Dear
friends,
Namaste.
One more meeting was held today with
the Cabinet Secretary on the issue of parity, functional or non-functional,
with the best placed common entry counterparts. Like ever, he was kind enough
to give sufficient time and hear us patiently noting down the things. He was
further very kind enough to promise us to do the needful in the matter. We
submitted him that our CSS counterparts are reaching the level of Joint
Secretary & Director while we are forced to retire as Superintendent. We
also again paid all of our thanks to him to help us by asking the CBEC in the
minutes of cadre review committee meeting to bring some scheme for us independent
of cadre restructuring. It was also submitted to him that the CBEC is planning
to dilute the said scheme. The draft Recruitment Rules prepared by the
Association were also handed over to him.
Friends as far as the CBEC is
concerned, it seems that they are pre-determined not to give any benefit to us
(rather doing everything against us). The only way to change the scenario is
the strong, united & effective agitational programme. The Association is
trying the best only utilizing the limited resources available with it. We have
to be all united with our physical efforts (TAN), dedication & commitment
(MAN) and funds (DHAN) to achieve our goals. As far as career prospects are
concerned, no need to say that our ultimate goal is entry of all of our
officers into PB4.
So friends, don’t forget to observe
lunch hour Shantigosthis on 12.02.14 & 13.02.14 at your Hqrs offices. As
far as the persuasion is concerned, the Association is already pursuing each
& everything with the administration by making correspondence and having
meetings with the different authorities including Ministers & Secretaries.
Even after the approval of cadre restructuring, the meetings have already been
held with the Secretaries of DOPT, Expenditure & Revenue, Cabinet
Secretary, Chairperson & Members of CBEC, Chairpersons of various
committees formed in r/o cadre restructuring etc. The meeting of today was at
least 4th or 5th meeting of ours with the Cabinet
Secretary and he was kind enough & generous like ever. Our CBEC needs to
learn something from him. Thanks a lot to him.
The copy of the representations
handed over to the Cabinet Secretary is available on this cengoindia.blogspot.in.
Love,
Ravi Malik.
ALL
INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EXCISE
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. 32/P/14 Dt. 07.02.14
To,
Sh. Ajit Kumar
Seth,
The
Cabinet Secretary, Govt. of India,
New
Delhi.
Sub: Parity with the best placed counterparts like CSS etc.
Sir,
It
is submitted with due regards that our officers are retiring only with single
promotion at a PB2 post in the career of 35-40 years after entering the job as
Inspector of Central Excise while our counterparts of CSS, CSSS, Rajya Sabha
Secretariat, CBDT etc. are easily attaining the PB4 levels after getting 5/6
promotions despite of our officers being the backbone of the government on
account of earning the major portion of the government revenues during the
course of discharging executive as well as quasi-judicial duties taking every
risk on life of self & family on account of countering with the white
collared criminals & hardcore smugglers.
2.
The government has adopted 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 IRS officers of CBEC got the parity
with their common entry counterparts of CBDT in the last cadre restructuring
and with other better placed group ‘A’ common entry counterparts in the current
cadre restructuring. Every effort is also made to promote group ‘A’ officers of
CBEC within qualifying service but no such effort is ever made to promote
Central Excise group ‘B’ executive officers in consonance of DOPT
guidelines.
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 easily attaining the level of Joint
Secretary & Commissioner while Central Excise group ‘B’ executive officers
are forced to retire as Superintendent after single promotion barring 1%. This
has made a huge discriminatory difference between their salaries, pension and
other pre/post-retirement benefits. The current cadre restructuring of CBEC
shall also not be able to undo the continuous discrimination being made to the
Central Excise group ‘B’ executive officers. Only less than 2% of them will
merely be able to enter into junior group ‘A’ at the fag end of the career on
regular basis as a result of the said cadre restructuring because the rest of
the posts of Asstt. Commissioner (JTS level) have been created on temporary
basis for 5 years only with the condition that the officers promoted against these posts would not be eligible for
further promotion.
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. on the lines of group
‘A’ in the interest of the govt. revenue. 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 these officers were also recommended by CBEC to 6th CPC
vide F.No.A.26017/147
/06-Ad.II.A Dt. 04.01.07 as one of the measures but
the same is now being back tracked). No posts will be required to be created for
the grant of time scale after every 7 years.
b) Notional
promotions granting batch to batch parity with the best placed common entry
counterparts like CSS etc.
c) Creation of
supernumerary posts which will be personal to the officer at each level of
the promotion and will be abolished with the retirement of the officer.
d) Creation of
separate service (it was also
recommended by CBEC to 6th CPC vide F.No.A.26017/147 /06-Ad.II.A Dt. 04.01.07 as
one of the measures but now it is also being back
tracked). The draft RR’s for separate
service have already been submitted to the CBEC by the Association (copy
enclosed herewith). The separate service for group ‘B’ officers has also been
recommended on various occasions by the CBEC and also by the IRS Officers
Association but no initiative has been taken till date. This may now be created
by taking into consideration all of the vacant posts (after implementation of
cadre restructuring) at group ‘A’ level+half of STS posts+half of JTS regular
posts by upgrading these to STS+all of temporary JTS posts (instead of
abolishing after 5 years) by upgrading these to STS with the provision of
promoting Superintendents directly to STS+some additional posts at each level
in proportion to base etc.
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
feeder post of Customs Examiner in CBEC. Likewise, our officers may also kindly
be granted parity with the best placed common entry counterparts by promoting
them directly to the higher posts).
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.
h) Batch to batch non-functional upgradation at par with the best placed common entry counterparts
like CSS etc. (also requiring no creation of posts) based on
the precedent 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. A separate representation vide
Ref. No. 33/NFU/14 Dt. 07.02.14 is presented alongwith on this issue.
i) Re-framing the
recruitment rules prescribing the qualifying service 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 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 not questioned by CBEC
during the presentation of cadre restructuring proposal on 18.01.11 but CBEC
showed its inability to implement the same due to the want of the required
number of vacancies/posts. In the case of the want of the required number of
vacancies/posts, the officers may kindly
be granted in-situ promotions after completion of the prescribed service
(also requiring no creation of
posts) independent of cadre restructuring. A little deviation
from the above mentioned DOPT guidelines may be understood but the
non-implementation of the guidelines 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 one & half times of
qualifying service based on the precedent of CSS where all the Section
Officers were promoted to the post of Under Secretary after completion of one
& half times of qualifying service in 1999).
5. Keeping in view the above
submissions, it is requested that the due steps may kindly be taken independent
of cadre restructuring 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. on batch to batch basis.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
Encl: As above.
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
ALL
INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EXCISE
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. 33/NFU/14 Dt. 07.02.14
To,
Sh. Ajit Kumar
Seth,
The
Cabinet Secretary, Govt. of India,
New
Delhi.
Sub: Batch to batch Non Functional Upgradation
to the Central Excise executive officers at par with the counterparts of CSS.
Sir,
It is submitted with due regards that all the
organised group ‘A’ officers recruited with IAS, the best placed group ‘A’
service, in the same pay scale through common entry examination conducted by
UPSC have been granted financial parity with the counterparts of IAS. They have
been granted non-functional up-gradation vide DOPT OM No. AB.14017/64/2008-Estt.(RR)
dt. 24.04.09 to compensate the lack of promotions as compared to IAS.
2. It is further
submitted that 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 through common
entry examination conducted by SSC. The officers recruited as Assistant
(Group-B, Non Gazetted) in the Ministries get the benefit of promotions upto
the Joint Secretary level, i.e., i) SO with GP of Rs.5400/- in PB3 after 4
years of service, ii) US (Grade-I) with GP of Rs.6600/-, iii) DS with GP of Rs.
7600/-, iv) Director with GP of Rs. 8700/- in PB-4 and v) JS with GP of Rs.
10000/-. However, their counterpart Inspectors of Central Excise in CBEC
recruited as Group-B (Non Gazetted) through the same All India competitive
examination get only one promotion in 35/40 years of service career. The
Assistants/Section Officers are working in the headquarters offices on policy
making seats whereas the Inspectors/Superintendents of Central Excise 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 are not treated at par with the counterparts of CSS. 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. Even
the pension of CSS counterparts is more than the salary of the officers
recruited as Inspector of Central Excise. The Inspectors of Central Excise are
recruited in PB2 and also retire on a PB2 post of Superintendent barring around
1% while all of their common entry counterparts of CSS easily reach PB4 levels
after being recruited with them in PB2 through the same examination with same
eligible conditions. It is also worth to submit that the revenue officers are
highly placed throughout the world in the matter of salary, perks and career
prospects as compared to other employees but, very unfortunately, our officers
are facing the ever worst prospects in each & every matter.
3. The group ‘A’
officers in the Ministries are selected under Central Staffing Scheme on
deputation basis 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 Inspectors/Superintendents of Central Excise who are not only
looking after the work relating to 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. Needless to submit that they are
already earning the major portion of the govt. revenues. It is also worth to
submit that the Govt. of India has regularly been earning the revenue far ahead
of the revenue target in r/o of Central Excise duty, Customs duty and
Service Tax particularly due to the
efficient, committed &
effective efforts of the workforce in the form of Central Excise
Inspectors/Superintendents.
4. 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 govt. During this course, they have been facing every threat
including life & person of them as well as their families by the hard core
criminals, 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 upgradation on
batch to batch basis in the grade of common entry counterparts of CSS on the
lines of granting the non-functional upgradation to all Group ‘A’ officers at
par with IAS may really be a solace for these hard working Central Excise
officers.
5. The Central Excise
Superintendents have been facing continuous acute stagnation for decades. Out of more than 11500 Central Excise
Superintendents, around 10000 are already eligible for promotion to group ‘A’
having rendered more qualifying service than required for promotion.
6. As far as the
importance of the responsibilities is concerned, the Superintendents are
discharging all functions relating to assessment, investigation &
intelligence, issuance of Show Cause Notices with the powers of adjudication.
They have not only been conferred with the judicial powers in the matter of
adjudication but also been conferred with the judicial powers of recording
statements of various persons in terms of Section 14 of the Central Excise Act,
1944 or Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962.
The statements tendered before the Central Excise 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. No such powers 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 already being highly paid
with extra perks but also treated in a far better way in the matter of career
prospects than our Superintendents in our country. Though the Central Excise
Superintendents are performing more responsible work functions as compared to
other common entry counterparts, yet they are facing the worst career prospects
instead of being given 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 and Service Tax and also GST in the forthcoming times. In the
actual terms, they are the ‘backbone of the government’ on account of being
responsible to earn the finance for the government. But very unfortunately,
they are being totally ignored in every matter.
7. In view of
above, it is requested that the officers recruited as Inspector/Superintendent
of Central Excise may kindly be granted at least non-functional upgradation at
par with their counterparts of CSS on batch to batch basis enabling them to
retire in PB4 like their counterparts too.
Thanking
you,
Yours faithfully,
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
It is required to re designate the temporary posts created in CR-2013 of CBEC as Deputy Commissioner instead of Asst. Commissioner.
In the Cadre Restructuring - 2013 of CBEC (notified on 18.12-2013), 489 senior level posts ( Principal CC to JC) have been created whereas 500 posts (regular ) have been created at the cutting edge level i.e. DC/AC. The consequential vacancies at the level of AC ( regular) will be 989 ( 489 + 500), which is proposed to be filled-up @ 50% by promotion and 50% by Direct Recruitment in accordance with the RRs. In effect, majority of these posts are going to remain unfilled for next three to 12 years. Particularly, in F.Y.s 2013-14 and 2014-15, only 484 vacancies are likely to be filled by way of promotions as the corresponding 485 DR vacancies will actually be available only within 12 years as recruitment process of UPSC cannot commence before Feb, 2015 . Further, as on date there are around 250 vacant posts of AC on direct quota and during next 10 years around 1000 nos.of regular posts ( approximately 100 nos. for each and every year)will be lying vacant . For effective cadre management and as per UPSC norms the ideal DR quota shall be around 150 per year and UPSC will not be inclined to recruit more. Hence approximately 12 years will be required to fill up all such posts ( 250 +485+ 1000 = 1735)by UPSC. Accordingly, a good nos.of AC posts are remain vacant for next 12 years. Further, as per DOPT OM No. No. I-11011/1/2009-CRD dated 14-12-210 “The Cadre Controlling Authorities are, however, advised not to resort to any bulk recruitment as it would create a bulge in the structure leading to stagnation at later stage. This may be kept in view while projecting recruitment planning.” It is surprising to note that as to how CBEC lost sight of such important advice of DOPT. . Keeping a large number of posts vacant, in the grade of AC for a period of 12 years is bound to adversely affect the revenue collections and result in tardy Tax Payer Service. Besides, it will create a real bottleneck directly affecting promotion prospects of Gr-B Gazetted officers of Central Excise and Customs Department, , the feeder cadres for AC. Stagnation level in the grade of Superintendent of Central Excise is presently nearly 20 years. It will be increased to 24 years in the coming years and will be resulted that many Superintendents will retire without joining in Gr-A. . Thus, the present scheme of filling-up 989 posts of AC in the ratio of 50% by Promotion and 50% by Direct Recruitment, will have demoralizing effect on more than 90% officers at the cutting edge level (Gr-B Gazetted). If such large number of posts at cutting edge level are kept vacant, it is anybody’s guess as to how the promised growth in revenue collections in the coming years will be achieved. We are sure that these intricacies would not have been duly highlighted in the proposals submitted by the CBEC. Here it is pertinent to mention that Cadre Restructuring is for those who are already in service & not for those who are in college and likely to join service in future i.e. 5/12 years. In Cadre Restructuring - 2002 it is inter alia clearly mentioned in the cabinet note that “it is alignment with the policy of Govt. which lays down the objective of cadre review as the achievement of congruence between functional needs of the department and legitimate aspirations of the staff. Accordingly, cabinet approved the CR during 2002 for filling up of vacancies of all newly created posts by promotion and not through recruitment from open market. Cabinet approved for a one-time relaxation to the recruitment rules ,therefore all vacancies at all levels, arising as a consequence of the restructuring, were filled by promotion from the feeder cadres . Therefore now it is required to allow 100% promotions in the ensuing CR to all feeder categories in the JTS as well as chain vacancies in JTS arising due to promotions against additional posts created at higher levels and it must be in one go, as is proposed to be done in in the CR-2002. Further the promotional prospects of Superintendents of Central Excise were adversely affected due to the fixation of 6.1.2 ratio in old RRs as per the verdict of Apex Court. The Apex Court pronounced such decisions in W(C) No 306/88 without any judicial determination and by virtue of such decisions one of the feeder categories namely Appraisers of Customs got undue benefits in promotions since 1988 to 2011.Though by virtue of Apex Court decisions dated 03.08.11 the ratio has been revised to 13.2.1 , however Board declined to make regularization of all adhoc promotions pending in the grade of AC since 1997 in revised ratio despite the verdict of Apex court on dated 03.08.11. By virtue of such undue benefit ,while the Appraisers of 2002 batch are promoted to the post of AC, the Superintendents of 1993 batch are still Superintendents. Mainly the temporary posts have been created for removal of stagnation in the grade of Superintendent of Central Excise as per our continuance demand , agitation and representation , hence all such temporary posts are required to be filled up from the cadre of Superintendent only duly amending the RRs and not a single post should be provided to the grade of Appraiser for promotion . If Appraisers will be allowed to be promoted against the temporary posts in 13.2.1 ratio, then while 2008 batch of Appraisers will be promoted to AC, 2001 batch Superintendents of Central Excise and 2003 batch Superintendents ,Cus(P) will be AC in course of implementation of CR(CBEC)-2013 and these definitely will have demoralizing effect on more than 90% officers at the cutting edge level (Superintendents). Last but not the least it is surprising to note that as to how CBEC lost sight to recommend for removal of itra cadre ( including inter cadre) disparity in promotions as existed in our cadres. Ministry of Finance has clarified that temporary posts should be created additions to the cadre of a service in the time scale of such service ordinarily without extra remuneration. Incumbents of these posts will, therefore draw their ordinary time scale pay. Hence it is required to re designate such temporary posts as Deputy Commissioner instead of Asst. Commissioner.
ALL
INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EXCISE
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. 30/P/14
Dt. 06.02.14
To,
Ms. J.
M. Shantisundharam,
The
Chairperson, CBEC,
North
Block, New Delhi.
Sub: Promotion against existing vacancies of
Asstt. Commissioner.
Madam,
Once more congratulations &
welcome to the seat. The Association is certain that a new era would now be
started in CBEC particularly in the direction of the redressal of the employee
grievances.
2. Further as your goodself knows,
it is submitted with due regards that the last DPC to the post of Asstt.
Commissioner was held more than two & half years ago. The DPC against the
existing vacancies is already pending with the UPSC and our officers are
regularly forced to retire without the rare of rarest IInd promotion at the fag
end of the career which is luckily available only to the 1% strength of Central
Excise group B executive officers. The UPSC being busy with many other DPC’s;
it seems that it may take many more months for the said DPC to be conducted and
all of the officers figuring in the list for the said DPC will retire without
being promoted, if your kind influence is not applied.
3. In view of the above, it is very
much requested to your goodself to kindly use your good influence with the UPSC
for conduction of the DPC at its earliest. The Association expects that the
said DPC may be held immediately in the already vacant slot of 11.02.14 to
13.02.14 with UPSC, if your kind influence is used.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
