Coordination Committee of Associations in the CBIC

Constituent Associations		President	Secretary General
IRS (IDT) OA	IRS (Indirect Taxes) Officers’ Association	Varsha Kolhatkar	B.A. Chakravarthi
AIACEGEO	All India Assn of CExGazetted Executive Officers	Sanjay Srinivasan	R. Manimohan
AICAA	All India Customs Appraising Association		Pritam Dhaiya
AICEIA	All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Assn	Rananjay Pratap Singh	Anubuti Chatterjee
AICESTMOA	All India CX&ST Ministerial Officers Assn	Ram Lalit	Shankar Kumar Saha
AICMOA	All India Customs Ministerial Officers Assn	Nalini Balaji	Abhijit Bandyopadhyay
AICMEF	All India Customs Ministerial Employees Fdn	S. Kaliamurthy	Saugata Chakraborty
AICCGCOF	All India Customs&CExGrC Officers Fdn	Vijay J. Gaikwad	S. K. Jamal
AICGCOF	All India Customs GrC Officers Federation	B. D. Surve	Ashis Chakraborty
AICEX&CADF	All India CEx& Customs Allied Drivers Fdn	J. M. Patel	Sanjay Kumar

Joint Convenors:        R.Manimohan   (09443063989)     &      Saugata Chakraborty (09433402024)

Address for correspondence:       6/7 A.T.D Street, Race Course Road, Coimbatore - 641018

Ref. No. FM/01/2018                                                                   Date: 09.05.2018

To Shri. Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Minister of Finance, Government of India, North Block, New Delhi - 110001

Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, I.A.S, Secretary for Revenue and Finance, Government of India, North Block, New Delhi - 110001

Respected sirs,

                   Sub:- Long pending demands of Staff in CBIC – Reg.

          At the outset, we thank you and the GST Council, for having favourably considered our demand put forth in our letter dated 23.09.2016 (copy enclosed for ease of reference) that the Government should take over the GSTN.  This decision has substantially protected the interests of the nation in a major way.

2.       We would also invite your kind attention to the resolution which was also communicated vide the above said letter dated 23.09.2016, passed in the meeting of ‘All Staff Associations in Central Board of Excise and Customs’ on 17.09.2016, indicating the indifferent attitude of the CBEC (presently CBIC) in dealing with the issues pertaining to the Staff of the Department. Subsequently, the Direct Recruit IRS Officers’ Association had also joined us in a meeting held at Mumbai on 01.10.2016 and again at New Delhi on 03.02.2017.

3.       Consequent to the demands raised in the above meetings, the Hon’ble Finance Minister was gracious enough to have a meeting with our representatives on 10.02.2017.  Though the Hon’ble Finance Minister had observed during the said meeting that the acute stagnation of staff at various levels in the department was deplorable, no tangible action had been initiated by the Board to tackle the same till date. 

4.       At the same time, the CBEC (now CBIC) has exhibited alacrity and urgency in addressing the grievances of Direct Recruit IRS Officers alone, disregarding the fact that while they have been getting quick promotions with substantial monetary hikes in their careers, the other staff in the department did not get even 2 to 3 promotions in their career and even the paltry number of promotions got by them did not fetch any financial benefits.  On the CGST side as well as on the Customs side of the CBIC, Drivers have been left to rot; Non-ministerial staff have not been provided with any scope for progression; Promotional avenues of the ministerial staff have been blocked; Inspector based cadres from Group B to Group A promotees have been left stunted and stumped with only one promotion or at best 2 in their entire career. Even the recommendations of the Stagnation Committee vide CBEC F. No. C-50/58/2017-Ad II dated 01.08.2017 constituted as per the remarks of the Hon’ble Finance Minister and directions given by the Respected Revenue Secretary have not been taken to its logical conclusion.

5.       The Board which required and sought the support and assistance of all the staff of the CBEC for the successful roll out of the GST, now conveniently, do not even acknowledge the existence of other cadres in the department, let alone their grievances. The contribution of the nearly 60,000 strong workforces from Group C to Group A Promotees of the CBIC have got a raw deal.  The weekly letters issued by the Chairman, CBEC (now CBIC) would vouch for this DR-IRS Centric attitude of the Board.

6.       Against the above back drop, the Staff Associations of CBEC (now CBIC) decided to collectively put forth the issues pertaining to all cadres from Group C to promotee Group A in the CBEC and gave a call to organize lunch hour meetings all over India to list out the long pending demands. Accordingly, on 01.02.2018, all members of the Constituent Organisations in this Co-Ordination Committee, in separate meetings held at the Headquarters Offices and important stations all over India, passed resolutions on the long pending demands of the cadres.  The same was communicated to the Chairman, CBEC, vide our letter in Ref. No CBEC/01/2018 dated 26.02.2018. A copy of the same with the charter of demands is enclosed for kind reference and records.

7.       Subsequently as notified to the CBEC vide letter dated 26.02.2018 cited above, members of all the constituent organizations in this COC observed ‘DEMANDS DAY’ on 28.02.2018 by wearing black badges and conducting lunch hour meetings/demonstrations in front of all Headquarters Offices in the CBEC.  However, till date, even after more than two months from the date of observance of the above ‘DEMANDS DAY’, the CBEC (the present CBIC) has neither invited the COC for a discussion on these long pending demands nor initiated/communicated any action towards mitigating them.

8.       In these circumstances, the COC met at Kolkata on 05.05.2018 and resolved to bring the above apathy of the CBIC to your personal attention and seek your kind intervention.  It was also resolved in the meeting of the COC on 05.05.2018 that if no action is initiated by the CBIC to discuss with the COC and settle the demands in the charter, a daylong DHARNA will have to be conducted in front of all Head Quarters Offices of the CBIC on 20.06.2018, to call attention to the long pending demands.

9.       We therefore request your good self to kindly intervene in the matter urgently and issue necessary directions to the CBIC so that they shed their partisan approach on staff matters and treat all staff issues with equal empathy and settle them at the earliest.

10.     We will also be highly obliged if an appointment could be accorded by the Respected Revenue Secretary to us at an early and convenient date, to enable us to elaborate on the issues in the Charter of Demands.

Thanking you,

Yours truly,

Encl: (1) Our letter dated 23.09.2016

          (2) Our letter dated 26.02.2018 with Charter of Demands                    

(R. Manimohan)

Joint-Convenor

Copy submitted for information to:

(1)  Shri. Ram Lal Gangwar, Hon’ble MOS for Finance, New Delhi

(2)  Shri. Pon. Radhakrishnan, Hon’ble MOS for Finance, New Delhi.

(3)  Smt. Vanaja N. Sarna, Chairman, CBIC, New Delhi.

(4)  Shri. S. Ramesh, Member (Admn), CBIC, New Delhi.

(R. Manimohan)

Joint-Convenor