CHOICE...NO...... RAISE THE VOICE...

Recently, the emotional outbreak of the CJI T S Thakur at the Joint Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts in Delhi, shocked not only the members on the dais but also the dignitaries attending the function. Even the viewers who saw the same on television were also dumbstruck. Many Chief Justices of India may come and go but this visual will always be imprinted on our minds, not only for the emotions displayed but also for the reason that he was the person who raised his voice and expressed his concern about the inaction by the Govt., thereby showing his commitment as assigned by the Govt. and as expected by the citizens of this country.

In our own Board, the situation is more or less comparable, if not worse, to the Judicial system in the country. We also expect that our Chairman should raise his voice about the dismal situation, especially in human resource management, shortage/lack of proper infrastructure and lack of career progression of officers, which are adversely affecting the morale of the officers and thereby affecting the organization as a whole. Being a revenue generating organization, everybody is happy with the year-on-year increase in the monies collected, but nobody seems to be bothered or concerned about the revenue leakage, that is taking place primarily due to short staffing and secondly either through non-compliance or through compromise and sometimes both.

Cadre restructuring has taken place, but till to date, the benefits for the staff has not been implemented – vacancies are pending at all levels, officers are retiring with only one promotion in their 35 or more years of service in the Department, which demoralize the staff from top to bottom and the sense of alienation is increasing day by day.
 
In the zone there is no Chief Commissioner and all Principal Commissioners, who are holding the additional charge of Chief Commissioners of their zones, are powerless to act / take action against Commissioners in their zones, as many a times, they happen to be his/her own batch-mates !! Similar is the situation of the officers from ADC to AC holding several additional charges and are somehow managing the show in a ritualistic manner. As compared to the CBDT, and other boards in other ministries, we appear to be lagging far behind in all respects.  
 
Being a revenue generating Board, all eyes are trained on us, gauging our performance, exhorting us to improve the collections, but seem to be least concerned about the ground realities and functional difficulties/deficiencies faced by the officers at all levels.

Infrastructure-wise, Mumbai, which tops the revenue collections charts, still has many Service Tax Commissionerates which do not have their own premises and are functioning from as & where basis. There is serious shortage of residential accommodations for staff at all levels. There is a severe shortage of funds under all heads, especially under OE, because of which the phones, internet and electricity bills remain unpaid from Nov-Dec of a financial year and get carried forward for the next financial year, which has now become a vicious circle, every year.  Medical claims are pending since 2013-14 and officers are taking loans from financial institutes to meet their medical expenditures.

ACES in Service Tax and Central Excise is operational but not functional, therefore the least said is better. Board is unable to get funds for upgrading the ACES infrastructure especially its connectivity in the new premises, acquired after cadre restructuring.

 

 

Corruptions at lower level – actions are visible whereas corruption at high places goes on unchecked and unabated. Those who are not towing to their line, are victimized or sidelined.

Hon’ble judiciary has the authourity to take action on those who do not obey their orders, but in our place, rules & methods are decided depending on the person's position & rank and their interests, rather than in the interest of the organization.

Will the esteemed Chairman of the CBEC, who is known for his honesty and dynamism, dare, like the Hon’ble CJI, to raise the issues facing the Department, before the FM / PM whenever any opportunity arises like above ?

CESA Mumbai humbly submits the following points to be raised on an urgent basis :-

a) Several DPCs are to be held, decisions are to be taken and all the vacant posts required to be filled up so that the stagnating employees will be motivated.

b) Several infrastructure related projects, like renting/constructing of new office premises needs time-bound decisions and to make the necessary funds available for the completion of the project to avoid cost escalations and requirements.

c) Sufficient funds for medical claims should be made available at the zonal level to meet the medical exigencies of the staff.

d) Funds for OE so that the organization should not become a defaulter and have to beg before another Department, like MTNL/Electricity Board to continue their services without interruption even though the bill is pending for payment.

e) Last but not the least, Justice Goda Raghuram, retired as the President of CESTAT on 14-Mar-2016. The roster for allocation of work among the members is made upto the 29-Apr-2016. In the absence of a President, all the six newly joined Members(T) are sitting without work and this non-allocation of work is increasing the pendency in CESTAT, which is currently having 9 to 10 years of backlog in cases.

There are many officers in the Department who are shedding tears for the way the Department is being run, the lack of fair promotion avenues, the lack of will in the Administration in conducting DPCs even when vacancies are existing, etc. Unfortunately, there is nobody to see these tears being shed and no one who raises their fingers to wipe away these tears...What a tragedy...

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