" IRS OFFICERS PROMOTED FROM THE GRADE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF CENTRAL EXCISE ARE ALSO MEMBERS OF AIACEGEO. THIS IS THE ONLY ASSOCIATION FOR SUPERINTENDENTS OF CENTRAL EXCISE AND IRS OFFICERS PROMOTED FROM THE GRADE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF CENTRAL EXCISE THROUGH OUT THE COUNTRY . President Mr.T.Dass and SG Mr. Harpal Singh.

Monday, 15 February 2021

Meeting with MOS

 A meeting was held with the Hon'ble MOS of Finance today on 15.02.21. The following submissions were made to him.


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

Mob.9848088928     mail Id:aiacegeo2019@gmail.com    Site:cengoindia.blogspot.in        Mob.9717510598

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, Siddharth 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 Liaisoning Secretary: Bhoopendra Singh North Zone Coordinator: C. P. Verma

(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. 30/AIB/A/21                                                                                  Dt. 15.02.21

To,

Sh. Anurag Thakur,

Hon’ble MOS, Ministry of Finance,

North Block, New Delhi.

Sub: Request to consider the submissions made herewith.

Sir,

            It is to submit with due regards that a meeting of the Association was held with the Hon’ble Finance Minister on 16.11.20 through video conference. The Member (P&V) of CBIC, Ms. Sungita Sharma, also participated in the meeting.

2. As per the submissions made during the meeting of 16.11.20, the DPCs for the post of Asstt. Commissioner for the years 2018 and 2019 have been conducted but the kind outcome on the remaining points is still awaited. It is, therefore, requested to kindly consider the following submissions for kind redressal-

A. DPC for the post of Asstt. Commissioner for the years 2020 and 2021: The DPCs for the years 2020 and 2021 are also overdue. The same may kindly be conducted to fill up all the remaining posts of Asstt. Commissioner at an early date to promote other officers who are waiting for their turn for long. It is also worth to submit that the temporary posts of Asstt. Commissioner would lapse on 17.12.21. If any court stay is there or any seniority issue is pending, DPCs may be conducted as per the DOPT OM No. 28036/8/87-ESTT.(D) dated 30.03.1988 for ad hoc promotions. If any court case is pending, promotion orders may be issued subject to the final verdict of the court. If any final court verdict is there, the same may be implemented or appeal may be made in the higher court.

B. Transfer orders of the promotee Asstt./Deputy Commissioners: The majority of the promotee officers of the rank of Assistant Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner have already attained the age of 57 years or more. Majority of them are also suffering from old age related chronic diseases/health problems. All the promotee Asstt./Deputy Commissioners (promoted recently or earlier) may kindly be adjusted to the requested place/own zone/station in this unprecedented time of corona pandemic as the vacancies are already existing at every place. As per the transfer policy, the officers retiring within three years are to be posted at desired place.

C. Implementation of the legal verdicts: Legal verdicts are not being implemented in rem despite of being settled by the Hon’ble courts. Non-implementation of court verdicts is forcing thousands of officers to approach the court flooding the unwarranted litigations. The officers are forced to go to the CAT/High Court/Supreme Court even in the same matters which have already been finalized/settled by the Hon’ble CATs/Higher Courts/Apex Court. All court orders may kindly be implemented in true spirit in rem.

D. Upgradation/redesignation under GST like State Governments: Posts have already been upgraded/redesignated by one step in State GST. Not only the counterparts of our Superintendents in the State GST have been re-designated/upgradaed as Asstt. Commissioner but they have also been placed in a pay scale equivalent to Level-10. Asstt. CTO has been upgraded to CTO, CTO to Asstt. Commissioner, Asstt. Commissioner to Deputy Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner to Joint Commissioner, Joint Commissioner to Addl. Commissioner and so on putting our officers under a very insulting, demoralizing and humiliating situation particularly in dealing with the trade and also with state GST officials. Accordingly, our Superintendents may kindly be upgraded/redesignted as Asstt. Commissioner and their pay scale may also be enhanced to Level-10 to bring them at par with the counterparts of State GST to save them from public humiliation and insult and the post of Asstt. Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, Joint Commissioner and Additional Commissioner may also kindly be upgraded/redesignated as Deputy Commissioner, Joint Commissioner, Additional Commissioner and Special Commissioner respectively on the lines of State GST.

E. Bringing of Flexible Complementary/Dynamic Assured Career Progression Scheme to remove stagnation of our officers: Schemes already operative in the DST and Health to remove the stagnation of the employees. The most of our officers are retiring with single promotion on a PB2 post (Level-8) in a career of 35-40 years after joining the job as Inspector (Level-7) whereas our counterparts including Customs, Income Tax, CSS etc. are getting 5 to 6 promotions upto the Level-14. The Cabinet approved to take extra measures to remove stagnation of group ‘B’ Central Excise executive officers independent of cadre restructuring in 2013 but no measures taken. An organization specific scheme is, therefore, required to be brought. This can be done by introduction of flexible/dynamic promotion/complementing scheme or Non functional financial upgradation (NFU). Central Excise/CGST Superintendents are also forced to work under their extreme juniors of Customs 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 (Level-13) after getting 5 promotions whereas the Central Excise Inspector of 1984 is yet to get IInd promotion to regular post of Asstt. Commissioner (Level-10). Particularly keeping in view the extraordinarily acute stagnation of Central Excise/CGST executive officers, the Central Excise/CGST Superintendents & Inspectors may kindly be granted at least 5 in-situ promotions under flexible/dynamic promotion/complementing scheme or they may be granted Non functional financial upgradation (NFU) to get at least financial parity with the best placed counterparts as already done in group A cadres. Such proposal of NFU was recommended to DOPT for our officers by the CBIC but DOPT returned it saying that it is applicable only to group A officers. This was also recommended to the pay commission by the CBIC but pay commission kept silence on it. It was again recommended to High Power Committee of Secretaries but again silence. It was further recommended by the Stagnation Committee but is yet to be implemented.

F. Implementation of in-situ promotion scheme as approved in CBIC Board meeting of 18.02.11: Scheme has not been implemented despite of repeated requests of the Association. Not only the most of our officers are retiring with single promotion after joining as Inspector but there are also disparities in promotions from zone to zone. The temporary posts of Asstt. Commissioner with the clause of no further promotion are unable to do the required good and these posts will lapse on 17.12.21. Already approved in situ promotion scheme may kindly be implemented w.e.f. date of its approval, i.e., 18.02.11 as an instant measure to cope up the problems of the acute stagnation and regional disparities being faced by our officers.

G. Cadre restructuring: The cadre restructuring proposal of the most of other departments have already been sent to DOPT but our proposal is yet to be sent to them. The last date of the proposal to be sent to the DOPT was 31.12.18 which was extended upto 28.02.19. The proposal may kindly be sent to the DOPT at the earliest.

H. Promotion of the officers promoted against the temporary posts of Asstt. Commissioner to the post Deputy Commissioner after completion of four years: In the last cadre restructuring, 2113 temporary posts of Asstt. Commissioner were created for five years which have been extended for further three years, i.e., upto 17.12.21.  But unfortunately, the officers promoted against the temporary posts of Asstt. Commissioner have not been promoted to the post of Deputy Commissioner even expiry of more than six years whereas direct recruited junior Asstt. Commissioners have been promoted as Deputy Commissioner after completion of four years of service. It is requested that the officers working on the temporary posts of Asstt. Commissioner may also kindly be promoted to the post of Deputy Commissioner on completion of four years of service to protect them from degraded treatment. 

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

                                                                                                                                                       

(HARPAL SINGH),

Secretary General.

He was very kind to listen us carefully giving due time and making related queries. After going through our written submissions and listening oral ones, he specifically got confirmed from us whether the temporary posts of Asstt. Commissioner are going to be lapsed on 17th December of the current year. About transfer issue, we added that our officers already transferred to other zones are ready to forgo TTA. About transfer of recently promoted officers to the post of Asstt. Commissioner, we added that it would save huge expenditure in the form of TTA, if officers are not transferred to other zones/stations. On the point of the implementation of the legal verdicts, he was pleased to ask the details of these verdicts which were duly submitted to him by us quoting all cases including Subramaniam verdict, various verdicts on MACPS etc. About upgradation in State GST, relevant documents of various states were also handed over to him also relating to the disparity in pay scales between our Superintendents and counterparts of State GST. Relevant submissions about huge difference in infrastructure and manpower between CGST and SGST were also made by us to him. The details of FCS, DAP and NFU schemes were submitted to him alongwith mention of the specific scheme recommended by the Cabinet in 2013 to be brought to remove the stagnation of our officers independent of cadre restructuring. He specifically got confirmed from us whether this scheme was recommended to be brought independent of cadre restructuring. Details of the in-situ promotion scheme approved by the CBIC in 2011 were also submitted by us alongwith handing over the copy of the Board meeting minutes relating to the scheme. We also made relevant submissions about the status of the ensuing cadre restructuring stressing that it has already been delayed by two years to be sent to DOPT. The issue of the promotion of the temporary Asstt. Commissioners to the post of Deputy Commissioner was also raised before him. He also got confirmed from us about length of service served by our officers beyond four years on the post of temporary Asstt. Commissioner. Relevant details were submitted to him in r/o of it also 

He was also pleased to ask us about the reasons of retirement of our officers merely after one promotion and also about pathetic situation on other issues. The reasons whatsoever were submitted to him by us with specific mention that our counterparts are already getting 5-6 promotions whereas we are retirng after getting merely one promotion.

The meeting ended very pleasantly and the Hon'ble MOS was pleased to ask his OSD to fix a meeting with our Member. 

S/Sh. N. S. Rangi (Delhi Zone), Ravi Malik (Meerut Zone), C. S. Sharma (Delhi Zone) and Harpal Singh (Meerut Zone) attended the meeting on behalf of the Association.