GAZETTED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
President: Address for communication: Secretary General:
Lokanath Mishra 240, Razapur, Ghaziabad-201001 (U.P.) Ravi Malik
Vice Presidents: Sampat Rai, Vatan Kamble (Central); Anurag Chaudhary, Ravi Joshi (North); A. Ravinder Singh, Rajan G. George (South); A. S. Roy, Shubhrangshu Deb (East); P. D. Nimhan, S. K. Jha (West)
Joint Secretaries: Anand Kishore, Laxmi Lal Singhvi (Central); N. N. Lal, R. K. Solanki (North); G. Srinath, S. Chandrasekar (South); Ashwini Majhi, V. N. Jha (East); G. K. Jhala, M. K. Misra (West)
Office Secretary: C.S.Sharma (Mob. 09313885411) Treasurer: N.R.Manda (Mob. 09871483585)
(Recognised by G.O.I., Min. of Fin. vide letter F.No. B. 12017/10/2006-Ad.IV A Dt.21.01.08)
Ref. No. 270/P/13 Dt. 20.09.13
To,
Ms. Praveen Mahajan,
The Chairperson, CBEC,
North Block, New Delhi.
Sub: Parity with the best placed counterparts like CSS etc.
Madam,
As you know, it is submitted with due regards that our officers are retiring only with single promotion in the career of 35-40 years after entering the job as Inspector of Central Excise (whether direct or promote) while our counterparts of CSS, CSSS, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, CBDT etc. are easily attaining the PB4 levels. No need to say that our officers are the backbone of the government on account of earning the major portion of the government revenues discharging executive and also quasi-judicial duties taking every risk on life of self as well as family on account of interacting with the white collared criminals & hard chore smugglers whereas our common entry counterparts of CSS are looking only after the ministerial work of the government.
2. The government is adopting every measure to bring parity, whether functional or non-functional, among common entry group ‘A’ officers but no such measures are being taken for group ‘B’ officers. The burning example of our former Member, Sh. M. K. Thakur, is before us when all of his other common entry group ‘A’ counterparts belonging to other services (including IAS) got parity with him on his promotion to higher post in comparison to others. Every effort is made also to promote group ‘A’ officers within qualifying service but no such effort is ever made to promote Central Excise group ‘B’ executive officers in consonance of DOPT guidelines. No need to say that the group ‘B’ officers of CSS & Rajya Sabha Secretariat etc. are understood the best placed group ‘B’ officers of government of India like IAS is the best placed under the category of group ‘A’ officers.
3. On account of no efforts being made to bring group ‘B’ common entry counterparts at par, there is huge discriminatory disparity between Central Excise group ‘B’ executive officers and other counterparts. As a result, the counterparts of CSS, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, CBDT etc. are reaching the level of Joint Secretary & Commissioner while Central Excise group ‘B’ executive officers are forced to retire as Superintendent only barring 1%. This has made a huge discriminatory difference between their salaries, pension, retirement benefits and other pre & post-retirement benefits. The ongoing cadre restructuring of CBEC shall also not be able to undo the continuous discrimination being made to the Central Excise group ‘B’ executive officers. As a result of ongoing cadre restructuring, only a few percent of them will merely be able to enter junior group ‘A’ at the fag end of the career.
4. In view of the above, it is necessary to take some concrete steps independent of cadre restructuring to bring Central Excise group ‘B’ executive officers at par with their best placed common entry counterparts of CSS etc. The parity (functional or even non-functional) with their common entry counterparts is very well possible by adopting the measures like below-
a) time bound promotions/scales (time scales after every 7 years for us were also recommended by CBEC to 6th CPC but the same is now being back tracked),
b) notional promotions,
c) creation of supernumerary posts,
d) creation of separate service (it was also recommended by CBEC to 6th CPC but now it is also being back tracked),
e) direct promotion to higher post/s (Customs Ministerial officers are being promoted to the post of Customs Appraiser without working even for a single day on the post of Customs Examiner),
f) in-situ promotions (requiring no creation of posts),
g) batch to batch functional upgradation at par with the best placed common entry counterparts like CSS etc. and/or
h) any other specific measure/s including batch to batch non-functional upgradation at par with the best placed common entry counterparts like CSS etc. also requiring no creation of posts on the lines of DOPT OM No. AB.14017/64/2008-Estt.(RR) dt. 24.04.09 granting NFU to other group ‘A’ officers at par with IAS and
i) re-framing the recruitment rules (the draft RR’s have already been submitted to your goodself by the Association vide its Ref. No. 211/SC/13 Dt. 25.07.13) without trifurcating the single cadre of Inspector/Superintendent and prescribing the qualifying service in consonance of the DOPT OM No. AB-14017/61/2008-Estt.(RR) dt. 24.03.09 which stipulates the promotion of the grade of Inspector to the grade of Joint Commissioner, Additional Commissioner & Commissioner after completion of 12, 17 & 20 years of service respectively. The validity of this OM was also admitted by CBEC during the presentation of cadre restructuring proposal on 18.01.11 but they showed their inability to implement it due to the want of the required number of vacancies/posts. Therefore, the officers may even be granted in-situ promotions after completion of the prescribed service also requiring no creation of posts independent of cadre restructuring.
5. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has also intended in Dr. Ms. O.Z. Hussain v. Union of India [1990 Supp. SCC 688] that similarly placed officers in different ministries should have the same benefit of promotions. Keeping in view the above observations of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, the officers recruited as Central Excise Inspectors should get parity not only with the intra-organisational counterparts like Examiners and intra-departmental counterparts like Income Tax Inspectors but also with the inter-departmental/inter-Ministry counterparts of CSS & other best places counterparts. Every Pay Commission has also given equal treatment to the posts of Inspectors, PO’s & Examiners and Income Tax Inspectors as well as the Assistants of CSS and also the Superintendents & Appraisers and Income Tax Officers as well as Section Officers of CSS placing them under same pay scale. Therefore, they should also have equal opportunities & parity in promotions.
6. Keeping in view the above submissions, it is requested that the immediate steps may kindly be taken to devise the specific scheme (by means of functional or non-functional upgradation) for bringing the Central Excise group ‘B’ executive officers at par with their best placed common entry counterparts like CSS etc.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
