
categories of Inspector.
9. This parity is very well possible by adopting the measures like time bound promotions, notional promotions,
creation of supernumerary posts, creation of separate service, direct promotion
to higher post/s or any other specific measure/s and re-framing the RR’s in strict consonance of the OM No. AB-14017/61/2008-Estt.(RR) dt.24.03.09
of DOPT (not being followed by CBEC) clearly stipulating the promotion of Inspector completing 12, 17 & 20 years
of service respectively to the grade of JC, ADC & Commissioner and so on.
The validity of this OM was also admitted by the CBEC during the presentation
of cadre restructuring proposal on 18.01.11 but they showed their inability to
implement it due to the want of required number of vacancies. As far as the
problem of the want of required number of vacancies is concerned, it can be
solved by creation of the supernumerary posts or even by in-situ promotions
(requiring no creation of posts) with the clause of counting the in-situ
service for further promotions. Regarding the time bound promotions, the CBEC
itself recommended for the grant of time scales after every 7 years to the 6th
CPC for our executive officers as one of the measures to solve the problem
which may kindly be utilised now as per own recommendations of CBEC.
Accordingly, it is requested that the new RR’s may kindly be framed prescribing
qualifying service as follows based strictly on the above mentioned OM of DOPT
after unifying all of 3 categories into single stream (without trifurcating the
single cadre) at group ‘B’
non-gazetted (Inspector) as well as group ‘B’ gazetted (Superintendent) level–
(i) 2 years for
promotion to a post with a grade pay of Rs. 4,800/- after joining as Inspector
(there is no justification to enhance
this residency period above two years keeping in view the mere benefit of Rs.
200/- being granted on promotion).
(ii) 7 years for
promotion to a post with a grade pay of Rs. 6,600/- after joining as Inspector
(There is no justification of promoting an officer from a grade pay of Rs.
5,400/- to 5,400/-. It is also
submit-worthy that the most of the group ‘B’ gazetted officers including CSS
are being promoted to a senior group ‘A’ post instead of junior group ‘A’ in
Central as well as State governments.).
(iii) 12 years
for promotion to a post with a grade pay of Rs. 7,600/- after joining as
Inspector.
(iv) 17 years
for promotion to a post with a grade pay of Rs. 8,700/- after joining as
Inspector.
(v) 20 years for
promotion to a post with a grade pay of Rs. 10,000/- after joining as
Inspector.
(vi) and so on.
10. In addition to the above residency
periods and keeping in view the extraordinarily acute stagnation of Central
Excise executive officers, there should kindly be incorporated the permanent
provisions in the recruitment rules at every
level to promote the officer automatically to the next higher grade,
if his/her stagnation in a grade reaches 1½ times of qualifying service. Such provisions may be created based on the precedent of promoting
all the Section Officers (analogous to our Superintendent) of CSS to the post
of Under Secretary (analogous to our Deputy Commissioner) in 1999 after
completion of 1½ times of qualifying service. This will not only remove the
regional disparities but also grant the opportunity to our officers to reach
higher levels like their common entry counterparts. It is also well pertinent
to mention that any officer is called stagnated, if he/she doesn’t get
promotion even on completion of 1½ times of qualifying service prescribed for
promotion by DOPT.
11. As per the minutes drawn
against point No. 2 of the meeting held under the Chairpersonship of the former
Member (P&V) on 31.01.13 vide No.C.30013/6/2012-Ad.IV.A. Dt. 15.02.13 of
CBEC, it has already been mentioned that the work of
framing new RR’s is going on and its progress is being monitored very closely
on regular basis. Further, it has been mentioned that the RR’s as per DOPT
guidelines would be finalized soon. So, the matter is required to be expedited
immediately in strict consonance of the relevant DOPT guidelines issued vide OM No. AB-14017/61/2008-Estt.(RR)
dt. 24.03.09.
12. As far as the prospective unification of Group ‘B’ Non-gazetted
Executive grades into three all India cadres is concerned, this Association has
no objection to it as the same no way affects the interest of Central Excise Superintendents.
Instead of it, it is again overwhelmingly requested to bring all of three
categories at par in the matter of promotion on batch to batch basis keeping
their seniority intact after entry into Inspector grade by framing the rules in
the above submitted fashion. In the meantime as a first step towards parity,
the group ‘A’ entry level posts may kindly be filled-in on the basis of length
of service rendered in group ‘B’ gazetted grade as per the IRS Rules of 1987.
No group ‘A’ entry post should be shared by Customs till Central Excise
Superintendents of 2002 enter into group ‘A’ particularly keeping in view that
the Appraisers of 2002 have already entered group ‘A’. This is the only way to
give justice to all.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
Copy with the request for necessary action
to:
(1) The Member (P&V), CBEC, North Block,
New Delhi.
(2) The Chairperson, CBEC, North Block, New
Delhi.
(3) The Secretary, Department of Revenue,
North Block, New Delhi.
(4) The Secretary, DOPT, North Block, New
Delhi.
(RAVI
MALIK)
