ALL INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EXCISE
GAZETTED
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
President:
Address for communication:
Secretary General:
A.
Venkatesh
240, Razapur, Ghaziabad-201001 (U.P.)
Ravi Malik
Mob.7780255361 mail Id:ravimalik_sweet@yahoo.com,
Site: cengoindia.blogspot.in Mob.9868816290
Vice Presidents: Apurba Roy, P. C. Jha
(East); A. K. Meena, Somnath Chakrabarty (west); Ashish Vajpayee, Ravi Joshi
(North); B. Pavan K. Reddy (South); K.V. Sriniwas, T. J. Manojuman (Central) Joint
Secretaries: Ajay Kumar, R. N. Mahapatra (East); B. S. Meena, Sanjeev Sahai
(West); Harpal Singh, Sanjay Srivastava (North); M. Nagraju, P. Sravan Kumar
(South); Anand Kishore, Ashutosh Nivsarkar (Central)
(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. 79/AIB/S/17 Dt. 22.08.17
To,
Deputy Secretary
(Ad.II),
CBEC, Department
of Revenue,
North Block, New
Delhi.
Sub: Report of the Committee on
Stagnation in promotion of Central Excise Group ‘B’ officers to Group ‘A’ –
seeking of comments from stake-holders - reg.
Sir,
Kindly refer to OM issued vide F. No.
C-50/58/2017-Ad.II Dt. 01.08.17 on the above subject.
2. With due regards, no need to say
that the most of our officers are forced to retire with single functional
promotion in the career of 35-40 years after joining as Inspector which
certainly affects the administrative efficiency in CBEC due to the acute
feeling of job-dissatisfaction and demoralisation amongst the officers. No need
also to say that the temporary posts of Asstt. Commissioner enabled some of the
officers to work on this post for a limited period without any right for
further promotion and also without any real benefit in r/o assured career
progression. Our officers merely reach the level of GP of Rs. 5400/- from GP of
Rs. 4600/- in their career, thus the financial upgradation of only Rs.800/- is
available to them in the whole career. Under such circumstances, talented
officers can’t be retained in the CBEC putting a great challenge ahead for
successful and continued implementation of GST. As a result, talented Superintendents
are leaving the Department to become Consultants of GST/Indirect Tax. The
talented officers can be retained in the service alongwith being saved from
frustration to contribute to better tax adminstration and Nation building only
by improving the service conditions. It is also necessary to attract the
talented youth to serve the indirect taxation. It is worth to mention that
other counterparts are easily getting a minimum increase of Rs. 4100/- in grade
pay in comparison to Rs. 800/- of our officers. The grant of higher pay is also
the need of the hour to attract young talents and brilliant brains and also to
retain the existing talents. The copy of the last
communication (Ref. No. 52/AIB/P/17
Dt. 02.08.17 of the Association) made on the issue of the pay scale and addressed to the
Member (Admn) is enclosed herewith.
3. As far as the point of the
counting of service rendered against the post of temporary Asstt. Commissioner
for further promotions is concerned, it is submitted with due regards that it
is a valid point. No rule/law
debars such officer to get counted his/her service for further promotions. No
need to say that such officers are already executing all statutory powers of
the full-fledged post of Asstt. Commissioner during the disposal of the duties
and responsibilities of the said post without any difference between temporary
and regular. The IRS recruitment rules also define the ‘post’ as regular as
well as temporary in one and the same manner without any difference. As per the
verdicts given by the various legal courts including the Hon’ble Supreme Court,
even the stipendiary period is to be counted as service for the purpose of
getting various service benefits. Actual
point on the issue is how to get our officers entered into group ‘A’ within
prescribed period of 4 years (as prescribed by DOPT) after joining the job as
Inspector and the service rendered as temporary Asstt. Commissioner is also
counted for further promotions.
4. As far as the point of
representing the stream of Central Excise Superintendent or the officers
promoted from the post of Central Excise Superintendent by the said All India
IRS (Indirect Taxes) Officers Association is concerned, the said association is
no way authorized to represent any of the above categories. Both of the above
categories are the members of AIACEGEO as per the constitutional amendment made
in Daman convention and this is the only body to represent both of the
categories. No need
to say that all of the said office bearers of the said All India IRS (Indirect
Taxes) Officers Association were also the party to this amendment. Even
otherwise, the ad-hoc officers always remain the members of the association
representing only their feeder cadre/post without any right to form any
separate association. Everybody knows that the said office bearers of the said
All India IRS (Indirect Taxes) Officers Association belong to the category of
ad-hoc Asstt. Commissioner only.
5. The committee on stagnation has given no
recommendation regarding attainment of
higher functional levels by the officers joining/joined the job as Central
Excise Inspector to grant parity with other counterparts including CBDT,
Customs, CSS etc. which is the urgent need of the time to elevate the morale of
these officers (already highly demoralised, de-motivated and disappointed)
particularly in GST era. No need to say that these
officers have not only attained the level of Commissioner in the remote past
but one rare case also reached the level of Member. But very unfortunately due
to the distortion in relevant RRs and poor HR policies, the most of these poor
officers are now forced to retire merely after one promotion whereas their
counterparts are easily enjoying the levels of Additional Commissioner &
Director as well as Commissioner & Join Secretary. As a material fact,
there are a good number of Commissioners serving in the Income Tax at present,
who started their career as Inspector whereas there is not even a single example
of such type in CBEC. This disparity should be examined in true spirit and
necessary steps should be taken to remove it.
6. The worthy Chairperson during the
very first meeting was also pleased to assure the Association bringing a scheme
regarding career prospects of the officers of Central Excise joining as
Inspector saying that this scheme would
equally benefit the existing officers as well as the new entrants.
Accordingly, the Association was very hopeful and all officers joining/joined
as Central Excise Inspector were expecting the said scheme to come into force
soon. It is also worth to mention that the Cabinet
also recommended to bring a scheme to remove the stagnation of these officers
independent of cadre restructuring but unfortunately, the said scheme is still
awaited even after expiry of more than 3½ years resulting into the
retirement of thousands of the officers without getting even the second
promotion of the career. If the
recommendations of the Cabinet were given no importance by our CBEC, we don’t
know how much importance and seriousness would be given to the recommendations
of this Committee. No need to say that various committees were formed in the
past but no recommendation of any committee has been implemented by the CBEC in
favour of Central Excise stream officers till date. Even the Board decisions or
the decisions taken in the grievance redressal meetings for these poor officers remain
unimplemented.
The copy of the last communication (Ref. No. 56/AIB/S/17 Dt. 02.08.17 of the Association) made on the scheme to
remove the stagnation and addressed to the Member (Admn) is enclosed herewith.
7. Even the verdict
given in OA No. 2323/2012 by Principal Bench of Hon’ble CAT is not being
implemented. The Association filed the said OA
seeking amendment/revision of the Recruitment Rules to bring all the Inspectors
(i.e. Inspectors of Central Excise, Preventive Officers and Examiners of
Customs) recruited in a particular year through All India Combined Examination
in parity to maintain the principle of equal opportunity & equality before
law and to save the senior Central Excise officers from humiliation of working
under their juniors of Customs belonging to the same cadre of Inspector in CBEC. Accordingly, the Govt.
undertook before the Hon’ble CAT that the amendment of the Recruitment Rules to
the said effect is already under process. The Hon’ble CAT has
directed to expedite the process of amendment of the Recruitment Rules by
taking effective steps for Notification of the Recruitment Rules, within a
reasonable period, preferably within four months from the date of receipt of a
copy of the order. In this regard, it is worth to mention
that four months period has already expired but there seems no progress in
notifying the RRs to the said effect. The Association has
already submitted the draft on RRs. However, the committee is silent on the
issue of parity. This parity can be achieved by taking the department/organisation specific measures like
creation of supernumerary posts, notional promotions, separate service as per
draft submitted by the Association, Flexible
Complementary/Dynamic Assured Career Progression Scheme, direct promotions to higher grade/s, in-situ promotions,
batch to batch functional or non-functional upgradation, time bound
promotions/scales, upgradation of posts etc.
8. Department
of Science brought a department-specific Flexible
Complementary promotion scheme (FCS) for its employees to remove
their stagnation. Likewise, Department of Health brought Dynamic Assured Career Progression (DACP) scheme for its employees. So, an
organisation-specific scheme also required for our officers at least to give in-situ
promotions to bring at par with other counterparts like CSS, CBDT etc. by
giving minimum 5 promotions in the uniform hierarchy (across all
departments and ministries) of functional promotions. The copy of the
last communication (Ref.
No. 57/AIB/F/17 Dt. 02.08.17 of the Association) made on the issue of FCS/DACP and
addressed to the Member (Admn) is enclosed herewith.
9. The state
governments have not only upgraded the various posts under GST but also granted
higher pay scales to benefit and motivate their employees for perfect and
efficient implementation and smooth administration of GST. No need to say
that the states are taking every step to motivate their employees in r/o career
prospects and pay matters whereas the same is very terribly missing in our CBEC.
It is really unfortunate, frustrating, de-motivating and demoralizing that no such
steps have ever been taken by CBEC despite of the actual work force of
Superintendents and Inspectors being totally disappointed, de-motivated,
demoralised and job-dissatisfied for decades. No need to say that these poor
officers are far behind their counterparts of state governments as well as
central government in all matters including pay, promotional avenues and other
career prospects, infrastructure, working conditions etc. The post of CTO
(equivalent to Superintendent or even lower) has not only been placed under a
pay scale with Pay Band of Rs. 15,600-39,100/- (PB3) and with Grade Pay of Rs.
5400/- equivalent to Level-10 of Central Government but it has also been
upgraded to the post of Asstt. Commissioner in states under GST. Inspector or
even lower level post has also been upgraded to CTO by the state governments.
Thus, Asstt. CTO has been upgraded to CTO under a pay scale with Pay Band of
Rs. 15,600-39,100/- (PB3) and with Grade Pay of Rs. 5400/- equivalent to
Level-10, CTO to Asstt. Commissioner, Asstt. Commissioner to Deputy
Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner to Joint Commissioner and so on with higher
scales in the state governments under GST regime. Accordingly, CTO has been
placed in a pay scale and status of group ‘A’ entry level by the states. Such
measures of upgradation of posts and enhancement of pay scales are also
required to be taken by CBEC for its employees including Central Excise
Superintendents and Inspectors. The copy of the last communication (Ref.
No. 44/AIB/U/17 Dt. 17.07.17 of
the Association)
made on the issue of the upgradation and addressed to the ADG, HRM-I is
enclosed herewith.
10. As far as the giving of the weightage of group ‘B’ service at the time of entry into group ‘A’
is concerned, it is being given “one year for every three years” to the group
‘B’ officers in states at the time of entry into group ‘A’ whereas the
committee has recommended merely two years for whole group ‘B’ service. It
should be on the lines of state officers entering into group ‘A’. It is also
worth to mention that the group ‘B’ gazetted executive officers in CBEC were
allowed five increments in their group ‘A’ pay scale on promotion to group ‘A’ before
the enactment of the Indian Customs & Central Excise Service Group ‘A’
Rules, 1987.
11. It seems that the Committee kept in mind the “limited purpose” of mere entry into
group ‘A’ of a limited number of the Superintendents. No need to say that mere
entry into group ‘A’ of a limited number of officers is not of any use until
all the officers joining as Inspector attain higher levels of Additional
Commissioner and Commissioner like other counterparts. No need to say that our
officers are facing acute stagnation at Inspector as well as Superintendent
level. Mere entry into group ‘A’ will not give the benefit even of single rupee
to these officers on account of already being working in the pay scale of group
‘A’ entry.
12. The best way at least for future generations seems
to stop the group ‘A’ entry like developed countries including UK, France etc.
This shall enable the new entrants to reach higher levels. However, some other specific scheme will be required to
benefit the old as well as new generations to reach the higher levels of L-13
and L-14 too.
13. As far as the NFU
is concerned, it will benefit the old as well as new generations at least
financially. Other group ‘A’ officers are given financial parity with a gap of
two years with IAS working in the Centre (Central Govt.) under NFU. It is worth
to mention that the said gap of two years is no way justified either in the
case of group ‘A’ or group ‘B’. The NFU
to the officers joining as Inspector granting them financial parity with the
best placed group ‘B’ counterparts of CSS etc. should be on “batch to batch
basis in r/o Inspector level or equivalent grade” or from the day of entry into
group B (non-gazetted) or equivalent because
both categories are already working under the Central Govt. However, some
scheme to grant functional promotion to our officers at par with the best
placed counterparts is also the need of the time to boost their morale
particularly in GST era. The copy of the last communication (Ref. No. 53/AIB/NFU/17 Dt. 02.08.17 of the Association) made on the issue of NFU and
addressed to the Member (Admn) is enclosed herewith.
14. As far as the deputation
of Superintendent of Central Excise in State Governments for GST work is
concerned, it seems that it is the sole prerogative of state governments to ask
officers from other departments, Central or State government, for deputation.
So, it is a matter to understand as to how the CBEC would be empowered to send
its officers to state governments without demand from the states. However, both
category of officers, i.e., Inspector and Superintendent should be allowed to
go for deputation and this deputation should not be limited to one rank higher
but it should be upto the highest level based on the length of service. It may
also be kept in mind that our Superintendent is equivalent to their Asstt.
Commissioner in the present scenario. It means our Superintendent should go on
deputation to the state governments as Deputy Commissioner or above based on
combined length of service after joining as inspector. Likewise, Inspector
should go on the post of Asstt. Commissioner or above. Accordingly on account of
upgradations of various posts made by the states under GST, our Asstt./Deputy
Commissioners (particularly promoted from the post of Central Excise Inspector)
should also be allowed to go for deputation on the post of Joint /Additional
Commissioner or above on the basis of the combined length of service after
joining as Inspector and so on.
15. One very important point of next promotion of Central Excise Superintendent to STS like other
group ‘B’ gazetted officers of Central as well as State Governments (already
recommended by CBEC to the Deptt. of Revenue vide OM F. No.A-26017/154//2015-Ad.IIA
Dt. 22.02.16) has also not been considered by the
committee. It is worth to mention that the most of
the group ‘B’ gazetted officers in Central as well as State governments are
being promoted directly
to a Senior Time Scale (STS) post including CSS, CPWD, Railway Board,
CSSS, AFHQ, CVC, UPSC, MEA, MPA, NCB, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, Enforcement
Directorate in Revenue Department itself, Forest services, Police services,
Foreign services, Engineering services, State services etc. But Central Excise Superintendents are being promoted merely
to a Junior
Time Scale (JTS) post. So, the Central Excise Superintendents should also be
promoted directly to a STS post like other counterparts. They may further be promoted to the post equivalent
to a Grade Pay of Rs. 8700/- (like CPWD where group ‘A’ direct entry is also in
a scale equivalent to GP of Rs. 5400/- in PB3 like CBEC) from STS post keeping
in view their extraordinarily acute stagnation. It is also worth to submit that
the posts in GP of Rs. 5400/- & 6600/- and Rs. 7600/- & 8700/- are
functionally same. It is also worth to
mention that the Superintendents of NCB and Central Excise Superintendents were
part & parcel of common RRs and seniority list to be promoted to the same
post of Asstt. Commissioner under CBEC till 2003 when the
Superintendents of NCB were placed under the control of Home Ministry. Now, the
Superintendents of NCB are being promoted to STS post whereas the Central
Excise Superintendents are still being promoted merely to a JTS post. Not only
it, the counterparts of our Superintendents in Enforcement Directorate under
our own Department of Revenue itself are also being promoted to STS post. The copy of the last
communication (Ref. No. 55/AIB/STS/17
Dt. 02.08.17 of the Association) made on the issue of promotion to STS and addressed to the
Member (Admn) is enclosed herewith.
16. One
in-situ
promotion scheme was duly approved by the CBEC to grant in-situ promotions
to our officers to the post of Asstt. Commissioner on completion of 20 years
and Deputy Commissioner on completion of 25 years of
service after joining at the level of Inspector but the implementation of the
same is still awaited. As an instant measure, the said scheme may be
implemented to give a bit solace to the sinking cadre
of Central Excise Superintendents and Inspectors with an amendment that the
officers with the combined length of service of 24 years
should be promoted to the post of Deputy Commissioner. However, it is worth to
mention that DOPT
OM No. AB-14017/61/2008-Estt.(RR) dt. 24.03.09 stipulates the promotion of the Inspector
grade to the grade of Joint Commissioner, Additional Commissioner &
Commissioner after completion of 12, 17 & 20 years of service respectively.
Accordingly, such scheme should be based on the above said OM of DOPT.
17. As far as RRs are concerned, these should be framed on the following lines to
benefit already stagnated as well as new generations of the officers
prescribing qualifying service as follows based 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/- (Level-8) after joining as Inspector (Level-7)
as 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/- (Level-11) 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 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/- (Level-12) after joining as Inspector.
(iv) 17 years for promotion to a post
with a grade pay of Rs. 8,700/- (Level-13) after joining as Inspector.
(v) 20 years for promotion to a post
with a grade pay of Rs. 10,000/- (Level-14) after joining as Inspector.
(vi)
and so on.
18. 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 provision in the recruitment rules to promote the officer automatically to
the higher grade as soon as he/she completes 1½ times of qualifying service,
separately or combinedly, in r/o any grade (based on the precedent of CSS of
promoting all the Section Officers to the STS post of Under Secretary after
completion of 1½ times of qualifying service in 1999), if he/she is yet to be
promoted to respective grade. For Example, if officer completes combined length
of service of 30 years after joining as Inspector and not promoted to the
respective grade for the want of vacancies, he/she should be upgraded to the
grade for which he/she was eligible to be promoted within 20 years. The CBEC
showed its inability during the presentation made on cadre restructuring to
promote the officers in consonance of the DOPT guidelines for the want of the desired
number of the functional posts. The problem of the desired number of the functional
posts may be solved by granting the in-situ promotion/s to the concerned
officer on completion of the residency period as prescribed by the DOPT because
in-situ promotions need no creation of functional posts. This will not only
remove the regional disparities but also grant the opportunity to our officers
to reach higher levels like the 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. The copy of the last communication (Ref. No. 63/AIB/P/17 Dt. 02.08.17 of the Association) made on the issue of RRs
and addressed to the Member (Admn) is enclosed herewith.
19. As far as the existing posts of direct recruit Appraisers
are concerned, the same are required to be abolished immediately as the direct
recruitment to this post was stopped by the Cabinet in 2002. Likewise, the
merger of the sanctioned strength of Assistant Commissioner and Deputy
Commissioner into one is also a demand of time as already done in the case of
Joint Commissioner and Additional Commissioner, both categories being
functionally same.
20. The CBEC recently issued an
Office Order No.134 / 2017 Dt. 03.08.17 vide
F. No. A-12025 / 01 / 2017-Ad.II for constitution of a Task Force for
improving career progression of recent batches (2008 onwards) of IRS (C&CE)
officers who are already assured to reach at least the Chief Commissioner level
(i.e., at least 6 promotions) but our CBEC is not worried for career progression of Group ’B’ officers
joining/joined as Inspector and retiring after one promotion. A very
serious and honest look is required to be had for this issue. Talking of
improvement of career progression of the officers already assured 5-6
promotions and doing nothing for the officers retiring after single regular
promotion is very painful and seems only a joke and is further pain-increasing.
21.
Two more very important points were discussed, agreed and assured to be
recommended by the Committee as below-
i) Earmarking
of share of promotee officers upto the level of Commissioner.
ii) No direct recruitment for a certain
period in IRS and minimum direct recruitment in IRS every year and filling-up the remaining vacancies by
promotion.
But, very
unfortunately, both of the points are missing in the report which are required
not only to be recommended but also to be implemented.
22. It is also worth to submit that the issues like Pay scale to Superintendent
at par with DSP of CBI (which scale is also equivalent to the
counterparts of our Superintendents in State governments under GST), Next
promotion of Superintendent to STS, NFU at par with the best placed counterparts of
CSS, Uniform promotional hierarchy across all departments/ministries of
government of India, Merger of Level-9 and 10, Scheme to improve the
career prospects of Central Excise Superintendents to grant minimum 5
functional promotions etc. were recommended by the CBEC to the Department of revenue vide OM F. No.A-26017/154//2015-Ad.IIA Dt. 22.02.16. A serious observation
was also made by the CBEC under the above OM about our alarming stagnation regarding
introduction of Flexible Complementary Promotion Scheme (FCS)/Dynamic Assured Career
Progression Scheme (DACP) for our officers but nothing has been done on the above issues till date. Neither
Revenue Hqrs took the matter seriously nor CBEC liked to pursue the things
further. All of the above recommended issues are also required to reach
finality on the immediate basis.
23. As an instant measure, all posts of Asstt.
Commissioner should be filled-up first by Central Excise Superintendents till
they are placed at par with the Customs in the matter of entry into group ‘A’. DOPT
guidelines also say that ratio formula is not applicable in the case where
promotional posts are less. In such case, promotions should be made on the
basis of the length of service. No need to say that the promotional posts of
Asstt. Commissioner are available only 6.5% of the total strength of the Central
Excise Superintendents in our CBEC for these poor officers which is too less.
If the strength of the Central Excise Inspectors is also added to the strength
of Central Excise Superintendents, this figure comes merely to 2.8%.
24. In view of the above, it is requested that some
serious steps may kindly be taken considering all of the above points as well
as all earlier submissions made by the Association to device a scheme granting parity to our officers at least with the best
placed counterparts enabling our old and young officers as well as new entrants
to reach the higher levels of Addl. Commissioner and Commissioner at least.
It is also submitted that any additional submissions on the issue will be made
at the appropriate time, if needed.
Thanking
you,
Yours faithfully,
Encls: As above.
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
Copy with the
request for necessary action to:
1) The Joint
Secretary (Admn), CBEC, North Block, New Delhi.
2) The Commissioner,
Coordination, CBEC, North Block, New Delhi.
3) The ADG,
HRM-I, CBEC, New Delhi.
4) The DG, HRD,
CBEC, New Delhi.
5) The Member
(Admn), CBEC, North Block, New Delhi.
6) The Chairperson,
CBEC, North Block, New Delhi.
7) The Revenue
Secretary, North Block, New Delhi.
