To,
In view of the above, the following measures alongwith others may kindly be taken to remove this acute stagnation at the level of the Central Excise Inspector/Superintendent otherwise it will take at least 170 years to give even a single promotion to all of the Superintendents of Central Excise-
Thus, there must be no hitch in promoting the Superintendent of Central Excise to a post bearing a grade pay of Rs. 6,600/- particularly when they have already been granted a time scale in the grade pay of Rs. 5,400/- after the completion of 4 years of service.
Thanking you,
The Director General,
HRD, CBEC,
New Delhi.
HRD, CBEC,
New Delhi.
Subject: Cadre-restructuring-reg.
Sir,
Kindly refer to the previous communications of the association on the above issue and acute stagnation.It is submitted with due regards that the stagnation at the level of the Inspector and Superintendent of Central Excise may also kindly be given a serious consideration in the forthcoming cadre-restructuring keeping in view that the cadre of the Superintendent of Central Excise is the most stagnated cadre of the Govt. of India. Even the ACP/MACP scheme is unable to undo the pay as well as pension erosions to this cadre in comparison to the counterparts in the Income Tax as well as Customs in the same department of Revenue. It is worth to mention that the Income Tax Inspectors are reaching the level of the Commissioner after getting 6 promotions and the Examiners/Appraisers of Customs are also able to get 4/5 promotions while the Inspector of Central Excise is retiring as Superintendent after getting only 1 promotion despite of being recruited through one and the same competitive examination in one and the same department of Revenue.
This hostile discrimination within the department has created a demoralising effect in the minds of cadre. Even in the para-military forces like ITBP & CRPF etc., the Sub-Inspectors are reaching the level of DIG and IG. The Assistants in Rajya Sabha etc. are reaching the level of the Joint Secretary. There exists a horrible disparity in the promotions for the basic executive cadres of Inspector of Central Excise, Preventive Officer and Examiner of Customs despite of being recruited through one and the same competitive examination in one and the same organization of CBEC. The junior Examiners have reached the senior levels. These disparities are to be removed by giving parity in promotional matters placing all the officers of same batch at same level without loss of seniority in r/o initial joining at the level of the Inspector whether in CBEC or CBDT.
The Examiners recruited in 1988 have been promoted to the post of Asst. Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner after getting 2/3 promotions in a span of 20 years while there are Inspectors of Central Excise who are waiting for first promotion even after 24/25 years. This has resulted into huge difference even in pensionery as well as other retirement benefits what to say about salary.
Very recently, at least three officers named S/Sh. N.S.Rajvendra (Karnataka), Raghawan (Kerala) and Balsubramanium (Tamilnadu) retired as the Commissioner of Income Tax who joined the department of Income Tax as the Inspector. All of the other cadres in our department are getting 5 to 7 promotions while a Superintendent is retiring without promotion. Even Sepoys are getting 2/3 or even more promotions (with the help of departmental examinations) and the ministerial staff is getting 5 promotions while direct recruit IRS officers are getting upto 7 promotions and membership/headship of any Committee, Commission or Authority after the retirement. It is really very pleasing thing which must happen to all the other cadres including ours. It may also kindly be noted that the difference of the initial pay between an Inspector and a direct recruit group ‘A’ officer is merely of Rs.1,500/- (pre pay commission) at the time of recruitment which becomes more than Rs. 14,900/- (pre pay commission) at the time of retirement for the want of promotional avenues for the Superintendent cadre. Thus, a minimal difference at the time of recruitment/joining becomes very huge at the time of retirement, which needs to be minimized justifiably giving compensation in the form of better promotions vs. job satisfaction. This job satisfaction will also increase the work efficiency multifold. It requires an immediate change to create a separate service for the cadre of the Inspector and Superintendent of Central Excise to boost the morale of the officers which will increase the revenue collection multifold.
The creation of a separate service for this acutely stagnated cadre has already been recommended by the Chitra Gouri Lal Committee on the lines of CSS, DANICS, DANIPS etc. admitting the stagnation but this committee has decided the final modalities merely to create an intermediary post below the level of the post of the Asstt. Commissioner.
In view of the above, the following measures alongwith others may kindly be taken to remove this acute stagnation at the level of the Central Excise Inspector/Superintendent otherwise it will take at least 170 years to give even a single promotion to all of the Superintendents of Central Excise-
1) Promotion to a senior group “A” post: The most of the Group ‘B’ Gazetted Officers (Forest, Engineering, Telecom, CPWD, Police, CSSS, CSS, MES, AFHQ etc. etc.) in Central as well State Governments are promoted to a Senior Group ‘A’ post including the cases where the group 'A' entry is in the grade pay of Rs. 5,400/- in PB3 while we are being promoted (if any) merely to a Junior Group ‘A’ post. In southern states, provincial services officers get IAS within 8 years of service with 4 years seniority benefit in IAS in lieu of the service rendered by them in group ‘B’. Such type of` seniority benefit is also being given in Central Government like Postal, Railway etc. departments. Such type of measures may also kindly be taken for us. In para 22.29, the Pay Commission regarding promotion has interalia observed :-
Even in case of organized Audit & Accounts Subordinate Services’ officers, the Senior Audit Officers, group ‘B’ who have now been placed in PB-3 with grade pay of Rs.5,400/-, are absorbed in the organized Indian Audit & Accounts Service in the grade pay of Rs.6,600/- on promotion.
Thus, there must be no hitch in promoting the Superintendent of Central Excise to a post bearing a grade pay of Rs. 6,600/- particularly when they have already been granted a time scale in the grade pay of Rs. 5,400/- after the completion of 4 years of service.
2) Compensation for undone cadre restructurings/cadre reviews: The cadre of the Superintendent of Central Excise may also kindly be compensated in each & every aspect for all the undone cadre restructurings/cadre reviews in the past being due at prescribed time gaps. It may also kindly be noted that even 100% or even more promotional posts were created for the categories of group ‘A’ officers in the last cadre restructuring compensating them for the undone cadre restructurings in the past. Even there was an increase of 290% in the posts of the Joint Commissioner. As a result, even an Asstt. Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner became an Addl.Commissioner within a period of three months or even less, some perhaps within night. This was really a very good thing for group ‘A’ cadre. It is requested that such good things must also be happened this time to the Superintendent of Central Excise cadre without any discrimination as the group ‘B’ cadre is the feeder cadre for the promotions to the group ‘A’. If need arises, the recruitment rules may also kindly be changed for the purpose accordingly.
3) Abolishing the promotional posts of Asstt. Commissioner: All the promotional posts of the Asstt.
Commissioner may be abolished for matching-saving and the Superintendents may directly be promoted to the post of Deputy Commissioner instead of Astt. Commissioner as per point No. 1 above. It is prevalent in the otherCentral as well as State govt. departments as group ‘B’ gazetted officers are being promoted to a senior group ‘A’post there. Moreover, there is no difference between the duties of an Asstt. Commissioner & the Deputy Commissioner.
Commissioner may be abolished for matching-saving and the Superintendents may directly be promoted to the post of Deputy Commissioner instead of Astt. Commissioner as per point No. 1 above. It is prevalent in the otherCentral as well as State govt. departments as group ‘B’ gazetted officers are being promoted to a senior group ‘A’post there. Moreover, there is no difference between the duties of an Asstt. Commissioner & the Deputy Commissioner.
4) Time scale in PB3: Other group ‘B’ gazetted cadres have been placed in PB-3 pay band while we and our counterparts in Postal Department have been placed in PB-2 pay band after 4 years of service. This discrimination may kindly be undone in the forthcoming cadre restructuring because such type of non-functional time scale was granted to our counterparts of CSS initially in their cadre restructuring itself. If they could be given this benefit in cadre restructuring, there should be no hindrance to give this benefit to us in cadre restructuring. The Superintendents of Central Excise must be given a time scale in the grade pay of Rs. 5,400/- in PB3 after the completion of 4 years of service without affecting ACP/MACP benefit alongwith direct promotion to a post in the grade pay of Rs. 6,600/- like CSS and others.
5) Reclassification of the post of Superintendent at par with DCIO of IB etc.: Our counterparts like Deputy Central Intelligence Officer of IB and Chief Enforcement Officer in the Directorate of Enforcement etc. have already been classified as group ‘A’. The investigation & intelligence work is an integral and only one part of our duties while the CBI, IB etc. are doing only a single work of the investigation & intelligence nature. We are also doing the work of enforcement, judicial, executive, anti-evasion, anti-smuggling etc. nature alongwith the investigation & intelligence work. Thus, their duty constitutes merely one part of our duties. This disparity in classification may kindly be removed by placing us in Group ‘A’ like them.
6) Retrospective merger of the basic feeder posts: The Executive posts of Inspector in Central Excise and Preventive Officer as well as Examiner in Customs are the actual basic feeders for the promotion to the post of Asstt. Commissioner instead of Superintendents and Appraisers. Inspectors of Central Excise are promoted to the post of Superintendent of Central Excise taking upto 24/25 years and further to Asstt. Commissioner (if any) taking upto 17/18 years while the Examiners are promoted to the post of Appraiser even within 4 years and further to the Asstt. Commissioner within 10 years. The result is that the senior officers work as Inspector while junior officers work as Asstt. Commissione/Deputy Commissioner. The only remedy is to merge these actual basic feeder posts at the level of Inspector with retrospective effect and prepare a common seniority list placing the senior officer at senior positions as per all India merit list of the relevant year to compensate fully the senior officers working on lower posts after joining initially at the same level. This may be done by reviewing all the promotions in the past for these three basic feeder posts. If feeder posts of Superintendent/Appraiser were replaced by basic feeder post of Inspector/PO/Examiner on the basis of length of service in the review of post-1979 promotions as per the Supreme Court verdict, these disparities have been removed and the Superintendents of Central Excise would have not been at the loss of precious 20 years. By that, they would have been compensated for the loss incurred in the matter of not only promotions but also retirement salary and pensionery benefits etc. in comparison to the Customs officers who started their career at the same level. The only remedy to this horrible situation is to promote all the Inspectors of Central Excise of a relevant year to the level of the promotion to which the Examiner of that relevant year has been promoted keeping their (Inspectors') seniority intact as per their position in the all India merit list of the relevant year. For this, we shall have to count the length of service in r/o initial joining at Inspector level. It is also mentionworthy that all of three of them were also designated only as the Inspector originally in the last cadre restructuring due the same basic nature of their duties and work.
7) Specific ratio of posts in each grade: A specific ratio may be fixed at each promotional level upto the top providing more promotional avenues to the lower cadres like done already in the case of CSS and CSSS etc. cadres.This specific ratio of posts may be fixed at least as 50% in each grade from Inspector level to the level of Commissioner reserving it strictly for the officers joining as Inspector.
8) Promotion of all the Superintendents with 1.5 (one & half) qualifying service : All the Superintendents of Central Excise who have attained 1.5 (one & half) time of qualifying service required for the promotion may be promoted as has been done in the ministries where all the Section Officers with 1.5 qualifying service for promotion were promoted to the post of Under Secretary. This will have minimal financial implications because all of such Superintendents are already getting a grade pay of Rs. 5,400/- or more. These officers may be given even in-situ promotions as per requirements. This will also help to decrease the ratio of the posts of the Superintendent to Deputy Commissioner for proper governance.
9) Creation of at least 7000 promotional posts of Asstt./Deputy Commissioner meant for the Superintendents: Keeping in view the increasing many times workload particularly in Service Tax and the implementation of the GST being on cards which will further increase the workload multifold, at least 7000 posts of the Deputy Commissioner may be created meant for the promotion of the Superintendents of Central Excise only. This will have a minimal expenditure as around the equal number of the Superintendents are already getting the higher grade pays on account of being ACP/MACP beneficiaries.
10) Counting of length of service in r/o initial joining at Inspector level: The qualifying service for the
promotion may be counted in r/o of initial joining at the level of the Inspector like in the case of IRS officers. It must not be counted separately like 8 years or so for the promotion from Inspector to Superintendent and further 3 years or so for the entry in group 'A' for the Superintendent. It should be like 3 years to be promoted as Superintendent, 6 years for entry in group ‘A’ and so on after the initial joining as an Inspector.
promotion may be counted in r/o of initial joining at the level of the Inspector like in the case of IRS officers. It must not be counted separately like 8 years or so for the promotion from Inspector to Superintendent and further 3 years or so for the entry in group 'A' for the Superintendent. It should be like 3 years to be promoted as Superintendent, 6 years for entry in group ‘A’ and so on after the initial joining as an Inspector.
11) Removal of intra-organisational disparities: It may also not be forgotten that the Superintendent cadre was handled in the poorest manner in the last cadre restructuring. As a result, the Superintendents are getting no promotion, Inspectors are getting one promotion only, Examiners & Appraisers are getting even five promotions upto the level of the Addl. Commissioner/Commissioner, Ministerial Officers are getting at least five promotions, group ‘A’ Officers are getting upto seven promotions & group ‘D’ Officers are getting three promotions. Despite of being recruited through one & the same competitive examination & belonging to one & the same batch in one & the same organisation, an Inspector remains still an Inspector while an Examiner is able to become an Asstt. Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner. Furthermore, an Inspector remains Inspector while an LDC/UDC becomes the Administrative Officer even after being recruited in one & the same year in one & the same organisation. Thus, all the other cadres are well placed except the executive cadres of the Superintendent & Inspector. All of these disparities are requested to be undone this time giving due benefits especially to the Superintendent cadre.
12) Removal of inter-organisational but intradepartmental disparities: The Inspectors recruited through one & the same competitive examination for one & the same batch in the sister wing of Income Tax of one & the same department of Revenue are able to get the promotions upto the level of the Commissioner while our Inspectors are forced to retire only as the Superintendents. As per information, three officers named S/Sh. N.S.Rajvendra (Karnataka), Raghawan (Kerala) and Balsubramanium (Tamilnadu) have retired very recently as Commissioner of Income Tax who started their career as Inspector in CBDT. It is, therefore, requested that the necessary measures may kindly be taken in the present cadre restructuring to give the same benefit to the Central Excise Inspectors/Superintendents considering their multi-stream nature of work. It may also kindly be considered that the officers working in many of the departments like RAW, IB, CBI, UPSC, Parliamentary Affairs, Judicial as well as subordinate judicial services, Police, Defence, Directorate of Security Guards etc.etc. are given special considerations by their departments. They are even paid monthly special pays as well as extra one-month salary in the year & better promotions as well as scales. Some type of such considerations must also be given to our officers giving them due weightage for their specific, expert & the most important work of revenue collection, anti-smuggling, safety & security of the country etc. etc. as they have always to interact with the hardcore criminals/smugglers, white collared offenders etc. having influential relations & resources. It may also be noted that our Board had also already agreed before the expert body of the last pay commission that our officers perform more hazardous & arduous duties than other department like CBI, IB etc. It is also submitted that the officers of IB, CBI etc. are being given above said facilities by their ministry simply based on the simple recommendations of their organisations. But our own ministry & organisation is unable to do so for us despite of earning the revenues for the Govt. functioning.
13) Creation of a separate service: The creation of a separate service for this acutely stagnated cadre of the Superintendent of Central Excise has already been recommended by the Chitra Gouri Lal Committee on the lines of CSS, DANICS, DANIPS etc. admitting the stagnation but this committee has decided the modalities merely to create an intermediary post below the level of the post of the Asstt. Commissioner for which the committee was not empowered. The creation of such separate service on the lines of CSS, DANICS, DANIPS etc. is really an urgent need of time to remove the stagnation. The modalities for the same may kindly be decided very soon. Practically in technical terms, this would only be a proper deployment of the staff and this will also not disturb the interests of the direct group ‘A’ officers.
14) Changes in the recruitment rules : It is further submitted that the lower executive cadres were very badly hit in the last cadre restructuring because of the faulty recruitment rules. New rules may kindly be framed making necessary changes to give the actual benefit to the lower executive cadres of Inspector and Superintendent of Central Excise. In the remote past, the Inspector (even promotee) of Central Excise was able to become the Collector/Commissioner but the scenario has been changed now only due to the faulty recruitment rules.
15) 4/5 years of seniority in group ‘A’ post : In many of the departments like Railway, CSIR, Postal & many State governments etc., a group ‘B’ officer is given the benefit of 4/5 years seniority in a group ‘A’ post in advance in lieu of the service rendered in group ‘B’ when promoted to a group ‘A’ post. It may also be done in our department to help the lower executive cadres of Inspector and Superintendent of Central Excise.
16) Parity with CBDT: The most of the promotional vacancies were given to IRS authorities in the last cadre restructuring giving parity to them with their counterparts in CBDT ignoring the Superintendent cadre totally as no parity was given to them with their counterparts in Income Tax. The promotional posts for group ‘A’ officers were increased upto the level of 290% promoting a direct recruit Asstt. Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner to the post of Addl. Commissioner within night. This type of benefit may also be given to our cadre this time by giving the parity with the counterparts in Income Tax. For example; if an Inspector of Income Tax has become Deputy/Joint Commissioner or above after a particular length of service, all of our officers with the same length of service whether serving as Inspectors/Superintendents/Asstt. Commissioners as on date, must be promoted to the post of Deputy/Joint Commissioner or above without loss of seniority w.e.f. their joining at the level of the basic feeder cadre of Inspector. Their seniority must be counted from their very initial joining as Inspector like in the case of direct group 'A' officers whose length of qualifying service is counted w.e.f. their initial joining in group ‘A’ as Asstt. Commissioner.
17) Time bound promotions: A time bound mechanism for promotion is the best option for the removal of the stagnation making it effective in r/o the very initial joining at the level of the basic feeder cadre of the Inspector. Such time bound mechanism has already been recommended by the CBEC to VIth Central Pay Commission amongst other options recommending time bound time scale at every 7 years. Therefore, the authorities should have no hitch to implement it in the cadre restructuring.
18) The decrease in the direct recruit quota at group ‘A’ entry level: This option alongwith other measures will also help to give the promotee officers the exposure to group ‘A’ upto a little extent. The direct recruitment to group ‘A’ may also be stopped for a particular period alongwith other measures to benefit the lower executive cadres to use their expertise gained by them in the form of long experience.
19) Inter-departmental disparities: The following chart is very well reflecting the inter-departmental disparities-
It may be noted that the most of them have 1 group ‘A’ post meant for promotion of less than 2 group ‘B’officers. Moreover, the many of them have 1 group ‘A’ post meant for promotion of even less than 1 group ‘B’ officer, i.e., there exist more (marked #) group ‘A’ posts than group ‘B’ officers for promotion (this may also happen to us). In the Finance Ministry (marked ***), 1 group ‘A’ post is meant for more than 4 group ‘B’ officers overall but it is surprisingly 1 for around 6 in CBEC (marked **) and 1 for only 1.07 in CBDT (marked**). These disparities are needed to be removed urgently and immediately keeping in view the most important work of revenue collection being done by our officers. Our ratio must also be 1: sufficiently less than 1.
S.No. | Name of the Ministry | Group – ‘A’ | Group-‘B’ | Ratio |
1 | Agriculture | 331 | 412 | 1:1.24 |
2 | Chemical and Fertilizer | 121 | 205 | 1:1.69 |
3 | Commerce & Industry | 975 | 1469 | 1:1.50 |
4 | Coal | 42 | 79 | 1:1.88 |
5 | Consumer Affair | 218 | 368 | 1:1.68 |
6 | Corporate Affairs | 412 | 426 | 1:1.03 |
7 | Development of North Eastern Region | 146 | 78 | 1:0.53# |
8 | Environment & Forests | 154 | 97 | 1:0.63# |
9 | External Affairs | 1126 | 2223 | 1:1.97 |
10 | HRD | 299 | 650 | 1:2.17 |
11 | Defence | 13046 | 26450 | 1:2.02 |
12 | Finance | 12840 | 54418*** | 1:4.24 |
13 | Food Processing Industry | 86 | 73 | 1:0.87# |
14 | Health & Family Welfare | 3840 | 2514 | 1:0.65# |
15 | Heavy Industry & Public Enterprises | 59 | 102 | 1:1.73 |
16 | Home Affairs | 14772 | 22012 | 1:1.49 |
17 | Law & Justice | 348 | 731 | 1:2.10 |
18 | Labour & Employment | 951 | 1238 | 1:1.30 |
19 | Micro, Small & Medium | 383 | 546 | 1:1.43 |
20 | Enterprises | 11 | 11 | 1:1 |
21 | Minority Affairs | 98 | 82 | 1:0.84# |
22 | New & Renewable Energy | 21 | 34 | 1:1.62 |
23 | Overseas Indian Affairs | 18 | 22 | 1:1.2 |
24 | Panchayati Raj | 1162 | 1205 | 1:1.04 |
25 | Personnel, Public Grievances & | 367 | 359 | 1:0.98# |
26 | Pension | 551 | 566 | 1:1.02 |
27 | Planning | 8285 | 7247 | 1:0.87# |
28 | Power | 140 | 305 | 1:2.18 |
29 | Railways | 717 | 1139 | 1:1.59 |
30 | Rural Development | 519 | 695 | 1:1.34 |
31 | Textiles | 239 | 559 | 1:2.34 |
32 | Tribal Affairs | 33 | 49 | 1:1.48 |
33 | Water Resources | 1620 | 2202 | 1:1.36 |
34 | Woman & Child Development | 76 | 134 | 1:1.76 |
35 | Dept of Atomic Energy | 9311 | 8469 | 1:0.90# |
36 | Dept of Space | 8255 | 3570 | 1:0.43# |
37 | CVC | 47 | 92 | 1:1.96 |
38 | CBDT(Finance) | 4159 | 4450 | 1:1.07** |
39 | CBE&C(Finance) | 2439 | 13876 | 1:5.69** |
40 | Min of Civil Aviation | 17 | 16 | 1:0.94# |
It may be noted that the most of them have 1 group ‘A’ post meant for promotion of less than 2 group ‘B’officers. Moreover, the many of them have 1 group ‘A’ post meant for promotion of even less than 1 group ‘B’ officer, i.e., there exist more (marked #) group ‘A’ posts than group ‘B’ officers for promotion (this may also happen to us). In the Finance Ministry (marked ***), 1 group ‘A’ post is meant for more than 4 group ‘B’ officers overall but it is surprisingly 1 for around 6 in CBEC (marked **) and 1 for only 1.07 in CBDT (marked**). These disparities are needed to be removed urgently and immediately keeping in view the most important work of revenue collection being done by our officers. Our ratio must also be 1: sufficiently less than 1.
In view of the above, it is very much requested that all of the above measures alongwith others may kindly be given a serious thought to remove the stagnation at the level of lower executive cadres of Inspector and Superintendent of central Excise. It may also be considered that the various committees have already recommended that the Revenue Officers must be sufficiently paid and have better promotional avenues as compared to other cadres. A personal hearing may also be given in the matter to the Association.
Thanking you,
----sd-----
Yours faithfully,
(RAVI MALIK),
Yours faithfully,
(RAVI MALIK),
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