ALL INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EXCISE
GAZETTED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
Patron Chief Patron Patron
A. Venkatesh Ravi Malik C. S. Sharma
Mob. 7780255361 Mob. 9868816290 Mob. 9313885411
President: Address for communication: Secretary General:
T. Dass Flat No. 6, SE 11, Shastri Nagar, Ghaziabad Harpal Singh
Vice Presidents: B L Meena, K V Sriniwas (Central) Chinmoy Ghosh, Rajashish Dutta (East) Ashish Vajpayee, Amadul Islam (North) B Pavan K Reddy, M Jegannathan (South) Sanjeev Sahai, U D Meena (West) Joint Secretaries: S P Pandey, T A Manojuman (Central) Apurba Roy, Siddhath Tewari (East) A K Meena, S K Shrimali (West) Anand Narayan, Prabhakar Sharma (North) H Sadanand, M Nagaraju (South); All India Coordinator: B L Meena Office Secretary: B C Gupta Treasuer: Manoj Kumar 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)
Office address: 206, B wing, CGO Complex II, Kamla Nehru Nagar, Ghaziabad
Ref. No. 36/AIB/G/20 Dt. 21.02.20
To,
Sh. M. Ajit Kumar,
Chairman, CBIC,
North Block, New Delhi.
Sub: Unlawful Guard of Honour forced on tax officers.
Sir,
Kindly refer to the letter C.No.II/03/1/2018-Estt Dt. 20.02.20 of Sh. K. F. Shyphuddeen, Asstt. Commissioner (P&V) o/o the Commissioner, Central Tax, Hyderabad II – Audit Commissionerate on the subject of ‘Admn: Parade training for the uniformed officers to accord “Guard of Honour” to the incumbent Chief Commissioner on 24.02.20 at Hqrs Office-reg.’ (Copy enclosed). It is worth to mention that this letter was issued with the approval of the Additional Commissioner instead of the approval of the Commissioner.
2. It is to submit with due regards that seven Superintendents (Gazetted Officers of the Govt. of India) and eight Inspectors (Group ‘B’ officers of the Govt. of India) have been nominated for two days training to accord “Guard of Honour” to the incumbent Chief Commissioner by above referred letter. It is also worth to submit that according of “Guard of Honour” to any of the authorities is nowhere prescribed under any rule or law in Central Excise, Customs, Service Tax or GST. It was also not practiced even in the English time in our department. Our CBIC is unable to frame any statutory guidelines/provisions even to wear uniform for our officers which is being forced to be worn by the executive officers upto the level of Deputy Commissioner to personally appease the higher authorities without any official purpose. If we are unable to frame statutory provisions for wearing of uniform, how our officers can be forced to follow the things like salute, parade and “Guard of Honour”. Such non-prescribed and non-statutory things can only happen in our CBIC, thanks to personal pleasure and ego of some of our higher authorities without having any official reason.
3. Under GST, the central as well as state officers are performing same work functions and responsibilities relating to the tax collection under the same law, rules and procedure. But there is extreme difference between the work culture in state governments and central government under GST. In centre, the lower officers are prey of acute and unwarranted subordination in the form of personal pleasure of the higher authorities whereas nothing such happens in state governments where the officers are working in very cordial and family atmosphere following the administrative hierarchy without feeling any subordination as well as enjoying full protection and respect from the higher authorities. Not only it, state tax officers are better placed in the matter of pay and designation in comparison to the central tax officers.
4. The incidents of this unlawful and unprescribed “Guard of Honour” also happened in Surat and Lucknow agitating the affected officers to the highest degree. Things were precipitated in such a manner that C&AG was forced to nominate three officers to visit Lucknow to take stock of the situation. Letter dated 07.02.20 of the o/o C&AG is also enclosed herewith.
5. Such incident of unlawful “Guard of Honour” and unprescribed escort was also reported once by TIOL about a written official communication a Deputy Commissioner ordering Inspectors to escort senior officers upto the rank of Joint Commissioner to their respective cabins. They also reported a more interesting communication mentioning an Office Order in F. No. II/39-10/Office Order/2007-Estt dated 11.01.2016 by which three Additional Commissioners of Surat Central Excise Commissionerates directed the officers to be present in the office compound to participate in the “Guard of Honour” ceremony for the Chief Commissioner in full uniform without fail at 8.30 hours. Warning was also given for strict action to be taken against the absentees.
6. TIOL further raised the question what is happening in the Department. Are the officers meant for tax collection or ceremonies and guard of honour? Just because some officers (only upto the level of Deputy Commissioner) in the Department are provided with a uniform, does it mean that their services should be misutilised for this kind of farce? But these questions remained unnoticed by our CBIC.
7. They further reported as below-
“Writing in our Message Board on 30.10.2014, Advocate Gururaj commented,
The photo of the CBEC Chairperson with hand raised in salute makes an anachronistic picture. Is she saluting someone, or is she receiving guard of honour? In either case, this gesture is out of place in a taxation department. Central Excise and Customs departments are not paramilitary forces. Why do they need uniform, why should they salute when they see a superior? The uniform, saluting etc seem like a hangover of British Raj. The moment a person wears uniform, he feels like bossing over citizens who are in mufti. These are out of place and out of time, when the tax departments are consciously trying to cultivate customer oriented approach towards tax payers. In my view, only customs officers who deal with passengers either in ports or airports need to wear uniform, so that the passengers can readily identify them as customs officers. This also remained unnoticed by our CBIC.
8. They raised further questions if the taxpayers impressed with these activities of the department? When GST comes will there be a guard of honour only for the CGST Chief Commissioner or will the SGST Chief Commissioner also get the honour? These questions also remained unnoticed by our CBIC.
9. Needless to submit that such incidents of unlawful and unofficial “Guard of Honour” or escort or protocol might have happen on some other places also. One more such incident happened in Agra Commissionerate under Lucknow Zone where two Inspectors were also suspended without any fault on their part. Their only fault perhaps was that they missed the unlawful “Guard of Honour”. It is also worth to mention that this matter of the “Guard of Honour” in our department was also raised by the Revenue Transparency Times in February, 19 issue. They also raised the point of misuse of uniform in our department in June, 16 issue. But again the things remained unnoticed by our CBIC.
10. It is really unfortunate that the tax officers are being forced to do something which is not the part of their official duties instead of utilizing them in tax collection work despite of knowing that we are not only short of required manpower under GST but also short of the desired tax collection. No need to say that the salute, parade, guard of honour etc. are the attributes of armed forces like Police, Navy, Air force, Army and Para Military forces as they also have complete manual for the same which is not the case in a civil or revenue departments. Happening of such things merely remind the obsession of English under their colonial and feudal mindset to oppress we Indians like slaves in pre-independence era as per their whims and fancies.
11. In view of the above, it is very much requested to kindly look into the matter personally for the sake of saving and maintaining the self respect and grace of the executive officers under the CBIC, so that they don’t feel humiliated and insulted. We have to note that they are giving the best service to the country in the matter of tax collection despite of facing the worst career prospects and pay prospects in comparison to their counterparts. Their services may kindly be used only for the purpose of the collection of Govt. revenues instead of forcing them to observe the functions (like parade, salute, guard of honour etc.) not related to tax collection and prescribed under no rule of law for them to follow. This is very necessary for having an efficient indirect tax administration in the country and also for the ease of business to tax payers.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
Encs: As above (2)
(HARPAL SINGH),
Secretary General.
