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
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)
Office Secretary: C. S. Sharma Treasuer: N. R. Manda Organising Secretary: Soumen Bhattachariya
(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. 129/AIB/E/18
Dt. 28.05.18
To,
Sh.
Nagendra Kumar,
Under
Secretary (Ad.IIB), CBIC,
North
Block. New Delhi.
Sub: CPGRAM
representation bearing registration number CBOC/E/2018/01085 dated 28.03.2018 -
reg.
Dear
Sir,
Kindly refer to your letter F. No. 10A60/28/2018-Ad.IIB
Dt. 08.05.18 on the above subject.
2. It is to submit with due regards
that you have mentioned about the approval of the amendment in eligibility criteria
to 2 years for promotion of Inspector of Central Excise to Superintendent by
DOPT whereas the representation of the Association relates to the
implementation of the verdict given in OA No. 2323/2012 by the Principal
Bench of Hon’ble CAT.
3. It is further submitted that the Association filed the
said OA seeking amendments/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.
4. The Hon’ble CAT directed to expedite the process of the amendment of the
Recruitment Rules by taking effective steps for Notification of the same, within a reasonable
period, preferably within four months from the date of the receipt of a copy of the
order. In this regard, it is worth to mention
that not only four months period but more than one
year has also expired after the verdict given by the Hon’ble CAT and the
advocate is advising/pressing to file a contempt petition in the matter as final action is still
awaited in the matter.
5. As per the advice of the
advocate, the Association has no alternative in the matter except filing the
contempt petition due to non-settlement of the issue even after more than one
year. The prayer of the Association was to frame the Recruitment Rules at an
early date 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 at par in the matter of promotions
to save the senior Central Excise/GST officers from humiliation of working under their
juniors of Customs.
6. Accordingly, the RR’s are
required to be re-framed prescribing the qualifying services in consonance of
the DOPT OM No. AB-14017/61/2008-Estt.(RR) dt. 24.03.09 without trifurcating the cadre at group ‘B’ non-gazetted/group ‘B’
gazetted level. This OM stipulates the promotion of the
Inspector grade to the grade of Joint Commissioner, Additional Commissioner
& Commissioner respectively after completion of 12, 17 & 20 years of
service respectively. The validity of this OM was also not questioned by CBIC
during the presentation of cadre restructuring proposal on 18.01.11 but CBIC
showed its inability to implement the same due to the want of the required
number of vacancies/posts.
7. Regarding the want of the required
number of vacancies/posts, the officers may be granted in-situ promotions (requiring no creation of posts) after
completion of the prescribed service vide above OM of DOPT. A little deviation
from the above mentioned DOPT guidelines, already framed with due diligence
& application of mind, may be understood but the non-implementation of the
same at all is never understandable. If the grant of the prescribed grade is
not possible within 20 years, we may be granted the same after completion of
21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 or even 30 (after completion of 1½ times of
qualifying service 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 to remove their stagnation) years. It is also worth
to mention that there still exist the provisions for in-situ promotions upto
the level of the Joint Secretary in CSS.
8. the Association has already
suggested to frame the RR’s on the following lines to benefit already stagnated
as well as new generation 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,
PO & Examiner) as well as group ‘B’ gazetted (Central Excise/CGST/Superintendent,
Customs Superintendent & Appraiser) 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).
There is no justification in keeping residency period for more than 2 years for
a mere benefit of Rs. 200/- in grade pay. No need also to say that the
residency period is prescribed only 2 years for promotion from Level-7 to 8 at
other places.
(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 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/- (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.
9. 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 upgrade
the officer automatically to the higher grade as soon as he/she completes 1½
times of qualifying service in r/o any grade. For
example, the officers completing 3, 10½, 18, 25½ & 30 years of service
after joining as Inspector should be placed in the grade of Level-8, 11, 12, 13
& 14 respectively. This will not only remove the inter and intra cadre
disparities but also grant the opportunity to our officers to reach higher
levels like the common entry counterparts benefitting old as well as young
generation. 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.
10. 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 issued vide
No.C.30013/6/2012-Ad.IV.A. Dt. 15.02.13 of CBEC, it was 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 in consonance of the relevant DOPT
guidelines issued vide OM No. AB-14017/61/2008-Estt.(RR)
dt.24.03.09 as per the prayer of the Association.
11. In view of the above, it is
requested to expedite the finalization of the Recruitment Rules at an early
date 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 at par in the matter of promotions
to save the senior Central Excise/GST officers from humiliation of working under their
juniors of Customs.
12. Side by side,
it is also requested to bring an organization specific scheme on the lines of
the Flexible Complementary (FCS)/Dynamic Assured Career Progression (DACP)
Scheme for Superintendents after joining as Inspector in accordance of the observation
of CBEC under OM F.
No.A-26017/154//2015-Ad.IIA Dt. 22.02.16 about the disparities in promotions that it is an alarming anomalous
situation as the most of our officers are retiring with single promotion
on a PB2 post (Level-8) in a career of 35-40 years after joining the job as
Inspector (Level-7) whereas our counterparts including Customs (intra-organisational
counterparts), Income Tax (intra-departmental counterparts), CSS (inter-departmental
counterparts) etc. are getting 5 to 6 promotions upto the Level-14. It is also reiterated that the
Cabinet/CRC/Cabinet Secretary recommended to take extra measures to remove
stagnation of group ‘B’ Central Excise executive officers independent of cadre
restructuring but no measures have been taken till date even after expiry
of more than 4 years of the recommendations of the Cabinet/CRC/Cabinet
Secretary. It is also worth to
mention in this regard that such department specific schemes were introduced in
the Department of Science & Technology and Ministry of Health to remove the
stagnation of their employees.
13. A batch to
batch Non Functional Financial Upgradation (NFU) scheme for our officers
to grant at least financial parity with the best placed counterparts of CSS (or
whichever is the best placed group B cadre) etc. may also kindly be brought. No
need to submit that we have no grudge against any of our counterparts including
CSS, CBDT or Customs and wish for them to have even better career prospects.
Our only request is to place us at par with our counterparts in the matter of
career prospects whether functionally, non-functionally or on in-situ basis.
Thanking
you,
Yours sincerely,
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
