The Chairperson of CBEC is making her first visit outside Delhi,
i.e.to Mumbai, tentatively on the 28th Oct 2017, (gracing the
Customs Marathon on 29th Oct 2017) after ushering in the country’s new
tax regime – the successful rollout of GST. The issues faced by assesses/general
public, with respect to GST, are many and the same are not unknown to her. She
is fortunate in the sense that many outgoing chairman/chairpersons, who were
aspiring that during their tenure the GST will be rolled out, was launched
during her tenure. She will be remembered forever on account of this.
In our last article, we had mentioned that our senior officers
should be concentrating at the field level to take stock of the ground realities
and to ascertain the factual positions, like the Chairman of the Railway Board,
Shri Lohaniji, when he had paid his visit to Mumbai after the Elphinstone
Stampede.
We hope that, our Chairperson will also behave and act to
dissuade excessive protocol accorded to her at airports, like Shri Lohaniji, thereby
not wasting time, energy & money of the local officers on account of this.
Further she should also visit the ground level formations to understand the
manner of its functioning, whether it is the office at the World Trade Center,
Air India Building, Nav Prabhat Chambers, Churchgate Office etc. and if
possible the executive GST Commissionerate offices, including the Appeal
and Audit Commissionerates. This may enable her to understand the difficulties
faced by the officers and the manner in which these offices are functioning… We
are sure that she will feel immense pride, being the head of Department,
wherein the officers are still putting in their best efforts, in spite of all
the difficulties faced by them, both internal & external.
During her hectic schedule in Mumbai, we do not know how our
local Senior officers will present the issue of severe crunch of infrastructure,
problem of GSTN, shortage of Offices in their jurisdiction and other burning issues
faced by us. Many of the Senior officers are about to retire in a few months
and seem to have entered into a state of non-action!!
Although, no one is
permanent and / or indispensable, but their present positive actions will
remain in memory as the one who worked tirelessly for the good of the Department
and stood up for cause of the staff.
Will anyone present the recent seizure of 38 Kg Gold, which was
concealed in footwears. Someone should be given the credit for making the
largest seizure and also should be commended for the same. Similarly, the
officer, who through one phone call caused the seizing officer to be transferred
abruptly and did not allow them to continue in the post, whether it was for
cover up or for something else. Definitely, it demoralized the field-staff, but
the Department does not care one bit for those who are ready for action at the
cost of their lives – remember Daya Shankar, Casto Fernandes and others. The
recent Bombay High Court Judgment squashing the orders of the CESTAT and
setting aside the customs order holding Alemao bothers guilty of smuggling gold
as well as fining them, in the infamous gold seizure of the 90s. These two
things - action & inaction by the officers of the Department will go a long
way, either raising the morale of the officers or lowering it. But these two
incidents dented the pride of the Department. Expecting a corrective actions in
both the cases.
Non-holding of the DPC, citing one or the other reason, keeping AC’s
posts vacant and managing the office by giving several additional charges to few
officers, the resentment in the Group-B cadre is brewing, resulting in loss of
trust. When our Chairman expressed her happiness while holding DPC of JC /Addl
and above and in advance empanelment of Principal Commr, Chief Commr&
Member, but in the Chairman’s desk message no mention is made about the
stagnation in the Group-B cadre, not mention about the pay anomaly in MACP,
discrimination within CBEC in Group-B cadre, etc.. There is no direction to
implement the Supreme Court N. R. Parmar judgment from which date, whether from
1986, 2012 or 1978 (date from which Staff Selection recruitment was initiated).
There are 16 zones. Seniority is to be re-casted at the Zonal level, then it is
to be compiled at the Board level to prepare the All India seniority
lists. Also the ruling of the officers in Chandigarh High Court and Board’s
circular dated 03.08.2017, who went on ICT from one Zone to another, their
seniority is to be restored and re-casted at their original slot without losing
their seniority. Unless these issues are redressed, Board will not be able to hold
any DPC, like in other cases, subject to ruling of the case etc. on the basis
of old seniority lists.
We are in GST regime and were under the impression that things
will improve but as of now the situation is worse than before. Now October is
going on. Many offices do not have funds to pay electricity bills, telephone
bills, payment of rent for hired buildings, medical bills, TA bills, Payment of
contingency workers, etc. Still we are silent and showing our ability to manage
the show from one adverse condition to another. Many posts of Commr (Appls)
& Audit have been created. Similarly many Commissionerates and Divisions have
been created in various places. Commrs and Addl. Commrs have managed to carve
out spaces for their spacious cabins, but the other officers are left to their
fate, whether to sit on a stool or a bench with or without a table. Assurances/promises
are many & free flowing, for betterment or improvement, but in reality it
is totally a farce, nothing happens.
No efforts are being made to liquidate the vigilance cases,
whether the charged officers are in service or retired. It is left to their
fate only, to push their cases, by issuing reminders.
The Board has accepted the recommendations of the Study
Group (manned by Shri S Srivastava, Shri L. Satya Srinivas and Shri M K Sinha) and
taken away work from the Central Excise Officers from their jurisdiction. Also
creating of new Customs Audit Commissionerate and new Divisions and Preventive Customs
Commissionerates in Zones where there are no Customs Commissionerates.
Alas! There are committee reports for unification of the Customs
& Central Excise which is rusting & accumulating dust in the cupboard
without any action. Now the Board is planning and are in the process to switch
over the mechanism of all Custom related work from C. Ex jurisdiction to
Customs & creating new offices in all the states district-wise for
effective control as per the above report. It is better to decide once &
for all to create a wall or bifurcate the entire CBEC into two parts - one for
GST & another for Customs. Similarly the career progression from Gr.-B to
Gr.-A must be redressed, so that the stagnation in the present C. Ex/ GST will
be eased and the posts available in C. Ex and GST formations will not be handed
over to Customs at the time of promotion. Issues are many - expectations
are even more, we know that our Chairperson does not have any magical wand to
change things instantly, but her sincere efforts without any discrimination
will certainly change the path and fold of the C.Ex fraternity .
Her visit to Mumbai as a Chairperson of CBEC like Railway Board
Chairman will yield radical changes.
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