DELAY IN POSTING..

       In Mumbai Customs Zone-I, Zone-II & Zone-III& in Service Tax-VII Commissionerate of Mumbai Service Tax Zone, the recently officers promoted on 23.02.2017, have been given postings, as a stop-gap arrangement under the discretion of the respective Principal Commissioner/Commissioner. It is expected, that administrative discipline be prevailed for the sake of uniformity, all the other zones may also follow the same arrangement, if issuance of order by Board is indefinetly delayed. First we have requested to hold DPC and issuance of promotion order, now we should represent for posting order. Utilisation of staff/posts and HR needs a new design according to the time of demand. However, the representation of CESA, Mumbai to the Board is annexed: 

Ref : CESA/11/2017

Date : 17.03.2017

The Hon’ble Chairman,

Ministry of Finance

CBEC, North Block

New Delhi.

The Hon’ble Member (P & V)

Ministry of Finance

CBEC, North Block,

New Delhi.

Sub: - Deployment of newly promoted Assistant Commissioners –reg.

Respected Sir/Madam,

At the outset, CESA Mumbai, expresses its sincere thanks to your good self for holding the much awaited DPC for the year 2014-15 and 2015-16 and issued promotion Orders on 23^rd Feb. 2017, vide Office Order No. 33/2017.

In the said order 792 Superintendents of Central Excise, 87 Superintendents of Customs and 25 Appraisers of Customs, were elevated as Assistant Commissioners. 

Sir, you are well aware of the acute pinch of stagnation in Central Excise. So far no proper remedial action has been adopted to clear the stagnation, except cosmetic surgery, disproportionate to the wound the cadre carries due to non-promotion.  The post of adhoc Assistant Commissioners of 2118 posts were cleared citing our stagnation, but while allocating the posts, the prevailing practice of allocation in the ratio i.e 13:2:1 was adopted and thus the Cadres where there is no stagnation have been benefitted & have moved further in their career whereas the Central Excise Cadre despite vacant posts, Superintendents have retired without promotion. To substantiate our aforesaid views this is enough to cite that posts were sanctioned for 5 years in 2013 but the first Order came out only in Oct-2014 and thereafter in Feb-2017, which speaks for itself about the concern shown, and very little about our resentment in the delay.

Sir, it is our apprehension that on the pretext of rolling out of GST, i.e. in July-2017, structure of our organizations will undergo immense changes as also in the staff strength.

The AGT of Group ‘A’ for the year 2017 is on the cards plus there is the 69^th batch of new Direct Recruitswho are likely to join in May-2017 or so after completion of their basic training, and it is learnt that due to that the decision of issuing Orders of postings of newly promoted A.C. is likely to be delayed. To keep the posts vacant will certainly undermine the post of Assistant Commissioner, as well as humiliation for the officers, as despite postsbeing available, they are not being posted.  How far this is true can be best known to your good self but apprehension is not out of place as we are always been at the receiving end. This Association therefore requests that orders be issued at the earliest without any discrimination.

The interest of officers to remain in Customs assuming in GST Central Excise and Service Tax will subsume and the fact that the jurisdiction of Customs will remain intact should be dealt in a fair manner, without any favour. When the officers of State VAT employees are openly propagating that the handling of Service Tax, Central Excise and Customs is not as difficult as rocket science and demanding that all areas of operation be in their fold, hence Board should be broad-minded as well as fair to the Central Excise cadre while allocating the formations.

In this background CESA requests as below:

1.       In the aforesaid Promotion Order number of officers of Central Excise, having less than 1 year of service for Superannuation, who have been promoted, out of which,  9 officers have reached the stage of superannuation in the same month in which they have been promoted, i.e in February 2017 alone.  The motivation and the enthusiasm of getting a promotion is far from encouraging.  Further as compared to the Annexure I, II and III, officers of Central Excise are having remaining period of service of 1 to 6 years, whereas officers of Customs have remaining period of service of 1 to 13 years and in Appraiser category, they have 1 to 17 years.  

2.       The posts which are presently filled are having a life of 5 years ending in Dec. 2018.  The period of service will not be counted as mentioned in the said Order.  The regular posts which are lying vacant are not being filled in.  Also the posts, which are on adhoc basis, are not regularized as per the DOPT guidelines.

3.        In the said order, the 124 officers of Mumbai Zone are promoted from Central Excise (however in which 4 have already taken VRS and 1 officer named in the order has already been promoted and posted in Service Tax, Mumbai Zone) who are having remaining period of service as shown in the below table

	C. Ex.  MUMBAI Zone	On all India Basis
		Cust. (P)	Appraiser
below 6 months	10	0	0
6  to 12 months	13	0	0
1 to 2 years	31	0	0
		2	1
2 to 3 years	21	3	1
3 to 4years	24	1	0
4 to 5 years	14	2	0
5 to 6 years	7	4	0
6 to 7 years	4	11	2
7 to 10 years	0	29	10
above 10 years	0	35	11
TOTAL	124	87	25

(A)       The vacancy position of Mumbai Zone is as under: Central Excise Zone I:  56, Zone II – 36,   

          Service Tax – 34, Pune Zone -  85  , Total = 211

(B)       The vacancy position in Mumbai Customs Zone I – 42, Zone II,  31 and Zone III is 37, Totaling     to 110.

            A + B = 321

 Apart from vacancies in various Directorates like, DRI, DGCEI, etc.

  

 4.        In the present scenario, there are vacancies in all the formations i.e. Central Excise, Service Tax, Customs Mumbai Zone and Pune Zone.  CESA Mumbai requests your good self that the officers recently promoted, irrespective of the formations, may not be displaced from their stations.  The promotion is on adhoc basis and there is no monetary gain as far as the Superintendents of Central Excise and Customs (Preventive) are concerned, except inciting misery/pain to their wounds of late promotions.  The Government is well prepared to roll out GST from July-2017 and the shifting of officers from one station to another will not yield any result except creating disharmony in their family life.  When the posts are available in the station in which the officer is working, they may be accommodated in the same station and if necessary they may be shifted from Customs to Central Excise or Service Tax or vice versa. 

5.         It is learnt that similar situation is also prevailing in other major stations, like Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkatta, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur etc.  It will not be prudent on the part of the Administration to merely change the stations, by which officers at both the stations will be disturbed and their concentration will always be on the availability of leave, so that they can meet their family members where they have settled. 

6.         CESA Mumbai earnestly requests your good self, on behalf of the Mumbai Zone, that all the recently promoted Officers (who are at the fag end of their career) may not be shifted from their present stations. The said compassionate approach will definitely bring results in the ensuing GST regime as the Officer of Central Excise are work-oriented and meticulous, who know their job better than others as well as have the capacity to work in adverse conditions. 

            Thanking you in anticipation of your positive response in this regard.

Yours sincerely,

A.K. SASMAL

General Secretary

Copy to : Hon’ble DGHRD, CBEC, Rajendra Palace,  New Delhi for kind

                information and necessary action