RETIREMENT IN FEBRUARY 2014

CONGRATULATION TO CHAIRPERSON CBEC

Ref. No.: CESA/17/2014

Dated    : 26.02.2014

Ms. J. M. Shanti Sundharam

Hon’ble Chairperson, C.B.E.C.,

North Block, New Delhi.

Respected Madam,

          We sincerely congratulate your good-self on regularization of your promotion as the Chairperson of the CBEC.  The officers of this Zone are having lot of faith and expectations from you.

          We are sure that your honour will ensure timely implementation of the “Cadre Restructuring” proposal in its letter and spirit. The disparity prevailing in the most stagnated Cadre within Central Excise, i.e. Group B Gazetted officers, and other feeder cadres needs logical, rational and permanent redressal. 

          CESA Mumbai also expresses its sincere thanks for your patient hearing and willingness to redress the grievances brought out by the joint delegation on 21.02.2014.

           Madam, as you are aware the working condition in Mumbai is quite miserable.  Mumbai Central Excise Zones needs special package to improve the infrastructure, because Mumbai yields the major portion of revenue. The officers engaged in garnering this revenue feel cheated and demoralized at the end of every financial year. We are quite hopeful that your honour will take initiative to improve the working condition and infrastructure in all the Central Excise and Service Tax offices in Mumbai Zones.

          It is a known factor that Mumbai has a large base of Service Tax assessees, which is increasing day by day. To cope up with the work load, improvement in the Automation (ACES) of the day to day functions is essential. The present state of the automation being very slow is not sufficient enough to handle such work- load. The modules available have to be upgraded and implemented in its entirety.

          Further, the working systems of Service Tax and procedural aspects have to be simplified in order to bring in more transparency and stall the intervention of third party agents. This would help in better tax compliance and also in better tax administration.  The Department’s Legal Branch has to be strengthened and managed professionally, so as to meet the challenge of ever growing litigations.  

          We once again congratulate your good-self and assure our fullest co-operation and wish your tenure will be very positive towards the staff welfare and the trade.

          Thanking you,

                                                                                            Yours sincerely

A.K. SASMAL

General Secretary

          AIACEIA held its CEC Meeting on 22^nd & 23^rd Feb, 2014 at Mumbai. Shri Shiv Gopal Mishra, General Secretary, All India Railway Federation was Chief Guest along with other Guests. In the said meeting, apart from implementation of the Cadre Restructuring, the following resolutions were adopted.

1)   Abolition of Zonal Seniority and Maintaining All India Seniority List (Integration of the Zonal Cadre-wise Seniority Lists of Inspector Grade into an All India Seniority Lists)

2)   Parity in Promotion in Central Excise

3)   No  Protocol Duties

4)   Abolition of Uniform and Control Room Duty etc.,

-        CESA MUMBAI

REPRESENTATION ON REORGNISATION

: CESA/17/2014

Dated : 06/02/2014.

Ms J.M. Shanti Sundharam,

Hon’ble Chairperson,

CBEC, North Block,

New Delhi.

Respected Madam,

Sub:  Cadre Restructuring in CBEC Creation of Commissionerates, Zones   

            Divisions- Reg.

            This is to bring to your kind notice that CBEC has constituted various committees to implement the Cadre Restructuring (CR) proposals. A committee is also constituted for reorganisation of Commissionerates and Zones.

2.         For the purpose of creating new Commissionerates in Central Excise, Service Tax and Customs, a Study Group was formed by CBEC. The Study Group recommended creation of new Central Excise and Service Tax Commissionerates on the basis of Revenue and Number of Assessees. However, for creation of new Customs Commissionerates the number of documents handled was the parameter. Though both the wings belong to CBEC two yardsticks have been applied for creation of new Commissionerates.

3.         As compared to the growth seen in the Revenue collection of Central Excise and Customs, the growth in Revenue collection of Service Tax is phenomenal. The assessee base too has increased manifold. With the given strength of staff and machinery, the department is not able to tap the entire Service Tax Revenue. After introduction of the negative list concept for charging Service Tax, the assessee base will keep on growing further complicating the Revenue collection process.

4.         In the present CR, the said committee is contemplating to arbitrarily merge some Central Excise Commissionerates and form new Service Tax Commissionerates, Audit Commissionerates, etc. Due to such arbitrary move, there is lots of resentment in the staff in Kolkatta, Bhopal, Jaipur, Chennai, Mumbai, etc.

5.         The Revenue Target of Service Tax during the year 2013-14 is Rs.180141 Crore as against Rs.132697 Crore in 2012-13, which is more by about 36%. The target of Customs Revenue for 2013-14 is Rs.187308 Crore as against Rs.164853 Crore, which is more by about 14% and the target of Central Excise for 2013-14 is Rs.197553.95 Crore as against RS.171996.09 Crore, which is more by about 15%. Thus, even CBEC recognises the potential of growth in Service Tax. The collection of Revenue in the VCES scheme has also crossed all expectations.

6.         Apparently, the work load involved in the revenue collection and other related aspects are not properly considered while proposing new Commissionerates of Excise, Service Tax and Customs. Though the Automation in Customs has been in place since so many years, still the parameter for formation of new Customs Commissionerates is on the basis of the documents handled is quite surprising . Whereas, in-spite of minimal automation in Central Excise and Service Tax formations, due to which major part of the work is still manual, proper yardsticks are not applied while recommending formation of new Commissionerates in both the wings.

7.         You may be aware that due to shortage of staff not even 5% of the mandatory assessee’s of Service Tax could be audited. This should definitely ring alarm bells in the Ministry, as we might be risking losing Revenue with every passing day. If the entire Service Tax Revenue is to be tapped and all the assessees have to be brought into the net then the Tax Administration has to be widened to such an extent that it reaches every nook and corner of the country. To achieve this, sufficient number of Service Tax Commissionerates have to be created and these Commissionerates have to be provided with adequate number of staff. The number of new Service Tax Commissionerates proposed in the present CR do not appear to be sufficient enough to deal with this large quantum of assessees. The situation will not be different in Central Excise as well.   

8.         In the ensuing CR the Central Excise and Service Tax Commissionerates are proposed to be increased from 100 to 183 and the Customs Commissionerates is proposed to be increased from 35 to 60. The above proposal to increase the number of Commissionerates in the three formations is not justified as the same does not commensurate to the growth seen in the Revenue, number of assessee and the potential future growth. If the Board goes ahead with the restructuring then it would cause great amount of injustice to the Central Excise and Service Tax departments and would also be damaging to the organisation as a whole.

9.         Therefore, it is our humble suggestion that the concerned Committee be directed to re-examine the proposal to form 25 new Customs Commissionerates vis-a-vis the Revenue growth and quantum of work involved and the extent of Automation. It would not be out of place to mention that a major part of Customs work relating to Export is being handled by the officers of Central Excise. In view of this position, if deemed fit, the number of proposed new Customs Commissionerates be reduced and the same be diverted/allotted to Central Excise and Service Tax formations, to ensure proper balance.

10.       The implementation of CR is badly delayed. However, if few days more are taken for examining the above genuine suggestion then the same may be done in the interest of the purpose of the CR so as to ensure fairness and judiciousness.

Thanking  you                                                                  Yours Sincerely,

                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                     A.K. SASMAL

                                                                                       General Secretary

Copy to:

1. Hon’ble Member(P&V), CBEC,New Delhi, incharge of Mumbai Zone; for kind information, consideration and necessary action, please.

2. DGHRD, CBEC, New Delhi, for kind information, consideration and necessary action, please.

3. DG(DRI), New Delhi (Chairman of Re-Organisation Committee for implementation of CR). For information, consideration and necessary action, please.

4. Secretary General AIACEGEO, for information and pursuing the proposal.

LET"S BE POSITIVE

Proposal for Gr A temporary 2118 posts exclusively for Central Excise/Customs Supdts

                Ref   : CESA/15/2014

To,                                                                                                           Date : 29.01.2014

Shri Sumit Bose,

Hon’ble Revenue Secretary

Ministry of Finance, North Block,

New Delhi.

Respected Sir,

Sub: -  Creation of Temporary 2118 Nos of Posts in Group A – Request

              for allocation only to the most-stagnated Cadre of Group B- 

              Representation reg -

With due respect, CESA Mumbai is constrained to encroach upon your precious time on the subject matter.  In Mumbai, around 1000 Superintendents are posted in the Central Excise Department and around 11000 Superintendents are posted in other parts of the country. It is a known fact that the said Superintendents from Mumbai are the most stagnated lot. Most of them have been retiring with only one promotion (from Inspector to Superintendent) in their entire service career of about 35 yrs. plus.

In the present Cadre Restructuring of CBEC every care has been taken to ensure 'time-bound' promotions within the Gr-A, by creating avenues in the form of '8' Grades. However, the same care is missing when it comes to Group ‘B’ officers, inspite of the fact that they are the most stagnated lot in CBEC.

For instance, the following posts have been proposed for the Group ‘A’ officers in the present Cadre Restructuring;           

Principal Chief Commissioner / Chief Commissioner / Principal Commissioner / Commissioner / Additional Commissioner / Joint Commissioner / Deputy Commissioner / Assistant Commissioner.

Superintendent C.Excise (Gazetted) and Inspector C. Excise (non-Gazetted) have been retained in Group B. 

Keeping in view the acute stagnation in the cadre of Superintendent, the Cadre Restructuring has made a special provision of "2118" temporary posts of Gr-A, to be filled in only by promoting officers from the feeder cadre, viz., Appraiser/Superintendent of Customs and Central Excise. However, the said temporary posts have been created with riders like no further promotions, no counting of service as 'qualifying' service, etc.

            There are 3 feeder cadres from Gr-B that are promoted to Gr-A, viz., Appraisers of Customs, Superintendent of Customs (Preventive) and Superintendent of Central Excise. The strength of these officers in CBEC within the '3' Group B feeder cadres is 82% [Central Excise] : 15%[Customs(P)] : 3%[Customs Appraiser].

Sir, it is pointed out here that the percentage wise strength is not at all considered in proper sense and judicious manner while promoting the Group ‘B’ officers to Group ‘A’. As a result, the scenario in promotions to Gr-A within 3 feeder categories has reached to a worst situation. To illustrate -

            "The Civil list of 2013-14 for AC/DC shows that out of the total '637' Gr-A officers promoted from Group ‘B’, "329" are promoted from Customs-Appraiser cadre, "46" are promoted from Supdt-Customs Preventive cadre & only "262" are promoted from Supdt-Central Excise cadre.

             In other terms, the strength of AC/DC promoted from Appraiser cadre (having feeder-strength of 3%) is 52%, that of Superintendent Customs (P) (having feeder-strength of 15%) is 7% and the strength of Supdt C.Excise (having feeder-strength of 82%) is 41%.

       Due to the insensitive and discriminatory approach of the Board in fixing the percentage of feeder cadre for promotion to Group ‘A’, presently, the Customs Appraiser of 2002 Batch, Superintendent of Customs (P) of 1997 Batch and Superintendent of Central Excise of 1993 Batch is due for promotion. This has led to lots of resentment and discontentment amongst the Superintendents of Customs (P) and Superintendents of Central Excise. This only reflects the neglect of CBEC in Human Resource Management. The neglect is more apparent from the fact that in the ensuing Cadre Restructuring two new Posts have been created in Group ‘A’, thus making the Group ‘A’ into 8 levels but no such avenues have been created in Group ‘B’.   2118 posts of AC created for promoting the Group ‘B’ officers to Group ‘A’ are also temporary with no consequential benefits like future promotions or counting of qualifying service for next promotion, etc.

The acute stagnation in the feeder cadre of 'Superintendent Central Excise' has demoralized this cadre and proposals in the ensuing Cadre Restructuring is not encouraging either. The prevailing scenario is forcing many officers to opt for VRS as they do not see any scope of career progression.  It seems that the HRD of our Department has never bothered to examine the reasons of so many VRS in the Superintendents cadre and why such VRS is not existing in Group A. Maximum vacancies in the Group A level are in "Central Excise and Service Tax". The Superintendent of Central Excise, who performs duties in all the three streams of CBEC, viz., Excise, Customs and Service Tax, is feeling alienated and dejected as no one is there to look after their cause and address their agony. What if an direct recruit AC stagnates at Joint Commissioner level, will the HRD have the same approach?

 The agony of the Superintendent of Central Excise is compounded by the discriminatory and faulty method of calculation (ratio fixing) adopted by the Board in the promotions of Group ‘B’ officers to Group ‘A’. Nor any new proper methods have been devised by the Board to clear the stagnation. The Appraisers who are in less numbers are more benefitted than the Superintendent of Central Excise, who’s strength is much more in numbers. The irony is that the Inspector of Central Excise, Preventive Officer (Customs) and Examiners in Customs are species of a common exam conducted by Staff Selection Commission, wherein merit wise the Examiners are the last lot. However, due to the faulty calculation method (ratio fixing) adopted by the Board, such Examiners get faster promotions to Group ‘A’ and the Inspectors of Central Excise and the Preventive Officers are compelled to work under them as subordinates. How long this type of discrimination will continue?  The faulty approach of the Board is not only depriving the officers of Central Excise the well deserving promotion to Group ‘A’ but also results into a great financial loss, not only while serving in the Department but also after the retirement.

            It is therefore suggested that in the ensuing Cadre Restructuring the two badly stagnated feeder cadres i.e. Superintendent Customs and Superintendent Central Excise be given the 'Temporary' advantage coming through these '2118' temporary Gr-A posts and all these 2118 posts in Gr-A' are allotted to these most stagnated feeder-cadres. This measure should continue till all the '3' feeder cadres are brought on par. The 2002 batch of the Appraiser is already promoted as AC. No promotions should be given to them till the Superintendents of Central Excise and Supdt of Customs (P) of the same batch i.e. 2002 are also promoted to Gr-A. If this is done the same will ensure the terms of reference in Cadre restructuring i.e. “PARITY” in same Cadres.   

            If corrective measures, as suggested above, are not taken now then after Cadre Restructuring the gap will widen and reach beyond approachable comparison and the resentment and discontentment in the 82% staff of CBEC will only turn bad to worst. In addition the promotional prospects of the lower cadre of Inspectors and Ministerial staff, which depends on the promotions of Superintendents will further aggravate. With such a level of resentment and discontentment the officers cannot be motivated to perform  their best.

           

          

In view of the above position, this Association, with great humility and hope, requests your Honour to consider the above suggestion and do justice with the most stagnated cadre of CBEC. For this purpose, CBEC be asked to carry out amendment in the Recruitment Rules (RR) and introduce a new sub-rule (4a) in the Gr-A RR, as under:

" If the difference in year of joining in respect of 'first officer to be promoted' among the 3 feeder cadres, is not same/ equal; then the officers from leading feeder cadre/s shall not be allocated the vacancy/s, till each feeder cadre officer reach to same year of joining in Gr-B."

            Sir, the above suggestion for the long term benefit of the organization be considered positively. You will not disappoint us because we are confident as we are competent, and as we are experts in our fields as compared to members of the other feeder cadres as well as capacity to take up any challenge for the betterment of the organization. We are the only Group B officers competent and knowledgeable to administer the Service Tax law which is fast growing revenue sector.

            Thanking you, Sir,

                                                                                              Yours Sincerely,

                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                sd/-                                                                                                                                                    A.K. SASMAL

                                                                           General Secretary

Copy to:

1.    Hon’ble Chairperson, CBEC, Ministry Of Finance, North Block, New Delhi for kind     information and consideration and necessary action, please.

2.    The Member(P&V), CBEC,New Delhi; for kind information, consideration and           necessary action, please.

3.    DGHRD, CBEC, New Delhi, for information, consideration and necessary action,      please.

4.    DG Customs, New Delhi (Chairman of RR Committee for implementation of CR). For information, consideration and necessary action, please.

5.    Secretary General AIACEGEO, for information and pursuing the proposal.