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, M. Jegannathan (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 T reasuer: 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. 289/AIB/G/18
Dt. 12.11.18
To,
Sh.
Dinesh Sharma,
Hon’ble
Deputy Chief Minister,
Uttar Pradesh.
Sub: Issues relating to the members of the All India Association
of Central Excise gazetted Executive Officers.
Sir,
Kindly
refer to your kind speech as Chief Guest on the occasion of the
Closing Ceremony of the Associate Executive Committee meeting of the Association on 23.09.18.
2. You were kind enough
to ask the Association to send a few issues relating to our officers to
your goodself enabling you to recommend to the concerned authority for due redressal.
3. Accordingly, the
submissions on the following three issues are enclosed herewith for your kind
consideration-
(i) Ensuing Cadre
restructuring for Central Board of Indirect Tax & Customs (CBIC).
(ii) Implementation
of the legal verdicts/settled issues.
(iii)
Batch to batch Non Functional Financial Upgradation (NFU) to our officers to
grant financial parity with the best placed counterparts.
4.
The members of the Association are very much hopeful for the redressal of the
above issues with your kind influence.
Thanking you,
Yours
sincerely,
Encls: As above.
(RAVI
MALIK),
Secretary General.
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, M. Jegannathan (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 T reasuer: 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. 290/AIB/C/18
Dt. 12.11.18
To,
Sh.
Dinesh Sharma,
Hon’ble
Deputy Chief Minister,
Uttar
Pradesh.
Sub: Ensuing Cadre restructuring for Central Board of
Indirect Tax & Customs (CBIC).
Sir,
It is to submit with due regards
that the most of the Central Excise/CGST Superintendents entering the job as
Inspector are retiring only with single
promotion in the service career and forced to work under their extreme juniors of
Customs belonging to the same cadre recruited through the same
examination in the same organisation of CBIC under the same department of
Revenue of the same Ministry of Finance. The Association has no grudge against
them or any other counterpart or category of officers and wishes every one of
them to get even more promotions but the injustice being done to our
Superintendents (joining as Inspector) for decades should also be undone.
2. The single cadre of Inspector in the CBIC has been
trifurcated into 3 sub-categories in absolutely unjustifiable manner, i.e.,
Inspector (Central Excise/CGST & Land Customs), Preventive Officer
(Inspector Customs) & Examiner (Inspector Customs) to be promoted as
Superintendent (Central Excise/CGST & Land Customs), Superintendent
(Customs) & Appraiser (Customs) respectively merging at group ‘A’ entry
level. This places the officers entering the job as Inspector (Central
Excise/CGST & Land Customs) decades behind the Examiners (also admitted by
the CBIC in its Board meetings of 12.01.11 and 18.02.11) due to the
discriminatory rate of promotion and faulty recruitment rules. The last cadre restructuring was also proved of no
good to remove the acute stagnation of the totally demoralized officers
of ours (Central Excise Superintendents and Inspectors) on account of which the
Cabinet also approved to bring some
scheme to remove the stagnation of our officers independent of cadre
restructuring but very unfortunately, the said scheme is still awaited even
after expiry of around 5 years of its approval by the Cabinet.
3. The CBIC as on date has
thousands of Group ‘B’ officers already putting more than 25 years of service
and got only one promotion.
ACPS/MACPS is also unable to undo the gross injustice done to our officers
because our officers are getting after 30 years under MACPS what they were
getting after 24 years under ACPS. Even the temporary posts of the Asstt.
Commissioner created in the last cadre restructuring did no good to our
officers on account of being created with the clause of “no further promotion” and also not being included in the
recruitment rules. Our officers didn’t get the benefit of even a single paisa
on being promoted against these posts at the fag end on account of already
working in the same pay scale. Many of them rather forced to get less
emoluments on account of being transferred to the cities with less HRA. Due to
this reason, a good number of our officers preferred to forgo the promotion
against these posts and many are forced to plan to voluntarily retire.
4. Our common entry counterparts in CSS, CBDT,
Customs, Rajya Sabha Secretariat etc. are already attaining higher levels upto
Level-14 (5 to 6 promotions-Annexure I) whereas the most of our officers retire
at the post of Level-8 only. Even the pension of other common entry
counterparts is more than our salary. This
gross injustice has totally demoralised the Central Excise/CGST Superintendents
leaving nothing to be motivated and is needed to be undone in the interest of
the GST revenue during the ensuing cadre restructuring or independent of it.
5. Regarding GST, no need to say that we require
essential man power and infrastructure particularly at Group ‘A’ entry to Addl.
Commissioner level and also to strengthen the set-ups like audit, preventive,
anti-evasion, anti-smuggling, anti-narcotics, seaports, ICDs, airports,
SEZs,LCSs, 24*7 working etc. alongwith major expansion of the existing
formations to increase the indirect tax collection alongwith to stop smuggling
activities, infiltration of contrabands & lethal weapons also to stop
serious threat to the security of the Nation. The Standing Committee on Finance
in its 52nd report had also expressed its concern over the pathetic situation
of man-power shortage desiring CBIC to give interim relief to the stagnating
cadres.
6. While submitting its 52nd report on 20.04.2012, the
standing committee on finance had observed that “in CBEC (now CBIC) the
majority of Direct recruit Inspectors of Central Excise and Preventive officers
(almost 98%) get only one functional promotion during average service span of
35 years. Main reason for such acute stagnation is the ratio (1:15) between the
strength of Assistant Commissioner (Group A) level and Group B gazetted level
of these officers. In other departments of GOI the said ratio varies from 1:2
to 1:4.The Committee expresses their concern over the pathetic situation of man
power shortage and desires both CBDT and CBEC to hasten formulation of a policy
in this regard while giving interim relief to stagnating cadres.”The Committee also observed that the shortage of staff is the
main reason for shortfalls in the performance of both the Departments.
7. The Public Accounts
Committee in its 79th Report on the topic "Service tax on Banking and
other Financial Services" submitted to both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on
21.03.13 at Para XVI of Part-B to Part-I has discussed in details about the
staff position in Service Tax under CBEC. At Para 18 of Part-II, the PAC has
observed, "The Committee notes that there is a lack of perspective
planning in the matter of deployment of staff on such a vital source of revenue
collection viz., Service Tax. Taking into consideration the amount of revenue
collected from Service Tax and Central Excise during the year 2011-12, the
Committee is surprised to find that in contrast to the deployment of nearly
40,000 officers for excise, only 4000 to 5000 officers have been deployed for
Service Tax stream and that too after withdrawing from the Central Excise
stream. Apparently, Service Tax wing has been working for more than 15 years
with no staff of its own. The
Committee is dismayed to note the helplessness expressed both by the Finance
Secretary and Chairman, Central Board of Excise & Customs in this regard
especially when Ministry of Finance is itself one of the nodal authorities for
examining and sanctioning requisite staff to Ministries. The
Committee feels that the staff requirement be examined on priority basis by the
concerned authorities in order to ensure that the Service Tax collections,
which have increased phenomenally from Rs. 407 crore in 1994-95 to Rs. 97,389
crore in 2011-12 does not suffer for want of human resource.” Thus, the report
justified sufficiently high increase of the officers on functional basis
against the then existing sanctioned strength of merely 2000 in Service Tax.
The observations of the Committee are still equally applicable regarding GST
and thus, the CBIC has to do a lot to improve its Human Resource Policy.
8. The IRS
officers of CBIC get parity with the common entry counterparts of CBDT in every
cadre restructuring including the last one and also with other better placed
common entry group ‘A’ counterparts alongwith the creation of posts in
the higher pay scales even without having eligible officers in Group ‘A’ for further
promotions and later seeking relaxation for their promotion. They have also been granted financial
parity with the best placed counterparts of IAS in the form of Non Functional
Financial Upgradation (NFU). This is really a very good and welcoming thing but
such good things should also happen to our officers being appointed as
Inspector and the most of them retiring on the post of Superintendent merely
after single promotion in the career. Unfortunately, no parity (not even
financial) with common entry counterparts like CBDT, CSS etc. has ever been
considered for Central Excise/CGST Superintendents and
Inspectors. The talks of parity for our officers with other counterparts
were, however, made during the presentation of the last cadre restructuring proposal
on 18.01.11 but nothing has been done till date even despite of the specific recommendations of the Cabinet to bring an
independent scheme to remove the stagnation of our officers.
9. This parity is very much required to boost the
morale of the totally demoralised officers by adopting the measures like time bound promotions/scales, notional
promotions, upgradation (functional or non-functional), creation of
supernumerary posts, direct promotion
to higher post/s, upgradation of posts, creation of separate service,
in-situ promotions or any other specific measure/s alongwith re-framing the
RR’s without trifurcating the
cadre at group ‘B’ non-gazetted/group ‘B’ gazetted level prescribing the
qualifying service as per DOPT OM No. AB-14017/61/2008-Estt.(RR) dt. 24.03.09
(not being followed by CBIC) which stipulates clearly the promotion of
Inspector grade to the grade of Joint Commissioner, Addl. Commissioner &
Commissioner after completion of 12, 17 & 20 years of service respectively.
During the presentation of last cadre restructuring proposal on 18.01.11, CBIC
showed its inability to implement the said OM due to the want of required
number of vacancies/posts. It is, therefore, requested that the required number
of posts may kindly be created and the said OM be implemented as per Annexure II or our officers may kindly
be granted in-situ promotions (which
requires no creation of posts) or NFU after completion of the due service
even independent of cadre restructuring. A little deviation from the above mentioned
DOPT guidelines, already framed with the 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 years (after
completion of 1½ times of qualifying service as prescribed by the DOPT
based on the precedent of Central Secretariat Service (CSS) of promoting all
the Section Officers to the Senior Time Scale (STS) post of Under Secretary
after completion of 1½ times of qualifying service in 1999). In-situ promotion
scheme to grant at least 5 promotions may even be in the form of Flexible
Complementary/Dynamic Assured Career Progression Scheme as already existing in the Department
of Science & Technology and also in the Ministry of Health to remove the
stagnation of their employees. No need to say that there are provisions
of in-situ promotions upto the level of Joint Secretary in CSS.
10. In the last cadre restructuring, no heed was paid
to the DOPT communications issued vide D.O.No.5/26/2010-CS.II(A) Dt. 06.10.10,
No. 19/1/2008-CS.I(P) Dt. 20.07.10, No. 20/51/2009-CS.II Dt. 27.01.11,
No.35034/9/2010-Estt.(D) Dt. 10.02.11, OM No. 35034/9/2010-Estt. (D) Dt.
10.02.11 etc. stipulating very clearly that the cadre restructuring should be
viewed to mitigate the stagnation of
the stagnated employees. No need to say that the Central Excise/CGST
Superintendents and Inspectors are not only the most stagnated category of the
employees under the CBIC but they are also the most stagnated category of govt.
employees. The CBIC already has around 40000
group ‘B’ Central Excise executive officers comprising Superintendents and
Inspectors retiring only with one promotion in their service career.
11. The officers joining as Inspector even in 1984 are
still waiting to enter group ‘A’ temporary post of Asstt. Commissioner whereas
the Examiners of 1984 have already become Addl. Commissioner against regular
post years ago but unfortunately, no such measures have been taken for the
officers joining as Central Excise Inspector to mitigate their acute stagnation
who are forced to work under their extreme junior Examiners. It is also worth
to submit that the Income Tax Inspectors as well as the Assistants of CSS and
Rajya Sabha Secretariat of 1984 and 1985 have already become the Addl.
Commissioner and Director. Nothing has also been done despite of the specific directions of the Principal Bench of Hon’ble CAT in OA No. 2323/2012 to grant
parity in promotions with the intra-organisational counterparts to our
Inspectors and Superintendents to save them from the humiliation of working
under the juniors belonging to the same cadre. Such parity will certainly have
a positive impact on the government revenues due to the feeling of job
satisfaction amongst our officers.
12. It is also submit-worthy
that the most of the group ‘B’ gazetted officers including CSS are being promoted
to the senior time scale group ‘A’ posts in Central as well as State
governments while the Central Excise Superintendents are allowed to be promoted
(if any) merely to a junior group ‘A’ post.
13. There is a vast
difference between manpower, workload per individual and infrastructure
available to our officers and State officers under GST. The corrective measures
are required to be taken in r/o acutely short manpower and infrastructure and
also acutely high workload per individual available to our officers in
comparison to the State officers. The posts under the cadre restructuring
should be created based on the acutely high workload per individual.
14. As on date, CBIC is
having around 36 lac assesses (which will be on regular increase with the time)
relating to GST work alongwith the work relating to Customs. We are having more
than 1000 assesses per Range as average. However, many Ranges are having 8000
to 12000 or even more assesses which is really a terrible and unworkable
situation putting unwarranted burden and tension on our Superintendents who are
already overburdened for the want of the due helping hands and being always
busy in preparing various reports leaving no time for scrutiny, assessment,
show cause notices, adjudication orders etc. and any other important work. So,
we need to have not more than 300 assessees per Range alongwith due helping
hands on the pattern of State GST. Likely, there should be not more than 1500
assesses per Division alongwith sufficient manpower for smooth working with
five Ranges per Division. No need to say that we need equal number or more
manpower particularly at Group ‘A’ entry level for Headquarters offices as well
as sufficiently high manpower for Customs formations. We will require
additional manpower at each level for Anti-evasion/Preventive, Audit, anti-smuggling, anti-narcotics, seaports,
ICDs, airports, SEZs, LCSs etc. work
for smooth indirect tax administration.
15. The Association requests
that due care may kindly be taken in the ensuing cadre restructuring to create
the sufficient posts at Group ‘A’ entry level alongwith providing sufficient
manpower at Superintendent, Inspector and lower levels. The posts may also
kindly be created at higher levels as per requirement keeping in strict view
that these should not be less than one third of the relevant feeder level as
per govt. guidelines. These guidelines may also taken care for creating the
posts at Group ‘A’ entry level meant for the promotion of Group ‘B’ gazetted
officers. It is also worth to mention that the Range level offices in the
States having around 2000 assessees are manned by 14 to 20 officers including
executive, ministerial and executive staff. Thus, our Range should also be
manned by 5 persons at least. Very interestingly, the Range level offices in
the States have also been provided 2 to 3 vehicles (four wheelers) per office.
Accordingly, our Range office should also be provided at least with one vehicle
(four wheeler).
16.
The State governments have already upgraded the posts by one rank for their
officers. But no such measures have been taken for our officers despite of the
repeated requests of the Association. Even the pay scale of the Superintendent
level officers is equivalent to the Level-10 for the State GST officers. Thus, the CTOs (the counterparts of our
Superintendents in State GST) have already been re-designated/upgradaed as
Asstt. Commissioner and also already placed in a pay scale equivalent to
Level-10. The posts above the CTOs have further been upgraded in the States as
Deputy Commissioner, Joint Commissioner, Addl. Commissioner and so on. This
has put our officers under a very awkward, demoralizing and embarrassing position
particularly in dealing with the trade which results into weak indirect tax
administration in Centre in comparison to the States. Not only it, we are also
far behind the State officers in the matter of infrastructure. So, the upgradation of posts, enhancement of pay
scales and providing of due infrastructure are the instant needs under GST
for Centre Govt.
17. As far as the question of the responsibilities is concerned, the most
burdened categories of officers under the GST in Centre are our Superintendents
and Asstt. Commissioners. Under the cadre restructuring, all grades of the
officers are required to be conferred with the responsibilities in proportion
of their ranks.
18. The Section Officers of CSS,
the counterparts of our Superintendents, were granted the time scale of Level-10 after completion of four years of service
under their cadre restructuring only in 2003 retrospectively w.e.f. 01.01.96
without any recommendation from any pay commission. Unfortunately, this time
scale is available to our Superintendents merely in Level-9. During the ensuing
cadre restructuring, our Superintendents should also be granted the benefit of
the time scale of Level-10 with the
retrospective effect like Section Officers without offsetting with the MCP
upgradation. It is worth to mention that the time scale has not been
off-set with MACP upgradation for State officers and they are getting actual
four financial upgradations within 26 yeras under MACPS in Uttar Pradesh Govt.
in comparison to only two in 30 years for our officers.
19. Like time scale, our officers
joining as Inspectors should also be granted Non-functional Financial Upgradation (requiring no creation of posts) at par with the best placed
counterparts like CSS etc. at least to provide them the financial parity with
the said counterparts as already existing for Group A officers to grant them
financial parity at par with the counterparts of IAS.
20. A separate service for the officers joining the CBIC as Inspector may
also be created on the lines of CSS taking into account the temporary posts of
Asstt. Commissioner (+additional posts at Group ‘A’ entry level) and sufficient
posts at each level at least upto the grade of Commissioner in proportion of
the strength of CSS. Considering that the posts of the Asstt. Commissioner and
Deputy Commissioner are functionally same, our Superintendents may also be
promoted directly to STS post of Deputy Commissioner like many of their
counterparts by converting the above said posts of Asstt. Commissioner to
Deputy Commissioner under the separate service. In this regard, it is also
worth to submit that a good number of posts of the Joint Secretary have been
kept reserved for CSS officers in their cadre restructuring. The draft RR’s for
separate service had already been submitted to the CBIC by the Association but
no action has been taken till date.
21. In view of the above and the
Central Excise/CGST Superintendents being the most stagnated group ‘B’ gazetted
category of the govt. employees, it is requested that the cadre restructuring
may kindly be finalised taking due care of the career prospects of the officers
joining the job as Central Excise/CGST Inspector and also bring an immediate
device independent of cadre restructuring for the acutely stagnated Central
Excise Superintendents to retire them
at Level-13 & above granting them parity with their common entry
counterparts. This will also increase the overall efficiency of indirect
tax administration in the interest of the revenue collection due to feeling of
job-satisfaction among our officers. The following measures may be taken for
our officers to grant them relief for the sake of justice-
(i) Creation of Flexible
Complementary/Dynamic Assured Career Progression Scheme(FCS or DACP) to grant at least 5 in-situ promotions.
(ii)
Creation of separate service upto the level of Commissioner for our
officers.
(iii) In-situ promotions (requiring no creation of posts) on
completion of residency periods as prescribed by DOPT under OM No.
AB.14017/61/2008-Estt. (RR) Dt. 24.03.09 after joining as Inspector.
(iv) Non-functional financial upgradation on completion of residency
periods as prescribed by DOPT under OM No. AB.14017/61/2008-Estt. (RR) Dt.
24.03.09 after joining as Inspector.
(v) Non-functional Financial Upgradation (requiring no creation of posts) to our officers joining the job
as Inspector at par with the best placed counterparts like CSS etc.
(vi)
Time scale after every 7
years to the officers after joining the job as Inspector. It was also
recommended by CBIC vide F.No.A.26017/147 /06-Ad.II.A Dt. 04.01.07 as one of
the measures for our officers.
No posts will be required to be created for the grant of time scale after every
7 years.
(vii)
) Bringing a scheme independent of cadre restructuring to remove the
stagnation of our officers as approved by the Cabinet at the time of approval
of last cadre restructuring.
(viii)
Immediate implementation of in-situ promotion scheme as approved in Board
meeting of 18.02.11 w.e.f. the date of its approval.
(ix)
Immediate implementation of the verdict given
by the Principal Bench of the Hon’ble CAT in OA No. 2323/2012 to grant parity
in promotions to the Central Excise/CGST Superintendents and Inspectors at par
with the intra-organisational counterparts.
(x) Upgradation of posts, enhancement of pay
scales and providing of due infrastructure under GST like State Governments.
(xi) Promoting all Superintendents completing 1.5 times of qualifying
service on the lines of CSS.
(xii) Time scale of Level-10 after four years of service to our
Superintendents with retrospective effect without offsetting with the MACP
upgradation.
(xiii) Merger of Level-9 and 10 which
is also an already recommended issue.Hon’ble Madras High Court in Writ Petition no. 11535/2014 with M.P No. 1/2014 decided on 16.10.14 has already upheld that the Grade Pay of Rs.
5400/- in PB-2 (Level-9)& PB-3 (Level-10) is one and the same level. The
said judgment was finalized by the Hon’ble Apex Court in Special Leave to
Appeal (C) 15396 OF
2015.
(xiv) Fulfillment of the
commitments made during the presentation made on last cadre restructuring
proposal on 18.01.11.
Fulfillment of the commitments made during the presentation made on last cadre
restructuring proposal on 18.01.11.
(xv) The promotion of the
Central Excise/CGST Superintendent directly to a STS post (Deputy Commissioner)
instead of JTS post (Asstt.
Commissioner) like other Group ‘B’ gazetted counterparts of Central as well as
State Governments.
(xvi) Merger of the sanctioned strength of Assistant Commissioner and Deputy
Commissioner into one as already done in the case of Joint Commissioner and
Additional Commissioner, both categories being functionally same.
(xvii) Earmarking of share of promotee officers at least upto the
level of Commissioner.
(xviii)
Filling-up of all posts of Asstt. Commissioner first
by Central Excise Superintendents till they are placed at par with the Customs in the matter of entry into group ‘A’.
(xix) Merger of group ‘B’ Executive non-gazetted as well as gazetted
categories as cadres in the Directorates under CBIC have already been
merged.
(xx) Merger of various Cadre Control Authorities under field formations to
remove regional disparities.
(xxi) Conversion of temporary
posts of Asstt. Commissioner to regular/permanent keeping the same intact for
promotee officers forever, deletion of the clause that the officers promoted
against these posts would not be entitled for further promotion and Counting of service rendered on temporary
post of Asstt. Commissioner for further promotions.
(xxii)
Notional promotions granting batch to batch parity to our officers with
the best placed common entry counterparts like Customs/CBDT/CSS etc.
(xxiii)
Creation of supernumerary posts to grant parity in promotions to our
officers with the best placed common entry counterparts which will be personal
to the officer at each level of the promotion and will be abolished with the
retirement of the officer.
(xxiv) Direct promotion to higher post/s: Customs Ministerial
officers were promoted as Appraiser without working even for a single day on
the feeder post of Examiner. Likewise, our officers may also kindly be promoted
directly to the higher posts to grant them parity in promotions with common
entry counterparts.
(xxv) Seniority benefit on
promotion to group ‘A’ in lieu of the service rendered in group ‘B’.
(xxvi) Conferring of the responsibilities to different levels in the
administrative hierarchy in proportion of the rank.
(xxvii) Creation of reserve
pool posts.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
Encls: As above
(Annexure I & II).
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
“Annexure I”
I. PROMOTIONAL AVENUES FOR
THE OFFICERS JOINING THE JOB AS INSPECTOR OF CENTRAL EXCISE/CGST
(1)
Inspector
(2)
Superintendent
(3) Asstt.
Commissioner (only 1.78% against regular posts)
(ONLY ONE PROMOTION)
II. PROMOTIONAL AVENUESFOR
THE OFFICERS JOINING THE JOB AS EXAMINER OF CUSTOMS IN THE SAME ORGANISATION OF
CBIC
(1)
Examiner
(2)
Appraiser
(3) Asstt.
Commissioner
(4) Deputy
Commissioner
(5) Joint
Commissioner
(6) Addl.
Commissioner
(5 PROMOTIONS)
III. PROMOTIONAL AVENUES
FOR THE OFFICERS JOINING THE JOB AS INSPECTOR OF INCOME TAX IN THE SAME
DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
(1)
Inspector
(2) Income
Tax Officer
(3) Asstt.
Commissioner
(4) Deputy
Commissioner
(5) Joint
Commissioner
(6) Addl.
Commissioner
(7)
Commissioner
(6 PROMOTIONS)
IV. PROMOTIONAL AVENUES
FOR THE OFFICERS JOINING THE JOB AS ASSISTANT/ASO OF CSS
(1)
Assistant
(2) Section
Officer
(3) Under
Secretary (STS-equivalent to 2
promotions)
(4) Deputy
Secretary
(5)
Director
(6) Joint
Secretary
(6 PROMOTIONS)
V. PROMOTIONAL AVENUES FOR
THE OFFICERS JOINING THE JOB AS ASSISTANT OF RAJYA SABHA SECRETARIAT
(1)
Assistant
(2) Section
Officer
(3) Under
Secretary (STS-equivalent to 2
promotions)
(4) Deputy
Secretary
(5)
Director
(6) Joint
Secretary
(6 PROMOTIONS)
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
Qualifying service to be
prescribed for Central Excise/CGST executive officers as per DOPT OM No.
AB-14017/61/2008-Estt.(RR) dt. 24.03.09
(i)
2 years for promotion to a post of Level-8 (grade pay of Rs. 4,800/-) after
joining as Inspector.
(ii)
7 years for promotion to a post of Level-11 (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/- on account of time scale after 4 years of service to
a post with same grade pay Rs. 5,400/- only. It is also submit-worthy that the
most of the group ‘B’ gazetted officers including CSS are being promoted to a
post with a grade pay of Rs. 6600/- instead of Rs. 5400/- in Central as well as
State governments.).
(iii)
12 years for promotion to a post ofLevel-12 (grade pay of Rs. 7,600/-) after joining
as Inspector.
(iv)
17 years for promotion to a post of Level-13(grade pay of Rs. 8,700/-) after
joining as Inspector.
(v)
20 years for promotion to a post of Level-14(grade pay of Rs. 10,000/-) after
joining as Inspector.
(vi) And so on.
Keeping in view the extraordinarily acute
stagnation of the Central Excise executive officers
(Superintendents/Inspectors), there should kindly be incorporated the permanent
provisions in the recruitment rules in addition to the above qualifying
services at every level to promote the officer automatically to the next higher
grade, if his/her stagnation in a grade reaches one & half times of the
qualifying service. Such provisions may be created based on the precedent when
all the Section Officers (equivalent to our Superintendent) of CSS were
promoted to the post of Under Secretary (equivalent to our Deputy Commissioner)
after completion of one & half times of qualifying service some years ago
in 1999. It is also worth to mention that a good number of posts of the Joint
Secretary have been kept reserved for CSS officers in their cadre
restructuring.
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
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, M. Jegannathan (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 T reasuer: 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. 291/AIB/L/18
Dt. 12.11.18
To,
Sh.
Dinesh Sharma,
Hon’ble
Deputy Chief Minister,
Uttar Pradesh.
Sub: Implementation of the legal verdicts/settled issues.
Sir,
Your
kind attention is also invited to the to the verdict given by the Hon’ble Apex
Court in SLP No. 77457/2017 against the order Dt. 23.03.17 given by the Hon’ble
High Court of Delhi in WP No. 2634/2017 in which the Apex Court said, “Once
the question, in principle, has been settled, it is only appropriate on the
part of the Government of India to issue a circular so that it will save the
time of the court and the Administrative Departments apart from avoiding
unnecessary and avoidable expenditure.” The Hon’ble Court further directed the
Government of India to immediately look into the matter and issue appropriate
orders so that people need not unnecessarily travel either to the Tribunal or
the High Court or the Supreme Court.
2. It is further submitted that our
officers have some legitimate expectations from your goodself which include the
implementation of the settled issues and reduction in unwarranted litigations &
appeals in the cases relating to the service matters. It is worth to mention
that several appeals pertaining to revenue have been withdrawn from CESTAT and
High Courts as per the New Litigation Policy by CBIC. But no such initiative
has been taken for service matters and the officers are suffering because of
apathy of the administration. The service matters being unresolved, the
litigations on the service matters are on regular increase bearing high cost of
government time and expenditure in unwarranted manner.
3.
But unfortunately, the appeals are being filed against the orders of CAT/High
Court to suffer the officers endlessly. Even the issues settled at the level of
the Apex Court are not being implemented. The officers are forced to go to the
CAT/High Court even in same matters which have already been finalized/settled
by the Hon’ble High Courts/Apex Court. The verdicts, in which no appeal has
been made, are also not being implemented. The employees are forced to go to
the legal courts even in the matters which can be settled administratively very
easily. The benefit of court verdicts even in the settled issues is being given
only to the petitioners/applicants instead of implementing in rem.
4.
There are so many verdicts of the various courts which are unimplemented in
CBIC despite of being settled finally. A few burning examples are as below-
i)
Order given on 24.02.95 in OA No.
541/1994 by the Hon’ble CAT of Jabalpur regarding payment of arrears of pay.
The issue is already a settled one because no appeal was made against this
order. But the order is still unimplemented despite of the repeated requests of
the Association.
ii)
Order given on 06.09.10 in WP No. 13225/2010 by
the Hon’ble High Court of Madras in Subramanium case against which not only the
SLP(C) No. 029382/2011 filed by the CBIC was dismissed on 10.10.17 but the
review petition has also been dismissed on 23.08.18. The order is being implemented in persona instead in rem
despite of being a settled issue by the Hon’ble Supreme Court.
iii)
Order given on 08.12.14 by the Hon’ble High Court of Madras in Writ Petition No. 19024/ 2014 in
Chandrasekaran case against which issue (not to offset time scale granted prior
to 01.09.08 with MACP upgradation and GP of Rs. 5400/- in PB2 & PB3 being
one & same thing) the SLP of the Department of Revenue has also been
dismissed in the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Balakrisnan case (WP 11535/2014 in
Madras High Court). Thus, para 8.1 of MACP Scheme amounts to be scrapped.
iv) Order given on 01.03.17 in OA No. 2323/2012 by the Hon’ble CAT of
Delhi regarding parity in promotions to our officers with intra-organisational
counterparts. No appeal has been made
in this case.
v) Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) No.7278 of 2011 filed by the CBIC was also dismissed by the Hon’ble Apex Court on 02.05.11 in Ashok Kumar
case
involving the issue of stepping-up of pay, if juniors are getting more pay than
seniors on account of ACP/MACP upgradation. General implementation of this issue
is also awaited even after being settled at the level of Apex Court.
vi) The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in SLP No. 7467/2013 filed by the
Government against the judgement of the Hon’ble High Court of Chandigarh in CWP
No. 19387/2011 has already confirmed the order dated 31.05.11 of
Chandigarh CAT for grant of MACP upgradation in the promotional hierarchy. The
Grade Pay of Rs. 5400/- in PB2 being a new pay slab and not being existed in
the promotional hierarchy, the para 8.1 of the MACP instructions is also automatically
amounts to be scrapped based on the said verdict of the Apex Court.
vii) Regarding the offsetting of time
scale with the MACP upgradation, the verdict given by the Hon’ble High Court of
Delhi on 20.12.17 in the W.P.(C) No. 9357/2016 upholds
that non-functional financial upgradation (time scale) is not MACP upgradation
on account of being integral part of the pay. Thus, it can no way be treated as
one MACP upgradation. The order of the Hon’ble High Court has already been
implemented vide office order No. 190/E-IV/Estt/DHC Dt. 23.02.18 of Delhi High
Court without preferring any appeal in it. Thus, no need to say that the matter
has been finalized and settled.
viii) In the case of U.O.I. Vs. Delhi Nurses
Union (Regd.) W.P. (C) 5146 / 2012 also, the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi
vide its judgement dated 24.08.12 held the same and granted the next higher
Grade Pay of Rs. 6600/- after the time scale to the employees. The order of the
High Court was also upheld by the Hon’ble Supreme Court by dismissing the
Appeal of Union of India on 04.03.13 in SLP(C) No. 010607/2013. Thus, the above
Order dated 24.08.12 of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi also attained finality
after the dismissal of SLP in the Hon’ble Supreme Court.
ix) In Subramanium case also, it
has been established that 4 years time-scale/NFSG and ACP/MACP upgradation are
altogether different. If time scale was to be counted as one MACP upgradation,
it would have been granted after 10 years of service instead of 4 years. By the
finalization of the issue at the level of the Apex Court, the time scale can
never be treated as one MACP upgradation.
x) In Balkrishnan case in r/o of treating single Grade Pay of Rs. 5400/-
in PB2 and PB3 as separate grade pays under para 8.1, the Hon’ble Madras High
Court in Writ Petition No.
11535/2014 with M.P. No. 1/2014 gave the verdict on 16.10.14 by upholding that
the Grade Pay of Rs. 5400/- in PB-2 (Level-9) & PB-3 (Level-10) is one and
the same thing as there is no difference between the Grade Pay of Rs. 5400/- in
PB2 and PB3. The said judgment was finalized by the Hon’ble Apex Court in
Special Leave to Appeal (C) 15396
of 2015 by dismissing the SLP filed by the Govt. establishing the verdict as
law of land. It is also worth to submit that the next Grade Pay after Rs.
5400/- is Rs. 6600/- (Level-11).
5. Your kind attention is also invited to the orders of
Hon'ble Supreme Court in P.K. & Ors. V. K. Kapoor & Anr. JT 2007 (12)
439, Inderpal Singh Yadav & Ors., State of Maharashtra Vs. Tukaram Trymbak
Choudhary by order dated 20.02.2007, Dt. 17.10.14 in the Civil Appeal No. 9849 of 2014 in the matter of State
of Uttar Pradesh & Ors Vs. Arvind Kumar Srivastava & Ors etc.
mandating to give the benefit of court verdict to all equally placed persons. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the
judgment Dt. 17.10.14 in the Civil Appeal No. 9849 of 2014 in the matter of
State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors Vs. Arvind Kumar Srivastava & Ors held as
under:
“Normal rule is that when a particular set of
employees is given relief by the Court, all other identically situated persons
need to be treated alike by extending that benefit. Not doing so would amount
to discrimination and would be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of
India. This principle needs to be applied in service matters more
emphatically as the service jurisprudence evolved by this Court from time to
time postulates that all similarly situated persons should be treated
similarly. Therefore, the normal rule would be that merely because other
similarly situated persons did not approach the Court earlier, they are not to
be treated differently.”
6.
It is reiterated that the officers are forced to go to the CAT/High Court even
in the same matters which have already been finalized/settled by the Hon’ble
High Courts/Apex Court. No need to say that the verdicts finalized/settled by
the Apex Court are always to be treated as the Law of Land. The verdicts, in
which no appeal has been made, are also not being implemented.
7.
Further, your kind attention is invited to the order Dt. 27.09.18 of the
Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in W.P.(C) 11277/2016 taking serious note
against the CBIC letter Dt. 05.09.07. This letter says, “in cases where the
Court orders are adverse to the interest of the department/Government, such
orders should not be implemented without clearance of the Board”. The Hon’ble
High Court took strong exception to this letter and was prima facie of the
opinion that this letter invites contempt of Court. However, at the request of
the ASG, the Hon’ble Court refrained from passing further orders and offered an
opportunity to the CBIC to withdraw the letter. Thus, it is very clear that any government department is never above
the Hon’ble Court and it is contemptuous not to follow the court orders.
8.
In view of the above, it is requested-
i)
circulars may kindly be issued to implement all issues in rem,
ii)
all court orders may kindly be implemented in true spirit,
iii)
the genuine grievances of the employees may kindly be redressed
administratively without forcing them to go to the legal courts,
iv)
the appeals may kindly be withdrawn from High Courts and Supreme Court in
service matters as has been done in appeals pertaining to Revenue and
v) the verdicts on service matters may
kindly not be challenged in higher courts.
By this, not only the hard earned money,
energy and time of the officers will be saved to be utilized in a positive
manner for Nation building and service of the people but it will also save the
litigation cost incurred by the Govt. as well as precious time of the administrative
machinery.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
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, M. Jegannathan (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 T reasuer: 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. 292/AIB/N/18
Dt. 12.11.18
To,
Sh.
Dinesh Sharma,
Hon’ble
Deputy Chief Minister,
Uttar
Pradesh.
Sub: Batch to batch Non Functional
Financial Upgradation (NFU) to our officers to grant financial parity with the
best placed counterparts.
Sir,
With due regards, it is to submit that the concept of NFU was started
for the Section Officers of CSS (counterparts of Central Excise/SGST
Superintendents) in Group “B’ category in the form of time scale after
completion of 4 years of service on account of being already existed for Group ‘A’ officers. This
was started for the Section Officers of CSS in their cadre restructuring in
2003 with retrospective effect from 01.01.96 granting Group ‘A’ scale of Rs.
8,000-13,500/- to them after completion of 4 years of service without any
recommendations of any pay commission. However, such time scale/NFU was also granted to many
other categories of Group ‘B’ officers after the implementation of VIth CPC report to undo the disparity in comparison of the Group ‘B’ officers of CSS. It was,
however, granted in Group ‘A’ scale to some and in Group ‘B’ scale to others
including the Central Excise/SGST Superintendents establishing a clear
disparity.
2. All organised group ‘A’ officers recruited with
IAS, the best placed group ‘A’ service, in the same pay scale through common
entry were again granted financial parity with
the counterparts of IAS in the form of non-functional financial
up-gradation (NFU) vide DOPT OM No. AB.14017/64/2008-Estt.(RR) Dt. 24.04.09 to
compensate lack of promotions as compared to IAS after the implementation of
the VIth CPC report. This scheme was introduced for group ‘A’ officers to
compensate financial loss in comparison to the counterparts of IAS.
Particularly keeping in view the extraordinarily acute stagnation of Central
Excise Superintendents & Inspectors, a proposal for non-functional
financial up-gradation to grant them financial parity with the counterparts of
CSS was approved and recommended to DOPT by the CBIC. But DOPT without going into
the merits returned the same simply saying that NFU is applicable only for
Group ‘A’ organized service.
3. The majority of the Central Excise/CGST
Superintendents are retiring with single promotion on a PB2 post in a career of
35-40 years after being recruited as Inspector (whether DR or by promotion)
whereas their common entry counterparts of Customs, CBDT, CSS etc. are easily
being promoted to PB4 (Level-13 & above) levels with 5-6 promotions.
Central Excise Superintendents/CGST are also forced to work under their extreme
juniors of Customs (Examiners) belonging to one & same cadre of Inspector
and recruited through one & same process under one & same organization
of CBIC in one & same department of Revenue of one & same Ministry of
Finance with one & same administrative hierarchy. Examiner of 1984 has
already become Addl. Commissioner (GP-Rs. 8700/- in PB4/Level-13) years ago
after getting 5 promotions whereas the Central Excise Inspector of 1984 is yet
to get IInd promotion to JTS post of Asstt. Commissioner (GP-Rs. 5400/- in
PB3/Level-10). Their counterparts of CSS, Rajya Sabha Secretariat and CBDT are
already reaching the level of Joint Secretary and Commissioner respectively in
the GP of Rs. 10000/- in PB4 (Level-14). We have nothing against these counterparts
and wish them to get even more promotions but also request for same benefit for
us. Our officers may kindly be granted at least financial parity with them as
the Central Excise/CGST Superintendents are getting salary even less than the
pension of above counterparts.
4. As far as
the group ‘B’ officers are concerned, the CSS officers are the best placed
group ‘B’ officers of Govt. of India like IAS in group ‘A’. The group ‘B’
officers at the level of Inspector of Central Excise and the Assistant of CSS
are recruited in a common scale of pay in Group-B (Non Gazetted) cadre through
common entry examination conducted by SSC. The officers recruited as
Assistant (Group-B, Non Gazetted, Level-7) in the Ministries get the benefit of
promotions upto the Joint Secretary level, i.e., i) SO with GP of Rs. 4800/-
(Level-8) and Rs. 5400/- in PB3 (Level-10) after 4
years of service,
ii) US (Grade-I) with GP of Rs.6600/-
(Level-11), iii) DS with GP of Rs. 7600/- (Level-12), iv)
Director with GP of Rs. 8700/- (Level-13) and JS with GP of Rs. 10000/-
(Level-14). However, the majority of the officers recruited as Inspector of
Central Excise in CBIC as Group-B (Non Gazetted) through the same All India
competitive examination gets only one promotion in 35/40 years of service
career.
5. The Assistants/Section
Officers are working in the headquarters offices on policy making seats whereas
the Inspectors/Superintendents of Central Excise/CGST are working on more
important seats of revenue collection in the field formations. Despite of
working on more important seats, the Inspectors/Superintendents of Central
Excise/CGST are not treated at par with the counterparts of CSS at least in
financial matters. These CSS counterparts are retiring 4-5 grades above the
officers recruited as the Inspector of Central Excise. On account of this, the
CSS counterparts are getting 60% more pay than the officers recruited as
Inspector of Central Excise. As already submitted, even the pension of CSS
counterparts is more than the salary of the officers recruited as Inspector of
Central Excise.
6. The group
‘A’ officers in the Ministries are selected under Central Staffing Scheme on
deputation from organized Group ‘A’ Services or from CSS officers being
promoted from the post of Assistant/Section Officer but no such opportunity is
available for the officers joining the job as Inspector/Superintendent of
Central Excise who are not only looking after the work relating to the
collection of Central Excise duty but also
looking after the work of collection of Customs
duty (including Inland Air Travel Tax and Foreign Travel Tax) and Service Tax
and also CGST & IGST. Needless to submit that they are already earning the
maximum portion of the govt. revenues always far ahead even of the revised
revenue targets with the efficient, committed & effective efforts despite
of total demoralisation, disappointment and job-dissatisfaction in r/o pay
& perks, career prospects and working conditions.
7. Above
facts very well manifest the injustice meted out to officers recruited as
Central Excise Inspector despite of the most important work of revenue
collection being done by them for the Govt. During this course, they have been
facing every threat including life of them as well as their families by the
hard core criminals, dreaded smugglers and white collared criminals alongwith
tremendous administrative pressures. Thus, the officers recruited as the
Inspector of Central Excise deserve a far better treatment in every aspect
including pay, perks and career prospects. The grant of the non-functional
financial upgradation on batch to batch basis with the common entry
counterparts of CSS may be a solace for these hard working Central Excise/CGST
officers.
8. As far as
the importance of the work responsibilities is concerned, the Superintendents
are discharging all functions relating to assessment, investigation &
intelligence, issuance of Show Cause Notices with the responsibility of
adjudication etc. They have not only been conferred with the judicial
responsibilities of adjudication but also conferred with the judicial
responsibilities of recording statements of various persons in terms of Section
14 of the Central Excise Act, 1944 and Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962 and
also under GST. The statements tendered before the Central
Excise/CGST Superintendent have a legal binding and are treated as a valid
piece of evidence by various courts including the Hon’ble Supreme Court just
like the statements tendered before a Magistrate. Not only it, the Adjudication Orders are also being
prepared by them for the Commissioner level officers. No such
responsibilities have been conferred to the CSS officers or any other
counterparts of Central Excise Superintendents/Inspectors. It is also important
to mention that the judicial officers are not only being highly paid with extra
perks but also treated in a far better way in the matter of career prospects in
our country barring Central Excise/CGST Superintendents.
9. New higher
responsibilities of judicial nature were conferred upon Central Excise Superintendents vide Circular
No. 922/12/ 2010-CX issued vide F. No.
208/2/2009-CX-6 Dt. 18.05.10 and 130/12/2010–ST issued vide F. No. 137/68/2010-CX. 4 Dt. 20.05.10.
Their responsibilities were further increased ten times by enhancing the adjudication limit to Rs. 10
lac vide circular No. 1049/37/2016-CX issued vide F. No. 267/40/2016-CX.8 Dt.
29.09.16 of CBEC. Their adjudication responsibilities have again been enhanced
to the tune of Rs. 20 lac vide Circular No. 31/05/2018-GST
issued vide F.No. 349/75/2017-GST Dt. 09.02.18 of GST Policy Wing of CBIC but
without any improvement in their pay packages and career prospects.
10. Though
the Central Excise/CGST Superintendents are performing more responsible work
functions as compared to other common entry counterparts, yet they are facing
the worst career prospects instead of getting better treatment. This injustice
is being faced by them despite of being the ‘backbone of the government
revenue’ on account of being the major revenue collectors for the government in
the form of Central Excise duty, Customs duty, Service Tax, CGST & IGST. In
the actual terms, they are the ‘backbone of the government’ on account of being
responsible for the finance of the government. But very unfortunately, they are
being totally ignored in every matter.
11. The
parity is the basic concept of our Constitution and the parity in promotions is
required to be maintained amongst the similarly placed employees but the
Government of India has not initiated any action to maintain parity in
promotions as well as pay packages amongst the Group ‘B’ officers. The group
‘A’ officers have already been granted financial parity by the grant of
non-functional financial upgradation at par with the counterparts of IAS. Like it, the grant of the batch to batch
non-functional financial upgradation after entry into group ‘B’ or equivalent
grade is also the immediate need of the time for all group ‘B’ officers in
general and Central Excise/CGST Superintendents/Inspectors in particular to
bring them at par at least financially with the best placed group ‘B’
counterparts like CSS etc.
12. No need
to submit that the VIth as well as VIIth CPC have already recommended to bring
parity between the officers of headquarters offices and field offices keeping
in view the utmost importance of the work being done by the field officers.
13. The matter was also recommended to 7th
CPC by the CBIC as advised by the Department of Expenditure but the CPC kept
silence on it without giving any finding. After the publication of 7th
CPC report, the matter was again recommended by CBIC vide OM F.
No.A-26017/154//2015-Ad.IIA Dt. 22.02.16 to Revenue headquarters but no action has been taken till date. Balesh Kumar committee formed by the CBIC
on the issue of stagnation has again recommended the said NFU for our officers.
It is also worth to mention that the cabinet also recommended to bring an
independent scheme in addition to the cadre restructuring around 5 years ago
for removal of the stagnation being faced by our officers but again nothing has
been done till date.
14. It is also worth to mention that the MACP
Scheme has also been proved harmful for our officers as they are getting under
it after 30 years of service what they were getting under ACP Scheme after 24
years. They were able to get the Grade Pay of 5400/- in PB3 (Level-10) after 24
years of service under ACP Scheme which they are now getting after 30 years of
service under MACP Scheme.
15. As far
as the non-functional time scale after completion of 4 years of service is
concerned, the same has been granted to our officers merely in PB2 (Level-9)
whereas it has been granted to the counterparts of CSS, MPA, MEA, DANICS, DANIPS, Railway Board,
CSSS, AFHQ, Rajya Sabha Secretariat etc. in PB3 (Level-10) placing our officers
one level below other counterparts in financial matters.
16. It is
discriminatory and violation of Art. 14 & 16 of Constitution to give
benefit of a scheme only to a particular category of employees, i.e., Group ‘A’
employees who are already in particular getting higher salary benefits, higher
promotions and every higher facility/amenity in comparison to other categories
of the employees. Therefore, it is very necessary to place all the employees
belonging at least to a particular category (Group ‘B’ or ‘C’) at financial
parity giving them natural justice in the form of Non-Functional Financial
Upgradation as done in the case of the officers belonging to the Group ‘A’
category.
17. In the
meeting of 14.01.16 under the Chair of the Member (P&V) of CBIC with the
Association, it was said by the authorities that the matter would be examined
again for possible reference to DOPT but nothing has been done till date.
18. In the
meeting of 07.10.16 under the Chair of the Joint Secretary (Admn-EC) of CBIC
with the Association, it was said by the authorities that the matter was
recommended to the High Powered Committee of Secretaries but has not been
considered.
19. In the
meeting of 18.08.17 under the Chair of the Member (Admn) of CBIC with the
Association, the matter was again recorded/minuted and action was mentioned to
DGHRD/AD. II/IIA/IIIA/IVA for all points but nothing has been done till date.
20. The
matter was also placed on PG portal but it was disposed-off on 25.05.18 in
formal manner without any redressal.
21. It is
also worth to submit that the pay scale of the Assistants of CSS was enhanced
from Rs. 1400-2660/- to Rs. 1640-2900/- based on the precedent of Central
Excise Inspector considering both posts at par and analogous. So, it is gross
injustice to the officers joining the job as Central Excise/CGST Inspector not
to place them financially at par throughout the career with the officers
joining the job as Assistant of CSS.
22. Keeping in view the above, it is requested to
consider the matter sympathetically to grant non-functional financial
up-gradation (NFU) to the officers joining as Central Excise/CGST
Superintendents/Inspectors at par with the best placed Group ‘B’ counterparts
of CSS etc. to grant them at least financial parity on account of the lack of promotions
for the sake of justice. No need to say that this would boost their morale
multifold resulting further into multifold efficiency in tax administration and
multifold increase in revenue collection.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
