Federation CIRCULAR 03/09

Dear Comrades,

After a long gap we are issuing this circular as you all know in these days we were busy in pursuing the issues already pending near the Govt, our Ministry and the Board.

The Secretary General Visited Delhi on May 13th to 15th 2009 for following up the issues we have raised with the Board and to fix appointment with the Board Officials and Revenue Secretary for Detail discussion, on 14th May, 2009 Secretary General met with office bearers of ITEF in order to proceed jointly for common issues, during that meeting ITEF mooted the idea of going for Strike on Pay related issues and requested our participation also.

President, Working President, Vice president (east) along with Secretary General of the Association again visited Delhi between 8th and 12th of June 2009 on during this visit we met the Member (P&V) & Joint Secretary (Admn). The Member (P&V) meeting was scheduled as per the direction from the Revenue Secretary and the Chairman since they could give us sufficient time only after the budget. In the meeting the following issues were discussed.

1. Grade pay of Rs. 4600/- for Inspectors-We apprised him that the officials in the expenditure Ministry are adopting dilatory tactics and requested him to personally talk with them; he agreed that he would meet the Secretary Expenditure immediately after the budget. He informed us that Financial Adviser as well as the Revenue Secretary has now recommended the matter.

2. Notional fixation of 6500 scale with effect from 01.01.1996-The Member (P&V) asked us whether such notional fixation has been granted in other cases, we provided him with the details and he took a note of it . He also enquired the financial benefit that will accrue and data were furnished.

3. Grade pay of Rs. 5400/- for ACP recipient Inspectors- We referred to our earlier representation on the matter and submitted that by the issuance of the MACPS, the matter stands clarified and requested him to issue necessary directions in this regard. He agreed to look into the matter.

4. Counting the regular service for the purpose of ACP from the 1st July succeeding the date of examination-We presented to matter and apprised him that Board had initiated action in this regard by calling for details from the field as early as in 2007 but subsequently it lost its wind. He agreed to examine the issue.

5. Facility of option for 2003 to 2005 batch of Inspectors:We submitted that the Board had invited options from the batches subsequent to 2005 before allocating to zones and the Board is in the process of finalizing allotment of the fresh batch and requested him accord the earlier batches a facility to exercise their option before the new batch is allotted to zones. Even though the Member (P&V) agreed to the genuineness of the request, he doubted about the feasibility. During the course of the discussion, we made a suggestion of introducing all India transfer liability to the All India Recruits by retaining their seniority in the allotted zone. He was also interested in the idea and said that he would study the feasibility.

6. Posting of Inspectors in Commissioner’s Unit-We registered our protest to the practice that has started in some places since the Inspector posted are degraded to the level of a PA. The Member (P&V) took note of the issue.

We met the Joint Secretary (Admn) and referred to our representation regarding the letter issued by the Dy. Controller of Accounts stating that the Inspectors who received ACP after 01.01.2006 shall be placed in the grade pay of Rs. 4600/- only. We had pointed out that the instructions of the DCA was issued prior to the issuance of MACPS which clarifies that it would come into effect only on 01.09.2008 and prior to that the 99 ACPS would be operational. During our visit to Delhi, we received information that PAOs in some part of the Country has started issuing directions to recover differential salary and we requested his urgent intervention to preempt the issue.

We have submitted our representation to Joint Secretary (Admn) on unfounded deputation posting of Appraiser of Customs in the Superintendent vacancy of Chandigarh Zone thereby weakening the scope of promotion of Inspectors of that zone. We have requested to resolve the matter immediately. In addition to this we have submitted one reminder on our request made on 01.04.2009 on scope of Inspectors to work in ACES.

We met Board officials at various levels and have discussed the issues pending with their sections.We had a meeting with the ITEF & ITGOA office bearers regarding the joint actions on pay related issues. They have proposed a strike action and requested us also to take part. We said that we would be able to confirm only after our CEC meeting at Chandigarh and as requested by them we proposed the tentative date of the strike as 20.08.2009.We are constantly pursuing an appointment with our union Finance Minister, Hon’ble Finance Minister asked for a status report from Revenue Secretary’s office on our three point charter of demand that was submitted to him before election. We are expecting an appointment with FM & MOS (Exp) shortly.

We went to HRD office to enquire about the restructuring process in C.Ex. And came to know that the three study groups had not yet submitted their reports, we the available office bearers of the All India Association had a meeting in Delhi and discussed about our views on restructuring the draft will be ready by the end of next week and for finalisation it will be discussed at length in the Chandigarh C.E.C. We would like to request the Office Bearers of All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association and the Branch and Circle Secretaries & Presidents to attend the Chandigarh C.E.C. meeting on time and help the host to conclude the meeting on time. We request all concerned to intimate Chandigarh circle or the All India Association at the earliest about their to and fro journey. It is further requested to place the concerned Branch/Circle’s accounts in the C.E.C. and kindly clear the dues of the All India Association, we would like to request further to bring D.D.O certificate in the meeting and where it is not available kindly make arrangement to submit it by August 15th2009. Comradely Yours ( Kousik Roy)