Reminder for aggrieved Association members

Dear Comrades,

In continuation to post dated 21^st May, 2014, the Association members, who are aggrieved from Commissionerates allocation orders dated 21^st May, 2014 are hereby again requested to provide a copy of their representation, if any, to us latest by 26^th May, 2014 (FN) i.e. before further orders of specific postings.

All the Office Bearers, Divisional Representatives & Delegates are requested to circulate this message among all colleagues. They are also requested to examine the aforesaid allocation orders in light of existing transfer policy dated 9.9.2011 as amended on 19.5.2014 and send their comments/views in writing alongwith specific cases of retention/non-rotation, pre-mature rotation or improper rotation in comparison of HOP/exposure of other colleagues, if any, at “meenablal@gmail.com

 

An executive body meeting of the Association will be held on 26^th May, 2014 (Monday) at 1.30 hrs in Association Room for discussion & decision on the received representations/cases, if any, for immediate necessary action.

Yours comradely,

BL Meena                                                           Abhay Singh

PRESIDENT                                           GENERAL SECRETARY

Bitter truth of meeting with Board Committee

Dear Comrades,

As posted on dated 16^th May, 2014, a delegation of Rajasthan Circle consisting B.L. Meena –President, Abhay Singh –General Secretary, Alok Mathur –Asstt Gen Secretary & S.K. Bhagat –Office Secretary reached Delhi on 19^th May, 2014 and shared our views with key representatives of our Federation before scheduled meeting with the Board committee. The meeting held in chairpersonship of the DG (HRD) and Chief Commissioner of Customs (Delhi Zone), ADG (HRD), Dy Secretary of Govt of India alongwith other officers & officials of DGHRD were also present from the Board side.

As representatives of Central Excise Inspectors, A. Satish -President, Ajit K.G. –Secretary General, Dilip Pandya –Jt Secy (WZ), Abhay Singh –V.P. (NZ) of AICEIA Federation and B.L. Meena –President (AICEIA –Rajasthan Circle) participated in meeting. The Association representatives of Customs Houses/formations and Superintendent of Central Excise Association were also attended the meeting.

The representatives of Central Excise Inspectors forcefully submitted following reasoned submissions in the meeting:- 

1) All India seniority must be introduced beginning the first batch of Inspectors recruited on all India merit list inducted in the Department in 2003, and that all Inspectors senior to them in all Zones must be promoted prior to that. If this is not accepted, there will most certainly be serious litigation immediately. 

2) During allocation of manpower in various Zones, sufficient numbers of posts must be allocated to all Zones so that all Inspectors upto 2002 batch can be promoted/upgraded to the grade of Superintendent during implementation of the CR. 

3) If the posts are allocated only as per functional requirement of the Zones and all Inspectors upto 2002 batch cannot be promoted in some particular Zones then an option must be make available to remaining Inspectors of such Zones for promotional avenues in Zones wherein posts of Superintendent remains vacant even after promotion of Inspectors upto 2002 batch in that Zone. There should be no promotion of any Inspector in any Zone of batch 2003 onwards before promotion of Inspectors upto batch of 2002 through the said option. We also added that policy of repatriation should strictly followed on FIFO method in case of such promoted Superintended as and when vacancy(ies) arises in their home Zones. 

The Superintendent of Central Excise Association and Board authorities mis-interpreted our Association’s this suggestion that it will result in all India transfer liability on Superintendent whereas we have suggested such temporary policy to remove the regional disparity in promotional avenues of our cadre too without disturbing the existing Zonal transfer liability of Superintended cadre. 

4) On being raised point by Superintendent of Central Excise Association to bring parity among all the 3 executive base cadres in the Department our Association extended full support to the same, and pointed out that we have voiced this demand on the various occasions for removal of regional disparity and equity. The representatives of Customs Houses/formations opposed our this united demand for justice. 

5) The Board authorities also sought opinion on 2 years service for promotion from grade pay of Rs. 4600 to Rs. 4800/-. The representatives of Customs Houses/formations welcomed to the said proposal of Board. Our Association pointed out that we have also no objection if the qualifying service of 8 years for promotion from Inspector to Superintendent is reduced to 2 years, but such amendment in Recruitment Rules should implemented only after promotion of all the Inspectors having service of 8 years or more. 

Though this issue have no relevancy with career of Superintendent of Central Excise Association, but attitude of their representatives was surprising also on this issue as they were insisting for such reduction in qualifying service guise of the DOPT’s guidelines. Their views were nothing except to help representatives of Customs formations and some Inspectors of their near & dear Zones for undue promotional benefit on & above of their senior colleagues of stagnated Zones whereas our Federation forcefully advanced its position that any reduction of minimum qualifying service should be considered only after regional disparities in promotions are completely done away with in the Inspectors' cadre. 

6)  During the meeting we realised that the Board is going to allocate manpower in re-organised Zones/Commissionerates/Directorates based on the functional requirement without any consideration for removal regional disparity in promotional avanues that is why we requested the Board committee as to whether they have any method/strategy to remove the existing regional disparity, but they have nothing to say on this issue. Therefore, we expressed our strong protest saying “We have made tireless efforts submitting reasoned & justified submissions before the Board's various competent authorities on several occasions to remove the regional disparity in promotion by implementing all India seniority of our cadre. Based upon the said assurances our cadre patiently waiting for justice in the present CR. From discussion and attitude of today meeting, now we are realising that Inspectors of Central Excise are not being treated a real member of CBEC family as the committed assurances are not being fulfilled during present CR. It appears that that there is no hope of justice in CBEC for thousands Inspectors of Central Excise and our pity cadre will be dispirited & discriminated again & again as usual”. 

Issuance of Notification:- 

During meeting the Chairperson informed that the awaited notifications regarding the jurisdiction of re-organised Commissionerates/Directorates and allocation of manpower will be issued on or before 23^rd May, 2014. 

Future course of action of the Board:- 

The DG (HRD) & her committee will compile the views of all Association and will present before the full Board meeting for final decision before issuance of the notifications for implementation of CR.  

Conclusion of meeting:- 

The office bearers of Federation as well its Circles tried their best efforts for the awaited justice with our cadre, but looking into adamant attitude of the Board authorities we have no hope of justice. The Board authorities arranged common meeting of all Association with a view to divide & rule and succeeded to some extent. It is very unfortunate that apart from the representatives of Customs Houses/formations, our own so called BIG BROTHERS also objected our submissions and became hurdle in efforts for achieving the goal, forgetting that “SAAS BHI KABHI BAHU THI”. 

Future of CR:-

 

It is material evidence that in compliance of decision given in 1996 by the Supreme Court, the Inspectors are recruited on all India merit basis from 2003 onwards and assigned zones without obtaining preferences of zones therefore, there should be no problem in all India seniority & promotions from 2003 onwards. The Board authorities appears of the opinion that all India seniority & promotions can only be implemented prospectively i.e. w.e.f. year 2015, too after implementation of the CR-2013 as per the existing practice of regional disparity in promotional avenues. Thus, despite of all India recruitment from 2003 onwards, Inspectors of 2006 batch will be promoted to the grade of Superintendent in some of Zones whereas their senior colleauges of 2003 batch onwards will remain Inspectors in most of the Zones during implementation of the CR. The existing gape of regional disparity can also be increased if the proposed reduction in qualifying service is implemented with immediate effect. Thus, looking into possible situation of undue promotional benefit vis-a-vis acute discriminating voices/representation from various Zones, it appears that CR-2013 will be litigated & stayed by competent Court of law immediately on issuance of the awaited notifications until the Board is agreed to decide the policies looking into the principle of natural justice & equity in promotional avenues.

We, on behalf of all the members of the Association pray the almighty to bestow wisdom to the Board authorities for judicious approach before final decision in aforesaid matters. 

*Our efforts for Rajasthan Zone & expected results thereof will be informed or published separately.

With regards,

BL Meena                                                                   Abhay Singh

PRESIDENT                                                   GENERAL SECRETARY

Bhai, Delhi Chalo...Delhi...

Dear Comrades,

The awaited notifications to notify the jurisdiction and manpower for re-organised Commissionerates/organisations to implement CR-2013 are under speedy process and will be issued in the next week.

Since the Board has given an undertaking to the Revenue Secretary while obtaining final approval on CR therefore, the Board has invited Association representatives on 19^th May, 2014 to discuss mainly on issues of all India seniority and to remove regional disparity in promotion in our cadre. Our key office bearers of the Federation/Association are ready to put forth the reasoned submissions for favourable decision in light of the principal of natural justice with our cadre.

The devoted team of Rajasthan always contributed & tried its best efforts not only to solve the regional issues but also to solve the national issues for betterment & justice with the cadre. The next week is crucial for future of our cadre therefore, a delegation of AICEIA (Rajasthan Circle) is also visiting Delhi on 19^th May (Monday) to extend support to the Federation in achieving the goal.

This may be the final round of discussion with the Board authorities before implementation of the CR therefore, all of you are requested to please remain united and extend all possible cooperation for real justice with the discriminated colleagues.

With regards,

BL Meena

PRESIDENT

Open-Secrets disclosed by TIOL

Dear Comrades,

There were different news & views on different Blogs of Representatives of departmental officers Associations. Today, Taxindiaonline has published some open secrets of file of Cadre restructuring under CBEC. The same is published below to know the factual position.

Please go through the article to know the reality vis-a-vis various news/views published on the said blogs.

With regards,

BL Meena

PRESIDENT

CBEC finally catches up with Outgoing FM !

.......“Whatever may be the truth, the outgoing FM should not clear any transfer order of either of the Boards as it is bound to result in mud-slinging and avoidable image-tarnishing allegations. Even the Revenue Boards' Chairpersons should show greater maturity and political correctness in their decisions during the fag-end of the outgoing government. Although there is bound to be some orders which would trigger some sort of brawls, what merits appreciation for the Mr PC are two of his decisions. One is the pending promotion file of Principal Commissioners of the CBDT as per the Cadre Review. It has been approved and pushed up for the ACC approval which would come only after the New Prime Minister takes charge of the political steering wheel of the Nation. And the second decision is that of clearance of the CBEC 'Cadre Review'. Although the Chairperson's message to the IC&CE family created confusion in many minds by stating that the FM has approved the implementation of the Cadre Review on Saturday but it later transpired that the FM has approved only the geographical plans for creation of New Commissionerates. Since the Cadre Review had already been cleared by the Union Cabinet in December, there was no choice for any other functionary in the Government to say NO to it. But the delay must be attributed to the CBEC's own misdoing. It took three months to put fleshes into the skeletons approved by the Cabinet. Then what came to be noticed by the outgoing Revenue Secretary, Mr Sumit Boase, was glaring deviation from what the Cabinet had approved. The CBEC had reduced the number of Central Excise Commissionerates and increased the number of Audit Commissionerates - substantially different from what the approved Cabinet Note was. This obviously and logically led to raising of objections. Then commenced the exercise of eliminating the degree of deviations and when it came close to what the Cabinet had approved, it was put up before the outgoing FM who approved the same with minor changes.

Let's now visit the details of what has been approved. As per the amended version of details of creation of New Commissionerates, the three factors which have been taken into consideration are the workload of the existing commissionerates, the quantum of revenue collected and the number of assessees. Yet another factor which has also been accommodated is the regional aspirations of the political class. As per the approved plans, the CBEC will have as many as 119 Central Excise Commissionerates; 22 Service Tax Commissionerates, 60 Customs Commissionerates and 45 Audit Commissionerates. Since Mumbai has the largest number of service tax assessees it has been given as many as FIVE SERVICE TAX Commissionerates; followed by FOUR for Delhi; THREE for Chennai; TWO for Bangalore and ONE each for Hyderabad and Pune.

Noida which has emerged as a key industrial hub in the NCR, is going to be split into many Commissionerates - ONE Service Tax Commissionerate and an independent Customs Commissionerate. To accommodate regional aspirations, Uttaranchal has got Dehradun Commissionerate. Similarly, Telengana will have one Central Excise Commissionerate. In Seemandhara, Kakinada and Vijayawada will have independent Customs Commissionerates. In Punjab, Ludhiana will be a new Customs Commissionerate. The Tughlakabad ICD is going to be split into two independent Customs Commissionerate. To keep Haryana happy, Sonipat will be a full-fledged Central Excise Commissionerate. Goa will have two independent Customs and Central Excise Commissionerates. For Gujarat, Mundra Port will be a full-fledged Customs Commissionerate. Vadodara and Ahmedabad will get two Audit Commissionerates. In the East, Ranchi will be split into two Commissionerates and a new Commissionerate will be created in Dhanbad.

As per sources in the CBEC, Madhya Pradesh will get two new Central Excise Commissionerates in Jabalpur and Bilaspur. Kolkata will get one more service tax commissionerate along with an Audit Commissionerate. Bangalore Customs is going to be split into two separate commissionerates and will also have an Audit Commissionerate. India's busiest port Nhava Sheva is going to have more Customs Commissionerates. Similarly, Chennai will have more Customs Commissionerates. For Guwahati which never had its own sanctioned staff, it will be getting hundreds of sanctioned posts and will also have an audit commissionerate. In total, there will be as many as 60 appellate commissioners and the rest out of 440 sanctioned posts of Commissioners will be bagged by the Directorates.

As per the Board, they are going to notify the sanctioned posts in less than a week; followed by the creation of new commissionerates and finally, the distribution of manpower in the coming months. Only in future, after a review, the idea is to reduce the number of Central Excise Commissionerates and go for more of Audit Commissionerates.

Let's hope the CBEC is able to speed up the process of implementation of Cadre Review and also give more hands to its own DG(HRD) which is terribly understaffed and overburdened. For a smooth implementation and an efficient upkeep of HR records, it would be in own interest of the CBEC to arm its HRD with more manpower for smooth roll-out of the cadre restructuring plans.”

TIOL's article on "Cadre Review Implementation in CBEC"

THE CBEC Chairperson Shanti Sundharam is happy to inform that the implementation of the cadre restructuring of the department has been approved by the FM. The cadre review had been approved by the cabinet long ago and it is not known as to what the FM again approved. 

Any way the Department is going to get more than 18,000 posts. It will be a miracle if the Department can really fill those 18000 vacancies by promotion, recruitment or whatever means. It takes them a couple of years to fill up a few hundreds vacancies. When will they fill up 18000?

Maybe they will start with making the top unbearably heavy. They are going to have 14 new Principal Chief Commissioners, 38 new Chief Commissioners and 53 new Principal Commissioners that is they have a vacancy for 105 posts of Principal Commissioners and above. All the present Chief Commissioners will immediately move to the top slots and about 100 Commissioners can move into their chairs and some of them can get a further promotion in a day or two - if they can clear Delhi's red tape.  

But the biggest challenge is to promote about 2200 Superintendents as Assistant Commissioners. As such nobody has a proper updated list of all these officers. Maybe for the next one or two years, the only activity in the Board and the field offices would be promotions, postings, transfers, infrastructure, reorganisation and utter confusion - not necessarily in that order. 

The only reason for the cadre restructuring seems to be to address the problem of stagnation due to lack of promotion especially among the junior staff. But this actually will not solve the problem as only the senior officers will get promotion and the rest have to live with stagnation.

The Chairperson says that it is in the interest of the department to have a committed and largely satisfied work force. Stagnation is one of the de-motivating factors in this regard. While CR resolves some of the issues leading to stagnation, it does not address some of the root causes of stagnation. 

If some of these posts could be diverted to the Tribunal, maybe we could have had more Benches, which could have reduced the mounting arrears of cases in the Tribunal. And all these new officers are sure to add work for the Tribunal.

Repy to the Board for Justice

Dear Comrade,

The FM has approved implementation of CR-2013 on 10th May, 2014 and notifications regarding the jurisdiction of re-organised Commissionerates and allocation of manpower will be issued shortly, but tireless efforts are continue for parity & justice with our Cadre. On being asked views by the Board, Rajasthan Federating Circle submitted opinion/suggestions on 10th May, 2014 to our Federation. On the basis of suggestions, our Secretary General has submitted final reply/views to the Board reiterating for all India seniority and not to reduce the existing qualifying service of 8 years for promotion to the grade of Superintendent. The meeting now has scheduled for 19^th May, 2014 therefore, please remain united in common interest of the cadre and hope for the best.

The copy of reply alongwith its annexure are published below:-

Comradely yours,

BL Meena

PRESIDENT

 

 

Service Tax Posting

Dear Comrades,

In continuation to last dated 28^th April, 2014, it is to inform all of you that during the Association’s individual meetings with the Chief Commissioner (Jaipur Zone), Commissioner, CE Jaipur-I and Additional Commissioner (CCO), they were agreed on our demand to declare Service Tax formations as non-sensitive OR to reduce tenure from 2 to 1 year.

It was also informed through post dated 8^th May, 2014 that the Administration appears not agree to accept our genuine demand. All of you were also asked to submit your opinion/suggestions urgently through comments on Blog/sms/mails/calls so that further lines of action can be decided accordingly.

Friends – The Association can get success only through active & united cooperation of its member –“One for All – All for One”.

The administration has started AGT accepting our other demands (i) station tenure of Bhiwadi for 2 years only (ii) posting in Audit of Inspectors having service or more than 5 years (iii) equal exposure in all three Commissionerates/posting to everyone examining/comparing his HOP etc.

Our above mentioned demand for Service Tax formations is not being accepted by the administration. All of you are once again requested to send your united opinion/suggestion alongwith strategy to fulfil the demands, failing which all of us will have no option except to face the results of posting in Service Tax formations i.e. overloaded formation.

All the Divisional Representatives, Delegates and Office Bearers are requested to discuss this time bound issue with all colleagues and send united suggestion & lines of action without further loss of time.

Comradely yours,
BL Meena
PRESIDENT