Dated : 06.06.2008

Circular-4/08

In our last Circular we have mentioned that after great effort we were able to convince the all India leadership of Revenue C-O-C to hold an emergency meeting on 11th May,2008 at ITEF HQ AT 2.00 p.m and I, on behalf of our Association and on behalf of C-O-C revenue, fixed the joint meeting with the Revenue Secretary at 3 ‘o’ clock in the afternoon on 13th of May,2008 at ‘KALPABRIKHA’, North Block, New Delhi. Now I would like to furnish a brief account of our last Delhi Visit:

7th of May
Visited North Block, New Delhi, to pursue the issues already represented in relation to VIth C.P.C recommendation to The Cabinet Secretary, Expenditure Secretary, Revenue secretary and Chairman C.B.E.C. Discussed, at length with one Deputy Secretary, North Block and one Under Secretary, North Block, who initially dealt with our representation.

The feedback from the discussion is that though we have demanded for 7500-12000 scale, none of the other organizations had demanded the scale, hence Board was constrained to recommend 7450-11000 scale only, i.e pay parity with the Inspectors of C.B.I

The silver lining is that we have pulled out ‘the notional fixation of inspectors w.e.f 01.01.1996’ from the necropolis. As you all know, the 6th Pay Commission had rejected our legitimate demand in its recommendation and after that we had represented for the same on 25th of April to the different officials of Government of India as well as of our Board. Board had acted very positively and for the first time it had recommended strongly for notional fixation for inspectors w.e.f 01.01.1996.
In the afternoon met Confederation leadership at the Head quarters of Postal Union, New Delhi and we were briefed on the detailed discussion held with the standing Committee on that date. For details kindly visit the web-site www.confederationhq.blogspot.com .
Followed up with the Revenue Secretary’s office for a meeting with C.O.C in the Department of Revenue on 12th of May, 2008 with regard to the pay scale issue and the issue related to notional fixation w.e.f 01.01.1996.

8th of May
Visited North Block, New Delhi and sought for a joint meeting with the Chairman C.B.E.C on 12th or in the morning of 13th of May, 2008. We were demanding this type of meeting since long as we were trying to bring Superintendent organization in a platform where both these organization could work jointly. Most important part is that we demanded a minuted meeting in this regard It is to be noted that in some vibrant organization like Income Tax, Audit and Postal Department they brought all the organization up to the level of Group ‘B’ under a single umbrella through this type of operation.
An appointment had been granted for C.O.C revenue to meet with the Revenue Secretary on 13th of May, 2008 at 3.00 ‘O’ clock in the afternoon at the Hall, Room No. 158 of North Block.
We were also given to understand that Board had recommended higher replacement scale to Secretary (Revenue) and the issue of notional fixation w.e.f 01.01.1996 to Secretary (Expenditure). The Commissioner (D.O.P&M) had strongly backed our case while formulating the recommendations.
Visited Commissioner (D.O.P&M)’s office met with the officials and it is to be appreciated that both the issues we are pursuing are moving in the right path. Got a letter related to next restructuring placed below, all the unit secretaries are hereby requested to send their report by 15th of June, 2008 to the Association mail box.
Any of our members desirous to suggest anything in this regard may drop his/ her recommendation/ suggestion in our Association mail box.

MOST URGENT
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Excise & Customs
Directorate of Organization & Personnel Management
412 A/8, Deep Shikha, Rajendra Place,
New Delhi – 110008

F. No. 8 /12 / B /O&PM/2006 Dated: 25 / 09 / 2007

To,
Chief Commissioner of Central Excise/ Customs,
_________________ Zone.

Subject: Cadre restructuring of the Department – Initiation of the process for- regarding

Sir,

This Directorate vide its earlier letters dated 12.06.2007 & 21.08.2007 had requested all the Central Excise & Customs Zones and Directorates under CBEC to provide following proposal/ information/ statistical data to this Directorate:
(i) Proposals for reorganization of the formations falling within the jurisdictions of respective Zones along with complete functional justification for the same.
(ii) Commissionerate-wise Statistical with data regard to revenue collection, assessee base, pendency of Appeals cases with Commissioners (Appeals), information about seizures of non-traditional items such as Narcotics, Wild Life products etc.
(iii) Tentative assessment of the requirement of additional staff strength in various Groups ‘A’. ‘B’, ‘C’ & ‘D’ grades etc.
The Statistical Data was required to be provided in the Proforma enclosed with this Directorate’s letter dated 12.06.2007. The Field formations were requested to send their proposals/ data to this Directorate latest by 31st July 2007. However, even after expiry of the prescribed time limit, no information / proposal in respect of the formations under your charge has been received in this Directorate.
2.0 It would kindly be appreciated that the task of preparation of the proposal for cadre restructuring / reorganization for a big and important organization like the CBEC is massive and, cannot be performed without timely receipt of the reorganization proposals / information from the field formations and considered views on the matter of the senior officers of the Department. It is, therefore, requested that the requisite proposal / information in respect of the formations under your charge may kindly be sent to this Directorate without any further delay.
Yours faithfully,
(Ram Tirath)
Commissioner (O&PM)

9th of May :

The problem in A.C.P. faced by the 1992 batch Inspectors was further pursued in the Section AD-IIA at North Block. In this connection it was pointed out that the issue had been solved provisionally in Ranchi.

Visited, Ad-IVA at Bikaji Kama place to enquire about the next round of recruitment.
Visited, Ad-IIIA to pursue the representation on the counting of regular service for the purpose of ACP/ promotion. It was assured by the Under Secretary AD-IIIA that the issue will not remain torpid for long and this file will be moved by the first week of June, 2008. We hope by this time the file may have moved to the next higher Official.

10th of May
Met different members, Office bearers of Jaipur and Delhi, Discussed certain organizational points and the issues pertaining to the 6th Pay Commission and got very positive support for the work we are doing in Delhi.

11th of May
President and Liaison Secretary came to Delhi to attend the C.O.C meeting as well as the meetings with Chairman and Revenue Secretary; After C.O.C Revenue’s meeting Secretary General had to leave Delhi as he was infected with Chicken Pox.
The meeting of Revenue C.O.C decided to pursue the issue of notional fixation w.e.f. 01.01.1996 and the pay scale issue,

12th of May
Representation from Revenue C.O.C was prepared. In addition separate Representations were prepared by the Superintendent Association as well as Inspectors Association for submission to Chairman CBEC. The separate representations were prepared in spite of the fact that we are to make a united effort. The copies have not been forwarded to me despite repeated efforts and hence I am unable to place them here.
Meeting with the Chairman C.B.E.C was fixed at 12 noon on 13th of May, ’08 and accordingly Secretary General informed the available office Bearers and President about the said meeting and once again highlighted the purpose of arranging a joint meeting with the Board.

13th of May

Meeting with the Chairman C.B.E.C held at 12 noon both the Superintendent Association as well as Inspectors Association submitted their representations separately, no minutes of the meeting had yet been intimated.
Meeting of the C.O.C revenue with the Revenue Secretary started at 3.15 P.M. at the Kalpabrikhkha, Room No. 158 of North Block and it went for about 45 minutes. The Revenue Secretary was very positive on the issues discussed by the Revenue C.O.C. Revenue Secretary expressed his concern for non consideration of the Notional fixation from 01.01.1996 and asked the two Boards C.B.E.C and C.B.D.T to submit their report to the Revenue Secretary within a week. Revenue secretary at the time of discussion of our pay scale issue also asked for similar report from both the Boards and gave optimistic response regarding the Pay Scale of the Inspectors.

In addition to this it is once again requested that the entire Branch, Circle and State Committees to follow the web-site of the Confederation and follow the programmes furnished therein through the state Committee of the Confederation i.e. Co-Ordination Committee of Central government Employees. A Convention in every state is likely to come up within 15th to 20th of June followed by an Industrial Action against the demoralizing recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission.
Comradely yours

Kousik Roy