Co-Ordination Meeting and other update from Delhi

A C0-Ordination meeting of all Office Bearers of the national body of All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association was held in New Delhi on 26.07.2015.  Com. Anupam Neeraj, President chaired the meeting.  The main agenda of the meeting was to review the recent developments like JAC, Stagnation, All India Seniority,  7^th CPC, GST Victimization of Office Bearers, ICT, Ensuing CEC Meeting, Strike Call given by COC and other organizational matters.  The details (Minutes of the Meeting) are, as under:-

 

1.   Joint Action Committee:-

AICEIA is always committed towards bringing all the Associations working under CBEC, together on common issues.  Even we held many meetings with other sister organizations for fighting together.   Although we have not so good experiences of past, we tried again and again to create a common platform to work together for common causes. The first condition for JAC formation led down was, it will not take-up the Cadre specific issues as the difference of interests of the different Cadres have been the prime reasons for losing this Platform in past. Realising the need of the hour eleven Recognised Associations in CBEC attended the meeting at Kolkata on 28.06.2015 to form the JAC and also to chalk out the charter of demands which were in consensus, these demands are as below:-

a.            The CBEC should consult the member of associations/federations before submitting the views of the
                CBEC to the 7th CPC. A meeting of all the associations/federations must be convened by Board in this
                regard, immediately.

b.            Timely DPCs should be ensured and all the vacancies in all the cadres should be filled up immediately for                 smooth and seamless functioning of the department.

c.             Vacancies available at higher levels for the want of eligible candidates may be downgraded under GFR 254 and                 filled up with officers from lower grades.

d.            The units with a turnover of more than Rs 10 lakhs should not be given to the states and the CBEC should                 consult with the staff associations/federations before making any organisational changes with reference to                 implementation of GST. Proper training should be imparted to all officers concerned for               implementation of GST.

e.            All recruitment rules should be finalised in consultations with the associations/federations  concerned on                 immediately.

f.             Minimum Five functional promotions must be granted in the career of an employee entering the department.

g.            MACP anomalies must be removed immediately without any further delay.

h.            Time bound disposal of vigilance cases should be ensured.

i.              Immediate provision of essential infrastructure and office space to all officers as per the prescribed norms.

j.             Employee Grievance Redressal Mechanism is to be put in place at Central as well as zonal level for on the spot                 Redressal of staff grievances.

k.            The 1% incremental incentive amount should percolate down to the welfare of all cadres in the department in                 proportion to their strength.

l.              Implementation of the comprehensive health insurance scheme at the earliest.  Accordingly it was decided that                 the Convener shall submit a representation to Chairman, CBEC copy to Secretary ( Revenue) along with the                 charter of demands with a request to provide immediate audience to all office bearers of constituent   Associations of JAC. In the meeting it was decided that Convener should be appointed from  IRS (Indirect Taxes)        OA and                 Joint Conveners should be two each from Customs & Excise side. Accordingly, following panel was          formed:-

                 A. CONVENER: Shri Lokanath Mishra, Secretary General of IRS (Indirect Taxes) Officers Association.
                B.JOINT-CONVENERS:
                1. Shri Ravi Malik, Secretary General, AIACEGEO
                2. Shri Asim Pramanick, President,  AICESTMOA
                3. Shri Ashis Chakrabarty, Secretary General, All India Customs Gr-C Officers'  Federation.
                4. Shri Venugopal Nair, President , All India Customs Preventive Service Federation.

                The charter of demand was signed by the office bearers of all the organisation. On the basis of the charter one appointment was given by the Chairman, CBEC on 23.07.2015 where the issues were discussed and the Chairman assured the delegation of timely and proper Redressal of the issues.

2.   Stagnation and All India Seniority:-

As we know that the cadre of Inspector of Central Excise is the most stagnated cadre in Central Government department.  For removal of stagnation, we approached every nook and corner of the north block including CBEC to Ministry to Judiciary.  Till date we have not achieved the desired result except repeated assurances.  The Secretary General apprised the Central Committee Members about the work done by the National Body in this regard at different forum.  Com. Anupam Neeraj, President apprised the House about the meeting fixed with Sh. Jayant Sinha,  Hon'ble Minister of State (Finance) on different issues pertaining to the cadre on 27.07.2015.  The House discussed the points, which should be the part of the memorandum given to the Hon'ble Minister.  The matters pending before the Court were also discussed during the meeting.

 

3. 7th Central Pay Commission:-

The Secretary General apprised the Central Committee Members about all the meetings with the 7th CPC including the last meeting held on 17th June 2015.  We put our demands effectively, which are as follow-

·       Accord Pay-Parity between Superintendent of Central Excise and the Dy. SP,  CBI i.e. to place the Superintendent of Central Excise in the Grade Pay of Rs. 5400 in PB-3.

·       To evaluate the Manpower requirement at short intervals

·      To conduct periodic Cadre Reviews

·      To strengthen the Audit & Anti Evasion mechanism considering that the entire tax control has been shifted from physical control to production based control to audit based control

·      Training and incentives to staff to enable Computerization of the department in a full-fledged manner

·      Abolition of Control Room duty and Uniform for Central Excise and Service Tax

·      Reasonable Uniform allowance for maintaining Uniform in Customs

·      To notify new recruitment rules for Central Excise Inspectors as Group ‘B’ non-gazetted officers

·      Payment of Rummaging Allowance on par with Inspectors of Customs

·      Payment of Local Travel Expenses (Petrol Allowance) on par with Inspectors of Income Tax

·      Payment of Risk Allowance

·      Parity with the CBI Inspectors w.e.f. 01.01.1996

·       Same entry pay level for both the direct and promote officers

Apart from the above, we also asked Hon'ble Commission to recommend five MACPS, MACPS on the Pay Scale of next Promotional Posts, abolition of NPS etc. Hon'ble Chairman agreed for at least four MACPS & MACP on next promotional post but not agreed on abolition of NPS.  Hon'ble Chairman also not agreed to adding new allowance to other departments.  However, he told that allowances will be enhanced to some extent.  The 7th CPC will submit its recommendation in the month of August 2015. 

4.  Goods & Service Tax:-

          The Goods and Service Tax is expected from April 2016 and the Association is also gearing up for safeguarding its members' right in the new regime of indirect taxation.  The GST report of Com. Rajashish Dutta discussed at length and areas were identified in which the Association has to work for safeguarding the rights of its members.

 

5.  Victimization of Office Bearers of Kerala Circle

6.   ICT & Fixation of Seniority on the Supreme Court Judgment on N R Parmar:-

The issue of ICT (Inter Zonal Transfer) was also discussed during the meeting. The Cadre Controlling Authorities under various zones are following divergent policies owing to which the deserving candidates, whose request was considered as genuine, are unable to get the requisite benefit of transfer. Com. Arun Kumar A, Working President also briefed where the administration of Kerala Zone has delayed the relief of officers applied and granted ICT. Issue has been taken to the court by the department and cited the reason of staff shortage for not granting relief. This is when officers are given on loan as well as deputation all the while.  Further, many Cadre Controlling Authorities have not yet finalized the Seniority List of Inspectors in light of Hon’ble Supreme Court judgment in the case of N R Parmar v/s. Union of India despite Board's clear-cut guidelines.  A letter on both issues were written to the Board and the same were discussed in many meetings with them.  Now, it has come to our notice that they are going to direct the field formations for dealing with the matter on priority basis.  It was also decided to direct all the Circles/Branches/Units of AICEIA to take up the matter of fixation of seniority, based on N R Parmar Judgment, with their CCAs.  However, some information have been sought by the House about the matter related to ICT of Kerala Zone from Com. Arun Kumar A and he assured to  send it.

7.   Organizational Issues:-

i.   Issues related to the Office bearers, who  not discharging their duties

ii.  Situation at AICEIA, Hyderabad Branch

iii. Ways and initiative to increase the membership of the Association

iv. Participation in Strike Called by the COC

v. CEC Meeting at Ahmedabad

vi.  Review of the Work of the Committee set up in CEC Meeting Kolkata

vii. Filling the vacant post of the Joint Secretary (North Zone)

viii. Meeting with Sh. Jayant Sinha, Minister of State (Finance)

ix. Grooming of the next-in-line

x. Other Issues, which were discussed upon:-

                a.  Delay in Vigilance Proceedings

                b. Compassionate Appointment

                c. Benefit from 1% incremental scheme

                d. Health Insurance Scheme to be launched by CBEC

                e. Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System

                f.   Allowances in the form of Mobile phones and charges

                g.  Scope of going to media when it comes to strike

                h.  Access for association to video conferencing systems installed by the department.

 

The Co-Ordination Meeting was concluded with the Vote of Thanks by Com. Anupam Neeraj, President.

Details of Meeting with Sh. Jayant Sinha Minister of State for Finance, held on 27.07.2015

A meeting with Hon'ble Minister of State (Finance) held on 27.07.2015 at his residence in New Delhi.  The Association apprised him about the negligence of CBEC towards this largest working cadre of Indirect Tax Administration.  We presented our well prepared memorandum and discussed the issues like acute stagnation, regional disparity in promotion, post-CR problems, Non-submission of the report of Study Group on Stagnation and non-implementation of reports of previous Committees, Irrelevancy of Uniform, Control Room, poor infrastructure facilities (even when we implemented Sevottam), our apprehension in GST regime etc.

Hon'ble Minister gave us ample time to discuss all the issues and was convinced on many issues.  He assured us that the cadre will get its due rights & benefits.