ALL INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EXCISE GAZETTED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

Transcription

1 ALL INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EXCISE GAZETTED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS President: Address for communication: Secretary General: Sushil Kumar Pareek 240, Razapur, Ghaziabad (U.P.) Ravi Malik Mob mail Id: Mob Vice Presidents: R.Pratap, Ravindra Chhabra, K.P.S.Rai, Anil D.Bhavisskar, V.Suresh Kumar, R.L. Sampath Kumar, Lok Nath Mishra, V.N.Jha, K.A.Sayyed, Surendra Singh Joint Secretaries: R.K.Solanki, N.C.Pandey, Anand Kishore, V.S.Kamble, P.C.Ajith Kumar, M.Nagaraju, R.K.Sarkar, Anindya Sundar Roy, Jitendra Singh, M.K.Mishra Office Secretary: C.S.Sharma (Mob ) Treasurer: N.R.Manda (Mob ) (Recognised by G.O.I., Min. of Fin. vide letter F.No. B /10/2006-Ad.IV A Dt ) Ref. No. 65 /11 Dt To, The Cabinet Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, President House, New Delhi. Sub: Cadre restructuring in CBEC. Sir, As you are aware since the time your goodself being the Revenue Secretary, it is submitted with due regards that the officers belonging to the cadre of the Superintendent of Central Excise are retiring without promotion in the organisation of CBEC. Only a few of them are touching the post of the Asstt. Commissioner (next immediate post) while the most of them are getting no promotion after becoming the Superintendent. These officers join the organisation as Inspector which is a feeder post for promotion to the post of the Superintendent. After joining as Inspector, they get only 1 promotion from Inspector to Superintendent in the service span of years making it the most stagnated cadre of Government of India. As far as the counterparts of the Superintendents and Inspectors of Central Excise in the sister wing of the Income Tax (CBDT) in the same department of Revenue are concerned, they are touching even the post of the Commissioner (upto 6 promotions) despite of being recruited through one and the same recruitment examination in one and the same Department of Revenue having one and the same administrative hierarchy as well as the nature of job & eligibility conditions. Even their counterparts in Customs in the same organisation of CBEC are better placed than the Superintendents and Inspectors of Central Excise as they are also touching the level of the Joint/Addl. Commissioner and even Commissioner (upto 6 promotions) after being recruited as Examiner/Appraiser (vide the observations made by the Member (P&A) of CBEC in the F. No /67/2007-AdIV in one and the same organisation of the CBEC with the same hierarchy and nature of job also recruited through one and the same recruitment examination. The Inspectors and Superintendents of Central Excise are suffering with a huge un-compensable loss of salary and pension as well as other retirement benefits due to these disparities, injustice and discrimination. The fixing of the ratio for promotion as 6:1:2 instead of making the length of service (on the basis of the base cadre seniority) since initial joining at the level of the Inspector the actual criterion of promotion

2 has only deteriorated the conditions. Moreover, the share of the Central Excise personnel in r/o the places where the Customs work is manned by the Central Excise personnel (on account of the Customs being the part of the Central Excise Commissionerate) has also been added to the ratio of Customs, thus decreasing the ratio of Central Excise personnel and increasing the ratio of Customs personnel in the promotions at the common level of the Asstt. Commissioner at present. The disparity in the qualifying service for the promotion as 8 years for the Inspector of Central Excise and only 3 years for others like Inspector of Income Tax and Examiner of Customs/others etc. is beyond all the understandings and reasonings giving the only impression that the recruitment rules have been framed without any application of mind. It is really painful that the Inspectors of Central Excise even with 25 years of service are still waiting for the first promotion and further the Superintendents with 19 years of service are waiting for next promotion, if any. In view of the above discrimination and gross injustice, the only remedy to give justice to the cadre of the Inspector and Superintendent of Central Excise is to create a separate service giving parity in attained promotional levels to them with their counterparts in CBDT as well as other better placed cadres like CSS etc. For this, the necessary changes in the recruitment rules would be required to be made. This parity in r/o the attained promotional levels is very well possible on the lines of the parity given to the direct recruit IRS officers of our organization (CBEC) with their counterparts in CBDT in the last cadre restructuring and with other better placed cadres as proposed in the present one. It is also worth to mention that the whole process of the cadre restructuring should be totally transparent preferably on line in the present time of the total transparency. The staff-side should also be signatory for it like in CBDT. As per the copy of the cadre-restructuring proposal handed over to the Association, they have put special emphasis to remove the stagnation of the non-stagnated cadres of IRS officers, Stenoes and Customs personnel without paying any heed to remove the most stagnated cadre of Central Excise personnel. They have ascertained 9 promotions for IRS officers by creating higher posts in higher pay scales, 7 for stenoes and 6 for Examiner of Customs. It has been ascertained in the ongoing cadre restructuring that- i) All the officers joining at the level of Assistant Commissioner and completing 17 years of service will become Commissioner within the qualifying service leaving behind no eligible Addl Commissioner waiting for promotion; ii) All the IRS officers joining at the level of Assistant Commissioner and completing 14 years of service will become Addl. Commissioner within qualifying service leaving behind no eligible Joint Commissioner waiting for promotion; iii) All the IRS officers joining at the level of Assistant Commissioner and completing 9 years of service will become Joint Commissioner within qualifying service leaving behind no eligible Deputy Commissioner waiting for promotion;

3 iv) All the IRS officers joining at the level of Assistant Commissioner and completing 4 years of service will become Deputy Commissioner within qualifying service leaving behind no eligible Asstt. Commissioner waiting for promotion; Thus, they have done everything for themselves only. It would have been better, if such efforts were made for the most stagnated cadre of Central Excise personnel. Not only that, they have also ascertained 7 promotions for their stenoes on account of their full time attachment with them despite of the contrary recommendations of the 6 th CPC to abolish the post of the Steno by making them Executive Assistants after giving the computer training. The promotional avenues for the stenoes have been opened to the level of senior time scale from a grade pay of Rs. 2400/- seeking even special exemptions. It would have been better, if such special exemption were made for the most stagnated cadre of Central Excise personnel. The Examiner of Customs of the year 1992 has already been promoted to the post of Asstt. Commissioner while the officer joining as Inspector in the year 1972 is still waiting to become Asstt. Commissioner. It is also well pertinent to mention that an Examiner joining the organization in the year 2005 will become Asstt. Commissioner in the year 2011 as a result of this cadre restructuring. In the last cadre restructuring, the posts of Inspector of Central Excise, Preventive Officer and Examiner of Customs were unified into a single cadre of Inspector. Likewise, the posts of Superintendent of Central Excise, Superintendent and Appraiser of Customs were unified into a single cadre of Superintendent. But however later on, these were trifurcated. In the current cadre restructuring, these should be unified rectifying the mistake of trifurcation by bringing the Inspector of Central Excise of a relevant year at par with the Examiner of Customs in the matter of promotion of that year batch Preventive Officers and Customs Superintendents of the year have been ascertained to be promoted to the post of Asstt. Commissioner. All the Appraisers with 3 years of service have been ascertained to be promoted to the post of Asstt. Commissioner leaving behind no eligible Appraiser or Examiner of Customs waiting for promotion while the Superintendents of Central Excise of the year 1992/1995 only will get the promotion. All the STA s/ta s have been ascertained to be promoted to the post of Inspector leaving behind no eligible officer waiting for promotion. Thus, all/the most of the officers belonging to other cadres except the Superintendents of Central Excise will be able to get promotion but this post would again be the worst hit like in the past. In view of the above, the following submissions are made for kind consideration to remove the acute stagnation at the level of the Superintendent of Central Excise and also remove the disparities as well as undo the injustice meted out to them in the promotional matters giving them the parity with their counterparts in CBDT and other better placed cadres like CSS etc. in r/o the attained promotional levels- 1. Their promotional avenues should be opened at least upto the level of the Commissioner like presently in CBDT & CSS by creating a separate service for the cadre of the Inspector/Superintendent of Central Excise making necessary changes in the recruitment rules on the lines of CSS etc. In this reference, it is worth to mention that-

4 (a) A substantial number of the posts have been kept reserved for the promotee officers even at the level of the Joint Secretary in the latest cadre restructuring of CSS. (b) Very recently, the Director of CBI has also shown his willingness to create the provisions in the cadre restructuring to promote their Sub-Inspector upto the level of the Director (the topmost post there). As per the information received, an officer joining at the level of the Sub-Inspector has become DIG there very recently. (c) In the para-military forces like ITBP, CRPF etc., the Sub-Inspectors are already touching the level of the IG and DIG. (d) In Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha Secretariats, the Assistants are reaching the level of the Joint Secretary. In the proposed separate service- i) a substantial number of the posts should be identified/created and located for the promotee officers at least upto the level of the Commissioner in proportion of the cadre strength of CSS. ii) A time bound promotional scheme may also be an integral part of this service as such time bound mechanism to give time scale at every 7 years to the Inspector/Superintendent of Central Excise had also been recommended by CBEC to the 6 th CPC. iii) The creation of the separate service on the lines of CSS etc. was also recommended by DOPM, an expert wing looking after the HRD work of the CBEC, in its file F. No. 8/B/4/O&PM/2008 submitted to the Member (P&A) on (vide letter F. No. 8/B/33/O&PM/2008 Dt of the Commissioner of DOPM). iv) Further, the creation of the separate service on the lines of CSS etc. was also recommended by the Member (P&A) in F. No /67/2007-Ad IV of CBEC on v) The creation of the separate service was also recommended by the High Power Committee formed by the Board (CBEC) under the Chairpersonship of Ms. C.G. Lal. The modalities of this service should be fixed on the lines of the CSS etc. in consultation with the Association instead of the modalities as recommended by this committee because the said committee was not empowered to decide the modalities. The work assigned to the committee was only to observe whether there should be created a separate service on the lines of CSS etc. to remove the stagnation at the level of the Superintendent of Central Excise. vi) The creation of a separate service will also put to rest all the disputes relating to the seniority between direct recruit and promotee IRS officers. This service should have all the posts substantially created upto the highest level strictly meant only for the officers belonging to the cadres of the Superintendent and Inspector of Central Excise. vii) The creation of the separate service has also been recommended by the IRS officers Association. The parity with CBDT and other better placed cadres will also save the cadre from the huge erosion of pay and pension as well as other retirement benefits as compared to the Income Tax and others because the ACP/MACP scheme is also unable to undo such erosions and injustice. It is well pertinent to mention that the portion of the parity at least with CBDT was very well marked by the Hon ble Finance Minister in the Ref. No. 10/10 Dt of the Association and sent to the Board.

5 2. The officers belonging to the cadre of the Superintendent of Central Excise should also be promoted directly to the post of the Deputy Commissioner like the most of the other group B gazetted cadres of the Central as well as State Governments where the group B gazetted officers are directly promoted to a senior group A post on the pattern of CSS etc. This happens in the most of the services like Forest Services, Administrative Services, Engineering Services, Telecom Services, CPWD Services, Police Services, CSSS, CSS, MES, AFHQ Services etc. etc. including the cases where the group 'A' entry is in the grade pay of Rs. 5,400/- in PB3 (e.g. CPWD, various Railways services etc.) like our organisation. Moreover, there is no justification in promoting the Superintendent of Central Excise to a post bearing a grade pay of Rs. 5,400/- particularly when they have already been granted a time scale in the grade pay of Rs. 5,400/- after the completion of 4 years of service. The most of them are already drawing a grade pay of Rs.5,400/- as well as many of them a grade pay of even Rs. 6,600/- on account of ACPS/MACPS. 3. On the above lines, there should be identified/created and located a substantial number of promotional posts of the Deputy Commissioner instead of Asstt. Commissioner for the cadre of the Superintendent of Central Excise strictly meant only for the promotee officers on the basis of the expected assessee base to the tune of 70 lac in r/o the implementation of the forthcoming GST. The Customs figures are not included in this expected assessee base of 70 lac. The said number of the promotional posts are needed on the functional basis in the manner that a Deputy Commissioner (instead of the Asstt. Commissioner in the case of the promote officers) would deal with assessees in the GST regime. The figure of 7,000 to 14,000 is further overall increasable keeping in view the figures for the Customs not included in this as already submitted. These 7,000-14,000 vacancies of Deputy Commissioners should be meant only for the promotee officers to bring all the officers of the same batch at the same level of the promotion as compared to other equivalent cadres of Customs, Income tax etc. 4. The Division pattern should be changed to the Group pattern for proper governance of the revenue collection work and functional requirement of the time whether it is Service Tax or Central Excise or Audit or Anti Evasion/Preventive or GST etc. This Group will comprise 500 to 1,000 assessees based on the workload to be headed by a Deputy Commissioner (instead of Asstt. Commissioner in the case of the promotee officers). The organisation already has 9000 audit teams (vide letter F. No. 8/B/33/O&PM/2008 Dt of the Commissioner of DOPM of CBEC) which may be transformed into Groups being headed by a Deputy Commissioner (instead of the Asstt. Commissioner in the case of the promotee officers). These audit teams have already been recommended to be headed by Asstt./Deputy Commissioner and even by Addl./Joint Commissioner in the F. No /67/2007-AdIV by the Member (P&A) of CBEC on In the same way, the organisation already has a substantial number of anti-evasion/preventive teams and Divisions which may also be transformed into Groups being headed by a Deputy Commissioner (instead of Asstt. Commissioner in the case of promotee officers). It may also kindly be noted that the figures shown in this para belong to pre-gst era. This all very well justify the functional need of more than 14,000 (GST+already existing audit teams+already existing anti-evasion/preventive teams+divisions+headquarters posts etc.) posts of Deputy Commissioners meant only for the direct promotion of the Superintendents of Central Excise for creation of a separate service on the lines of CSS etc. 5. The cadre restructuring/cadre reviews should be done at a regular interval of 3 years as per the current provisions which have not been followed in CBEC. The due compensation should be given to the cadre of the Superintendent/Inspector of Central Excise for undone cadre restructurings/cadre reviews which will further help to increase the maximum number of the promotional posts asking one time relaxation from the concerned authority/ies.

6 6. The basic feeder posts of the Inspector, Preventive Officer and Examiner should be merged with retrospective effect reviewing all the past promotions to give parity with the Inspector of Income Tax and other better placed cadres in the promotional matters by bringing the officers of the same batch in working Commissionerate to the same level of the promotion. The past promotions of the basic feeder posts of the Inspector, Preventive Officer and Examiner may be reviewed on the basis of the precedent of reviewing all the promotions of Superintendents of Central Excise, Superintendents of Customs and Appraisers of Customs since The method of the notional promotion may also be applied to give this parity in the promotions. Their qualifying service for promotion may be counted on the pattern of the direct recruit IRS officers. This will also help to remove the intra-organisational, intra-departmental and inter-departmental disparities. The CBEC has also already shown its willingness to count their length of service rendered as Inspector and Superintendent together and separately for the purpose of the promotion in a case in the Principal Bench of Hon ble Central Administrative Tribunal in the counter reply affidavit of OA No.2793 of 2009 alongwith the willingness to revise the promotional ratio for three different feeder streams from 6:1:2. The qualifying service for the promotion may be counted in the following manner under the present circumstances- i) 3 years for Inspector of Central Excise to be promoted to the post of the Superintendent based on the analogy that it is already 3 years for the Inspector of Income Tax and Examiner of Customs & others etc. to get promoted to the equivalent post. ii) 7 years after initial joining as Inspector of Central Excise to be promoted to the post of the Deputy Commissioner as per DOPT guidelines vide No /61/2008-Estt.(RR) dt The Superintendent should be promoted directly to the post of the Deputy Commissioner (a senior group A post) instead of Asstt. Commissioner (a junior group A post) like the most of the other group B gazetted cadres of the Central as well as State Governments including CSS etc. where the group B gazetted officers are directly promoted to a senior group A post. The post of the Asstt. Commissioner should only be meant for the direct entry of the IRS officers (if required) who spend next about 4 years only for their in-house training, probation, on the job training etc. after entry into the job. iii) 12 years after joining as Inspector of Central Excise to be promoted to the post of the Joint Commissioner on the analogy that it is already 9 years for the direct recruit IRS officer to become the Joint Commissioner. iv) 17th year as on Ist January of the relevant year after joining as Inspector of Central Excise to be promoted/upgraded to the post of the Addl. Commissioner on the analogy that it is already 14th year as on Ist January of the relevant year for the direct recruit IRS officer to become the Addl. Commissioner. v) 20 years after joining as Inspector of Central Excise to be promoted to the post of the Commissioner on the analogy that it is already 17 years for the direct recruit IRS to become the Commissioner. There is prescribed no qualifying service to become the Chief Commissioner from Commissioner. There is also no qualifying service to become the Member or Chairman from the Chief Commissioner, the only condition is the one year of the service left. It is also worth to submit that an Inspector of Central Excise may also aspire to become the Commissioner in 20 years after joining the job, if a direct recruit IRS officer of CBEC wants to become the Commissioner in 17 years after joining the job. 7. One of the measures to be adopted to remove the acute stagnation at the lower levels of the Inspector and Superintendent of Central Excise is to decrease or stop the direct recruitment of the IRS officers of CBEC. It

7 will benefit the department in two ways. Firstly, the department will be able to get the services of more expert personnel in the form of promotee officers on account of their longer experience in the actual field work which will increase the work efficiency and revenue collection multifold as the direct recruit IRS officers work merely as administrative heads, the burning evidence is that even the adjudication orders upto the level of the Commissioner are being prepared by the Superintendents and Inspectors while the same are supposed to be done by the adjudicating authority itself. Secondly, the government will be able to save a lot of the expenditure incurred on the trainings, probation and vast set-ups of the inexperienced direct IRS officers. 8. For the time being as an instant measure, all the Superintendents already completing 1.5 (one and half) times of qualifying service required for the promotion may be promoted on the pattern of CSS where all the Section Officers completing 1.5 (one and half) times of qualifying service required for promotion were promoted to the post of the Under Secretary. 9. The post of the Superintendent of Central Excise may also be reclassified at par with their analogous counterparts like the Deputy Central Intelligence Officer of the Intelligence Bureau, Deputy Superintendent of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Chief Enforcement Officer of the Enforcement Directorate etc. having a traditional historic parity with the post of the Superintendent of Central Excise in the past. Moreover, the 6 th Central Pay Commission has also recommended this parity of the Superintendent of Central Excise etc. with the Chief Enforcement Officer to be maintained under para of its report. This is also worth to mention that our Superintendents are doing multi-expertise and multi-skilled work as compared to them. The job of intelligence and investigation constitutes merely one part of our duties which is the only reason that our officers can go to CBI, IB etc. on deputation but they are not entitled to come to our organisation as we are doing not only the work of the intelligence, investigation and enforcement but many more other works including judicial too. 10. In many of the departments like Railways, CSIR, Postal, Administrative Services & many State governments etc., a group B gazetted officer is given the benefit of 4/5 years of seniority in a group A post in advance in lieu of the longer service rendered in group B at the time of promotion to a group A post. In the southern states, provincial services officers get IAS within 8 years of the service with 4 years of seniority benefit in IAS. Such seniority benefit should also be given to the Superintendents of Central Excise at the time of the promotion to compensate them for the bleakest promotional avenues. In the last, it is also submitted that the solution of the stagnation problem will certainly boost the morale of the badly affected cadre of the Superintendent of Central Excise which in turn would result in the better and more efficient indirect taxes administration increasing the revenue collection multifold. It is also requested that no posts/vacancies created in the cadre restructuring should be filled up by the direct recruitment, all of those should be filled strictly by the promotions. For the future too, the posts being vacant on account of the retirements against the posts created in the cadre restructuring should strictly be kept reserved only for the promotee officers. If the vacant posts on account of these retirements are distributed between the direct recruit and promotee officers, the stagnation problem at the level of the Superintendent will again recur without its permanent solution. By that, it will only help the some of the present Superintendents to retire as Asstt. Commissioner under the present circumstances while the future generation would not be able to get even this level. So, the post-based distribution instead of vacancy-based distribution of the vacant posts against the future retirements between the direct recruit and promotee officers at group A entry level would be the only solution for the stagnation not to recur again at the level of the Superintendent. The post-based distribution instead of vacancy-based

8 distribution of the vacant posts against the retirements was already in the existence under the provisions of DOPT in the remote past. Thanking you, Yours faithfully, Encls: Annexure-I to V. (RAVI MALIK), Secretary General. (i)existing promotional hierarchy of IRS officers Annexure-I (1) Asstt. Commissioner (2) Deputy Commissioner (3) Joint Commissioner (4) Addl. Commissioner (5) Commissioner (6) Chief Commissioner (7) Member (8) Chairman Total 7 promotions (ii) Proposed promotional hierarchy of IRS officers (1) Asstt. Commissioner (2) Deputy Commissioner (3) Joint Commissioner (4) Addl. Commissioner (5) Commissioner Grade II (6) Commissioner Grade I (7) Chief Commissioner

9 (8) Principal Chief Commissioner (9) Member (10) Chairman Total 9 promotions Proposed promotional hierarchy of Stenographers Annexure-II (1) Stenographer Grade Pay 2400/- in PB II (2) Stenographer Grade Pay 2800/- in PB II (3) Stenographer Grade Pay 4200/- in PB II (4) Stenographer Grade Pay 4600/- in PB II (5) Stenographer Grade Pay 4800/- in PB II (6) Stenographer Grade Pay 5400/- in PB II (7) Stenographer Grade Pay 5400/- in PB III (8) Stenographer Grade Pay 6600/- in PB III Total 7 promotions Proposed promotional hierarchy of Examiners of Customs (1) Examinner (2) Appraiser (3) Asstt. Commissioner (4) Deputy Commissioner (2) Joint Commissioner (6) Addl. Commissioner (7) Commissioner Total 6 promotions with a fair chance of 7 th promotion as Commissioner grade I

10 Former promotional hierarchy of Ministerial Officers Annexure-III (1) LDC (2) UDC (3) DOS (4) OS (5) AO (6) CAO Total 5 promotions Current promotional hierarchy of Ministerial Officers (1) LDC (2) TA (3) STA (4) DOS (5) AO (6) CAO Total 5 promotions Promotional hierarchy of Inspector of Income Tax Annexure-IV (1) Inspector (2) ITO (3) Asstt. Commissioner (4) Deputy Commissioner (3) Joint Commissioner (6) Addl. Commissioner (7) Commissioner Total 6 promotions with a fair chance of reaching even above

11 Promotional hierarchy of Assistant of CSS (1) Assistant (2) Section Officer (Direct promotion to Senior Group A equivalent to our 2 Promotions) (3) Under Secretary (4) Deputy Secretary (5) Director (6) Joint Secretary Total equivalent to 6 promotions Promotional hierarchy of Assistant of Rajya Sabha Secretariat Annexure-V (1) Assistant (2) Section Officer (Direct promotion to Senior Group A equivalent to our 2 Promotions) (3) Under Secretary (4) Deputy Secretary (5) Director (6) Joint Secretary Total equivalent to 6 promotions Promotional hierarchy of Inspector of Central Excise (1) Inspector (2) Superintendent (3) Asstt. Commissioner (if any) Total 1 promotion in the most of the cases