RESOLUTION OF STEEERING COMMITTEE OF ASSOCIATIONS IN CBEC ON GST

Dear comrades,

The office bearers of Staff Associations of Group A, B, & C  attended the first Steering Committee Meeting at Utpad Shulk Bhawan, Bandra Kurla Complex on 01/10/2016 to decide the action plan to protect the interest of Central Excise Cadres in ensuing GST regime.

During the meeting, the following Associations were present:-

1.  IRS (IDT) Officers’ Association

2.  All India Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers

3.  All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association

4.  All India Appraising Officers’ Federation

5.  All India Central Excise & Service Tax Ministerial Officers’ Association

6.  All India Central Excise & Customs Gr. C Drivers’ Federation

7.  All India Central Excise & Customs (Gr.C Non-Ministerial) Officers’

    Association

The resolutions passed by the Steering Committee is as under:-

Mumbai, 01 October 2016

To

Sh. Arun Jaitley,

Hon’ble Minister of Finance,

Government of India.

Respected Sir,

On the verge of the biggest fiscal reform in independent India in the form of Goods and Service Tax that envisages ‘one nation, one tax’, these associations representing the torch bearers of the reform viz. the employees and officers of the indirect tax department of the Union in their meeting held on 01 October 2016, had a detailed deliberation on the development on GST (as has been gleaned from information available in the public domain till date).

The general mood of the house represented the apprehension and aspiration of the employees and officers. The main concern of the meeting revolved around the moot point of ‘one nation, one tax’ vis-à-vis the reports wherein it appears that such unity of purpose is being compromised at the expense of the growth of tax base and revenue. It may be appreciated that the 85000 strong workforce of Central Government are administering the indirect taxes of the Union over more than seven decades through many stages and phases keeping pace with the technology and best practices prevailed across the globe. This workforce now stands united in furtherance of defending the progress and the goal set by the Hon’ble Prime Minister.

  

Towards that end the following Resolutions are adopted in the meeting of All Associations in CBEC on 01/10/2016 at Mumbai (BKC):

1.   Service Tax (services above threshold level falling within GST) Administration to be in the exclusive domain of Centre.

2.   Dual Control of the Centre and the States (for Goods) across the spectrum.

These two resolutions are adopted keeping in mind the fact that during the transition period (3-5 years) the main thrust of GST would be on increasing tax base and revenue. And during the same material period centre is to subsidize any virtual revenue loss of the states. To meet both the ends it is felt necessary that the administrative pattern be continued with the centre.   

3.   Audit, Preventive/ Anti-evasion and intelligence to be exclusively with Centre.

With an estimated overwhelming presence of IGST transaction and threat of evasion across the states, and the professional expertise of the central employees in these fields, this resolution has been adopted.

4.   Human Resource and the Organizational matters should be finalized with the consent of all associations in CBEC.

On several counts the field level officers and employees of the central indirect taxes department continue to suffer the ignominy of weak or broken HR policies, and subject to worst kind of stagnation among the central employees. Introduction of GST administration provides an opportunity to address that.

Sir, we feel that the benefits of pan-India foot prints of the central indirect taxes would be lost if the tax payer base is handed over to the states without proper evaluation, and we expect that our understanding would get due recognition and initiate a positive response, and in favour of these resolutions the following action programmes are also adopted in the meeting:

·         On 14th October Lunch Hour gathering in front of the residence of the Union Finance Minister & Lunch Hour demonstrations in front every Commissionerate Offices.

·         As a sequel to above, agitation program will be escalated culminating observation of Mass Casual Leave on Union Budget Day.

Thanking You,

With due Regards,

(B.A. Chakravarthi)                            (Ravi Malik)                    (Abhishek Kamal)

Secretary General                           Secretary General               Secretary General

IRS (IDT) OA                                       AIACEGEO                             AICEIA