Agitation programme and its effect

Comrades,

Our primary agitation programme through out the country is a big success, our members through out the country responded to our call, in some remote areas also the programme is organised by our leadership; we thank one and all for this initiative; but comrades this is an initiation only we may have to take some serious decision within a short while, for this we are meeting Income-Tax leadership on 24th of July 2009.
In the meantime Revenue Secretary called a meeting on 23rd of JUly at North block on the pay-scale issue. Depending upon the discussion held at the meeting we would like to take our next course of action .

Kousik

Circular- 04/09

Date : 08.07.09


Comrades,
The CEC meeting of the All India Association held in Chandigarh from 3rd and 4th of July 2009. 17 circles and branches from all over the country attended the meeting and took part in deliberation.
The meeting was inaugurated by Chief Commissioner Sri D.S.Sra and presided over by our All India President Sri Arun Zachariah.P. the minutes of the 15th Convention held at Daman was read out by Com. Balraj and the house confirmed the same with some minor changes.
On 3rd The Secretary General presented his action taken report to the house and the Treasurer Sri Suman Chakraborty also placed the statement of A/c before the house for deliberation. Besides this an opinion of the house was also sought for on the agenda of a one day token strike and a letter from the Secretary General. ITEF was circulated within the house on the above matter.
On 4th of July the proposal on restructuring was discussed at length and suggestion from different circles/ branches received, we shall finalise the proposal shortly and after submission of the same it will be circulated to every branch/ circle.
All the units took part in deliberation and the meeting decided that the Inspectors of Central Excise on the following agenda:
1. The anomaly in the pay scale consequent to the merger of 3 pay scales by the CCS (RP) Rules, 2008 thereby placing the feeder cadre of Senior Tax Assistant and the promotional cadre of Inspector in the same grade pay.
2. The denial of notional fixation with effect from 01.01.1996 in the pre-revised scale of Rs. 6500-10500/-. The scale was granted on 21.04.04 in order to restore historical parity of pay scales with Inspectors of CBI & IB.
3. To review the clarification issued by DOE to CBEC denying the non-functional grade pay of Rs. 5400/- after 4 years of service in the grade pay of Rs. 4800/- to ACP recipient Inspectors.
4. Proper measures should be taken to remove acute stagnation of the cadre of Inspector of Central Excise and Inspector cadre organization should be included in the restructuring committee.
5. Inclusion of Inspector cadre organization in the Anomaly committee.

shall initiate agitation programme as appended below.

1. Lunch Hour Demonstration in front of Chief Commissioner’s/ Commissioner’s offices through out the country, that should start from 15th July and it will be observed on every Wednesday in every head quarters for one month.
2. 25th to 28th of August wearing of Black Badges and Lunch hour Dharna in front the above mentioned Offices.
3. Memorandum is to be submitted on 28th in front of All chief commissioners for onward transmission to the Ministry.
4. Sending of post cards to Cabinet Secretary and Finance Minister on 9th of September.
5. Lunch our demonstrations will continue on every week followed by massive poster campaign with the mention of a probable strike action.
6. Pay boycott on 30th of September..
7. Third week of October office bearers will discuss about the feasibility of a strike action in the month of November.
In the entire period of our agitation persuasion will continue.

It was also decided that special initiative will be taken for
• Collection of D.D.O certificates within August 09 and
• Reorganisation of defunct circles and branches

The minutes of the meeting will be circulated shortly.
Comradely Yours
Kousik Roy



To
The President &
All Office Bearers of AICEIA
(for wide circulation of inputs to
the Members of all Circles/Branches)

Notice for agitation

To
Sri P.C.Jha,
The Chairman,
Central Board of Excise and Customs,
North Block,
New Delhi.

Sir, Sub: Notice for agitation
The Inspectors of Central Excise are highly aggrieved by the inaction of the Ministry of Finance in resolving the legitimate demands made in respect of the following points.
1. The non rectification of anomaly in the pay scale consequent to the merger of 3 pay scales by the CCS (RP) Rules, 2008 thereby placing the feeder cadre of Senior Tax Assistant and the promotional cadre of Inspector in the same grade pay.
2. The denial of notional fixation with effect from 01.01.1996 in the pre-revised scale of Rs. 6500-10500/-. The scale was granted on 21.04.04 in order to restore historical parity of pay scales with Inspectors of CBI & IB.
3. To review the clarification issued by DOE to CBEC denying the non-functional grade pay of Rs. 5400/- after 4 years of service in the grade pay of Rs. 4800/- to ACP recipient Inspectors.
4. Lack of initiatives to remove acute stagnation of the cadre of Inspector of Central Excise and for non inclusion of Inspector cadre organization in the restructuring committee.
5. Non - inclusion of Inspector cadre organization in the Anomaly committee.

The Central Executive Committee meeting of this Association held on 3rd & 4th of July at Chandigarh has decided to embark on an agitation programme from the 15th of July 2009 as per the enclosed schedule. We request you to take the initiative for an early redress of the issues raised.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
Encl: Agitation programme. (Kousik Roy)
Secretary General


1. Lunch Hour Demonstration in front of Chief Commissioner’s/ Commissioner’s offices through out the country, that should start from 15th July and it will be observed on every Wednesday in every head quarters for one month.
2. 25th to 28th of August wearing of Black Badges and Lunch hour Dharna in front the above mentioned Offices.
3. Memorandum is to be submitted on 28th in front of All chief commissioners for onward transmission to the Ministry.
4. Sending of post cards to Cabinet Secretary and Finance Minister on 9th of September.
5. Lunch our demonstrations will continue on every week followed by massive poster campaign with the mention of a probable strike action.
6. Pay boycott on 30th of September.

(Kousik Roy)
Secretary General

Date : 08.07.09
Circular- 04/09

Comrades,
The CEC meeting of the All India Association held in Chandigarh from 3rd and 4th of July 2009. 17 circles and branches from all over the country attended the meeting and took part in deliberation.
The meeting was inaugurated by Chief Commissioner Sri D.S.Sra and presided over by our All India President Sri Arun Zachariah.P. the minutes of the 15th Convention held at Daman was read out by Com. Balraj and the house confirmed the same with some minor changes.
The Secretary General presented his action taken report to the house and the Treasurer Sri Suman Chakraborty also placed the statement of A/c before the house for deliberation. Besides this an opinion of the house was also sought for on the agenda of a one day token strike and a letter from the Secretary General. ITEF was circulated within the house on the above matter.
On 4th of July the proposal on restructuring was discussed at length and suggestion from different circles/ branches received, we shall finalise the proposal shortly and after submission of the same it will be circulated to every branch/ circle.
All the units took part in deliberation and the meeting decided that the Inspectors of Central Excise should commence an agitation on the following agenda:
1. The anomaly in the pay scale consequent to the merger of 3 pay scales by the CCS (RP) Rules, 2008 thereby placing the feeder cadre of Senior Tax Assistant and the promotional cadre of Inspector in the same grade pay.
2. The denial of notional fixation with effect from 01.01.1996 in the pre-revised scale of Rs. 6500-10500/-. The scale was granted on 21.04.04 in order to restore historical parity of pay scales with Inspectors of CBI & IB.
3. To review the clarification issued by DOE to CBEC denying the non-functional grade pay of Rs. 5400/- after 4 years of service in the grade pay of Rs. 4800/- to ACP recipient Inspectors.
4. Proper measures should be taken to remove acute stagnation of the cadre of Inspector of Central Excise and Inspector cadre organization should be included in the restructuring committee.
5. Inclusion of Inspector cadre organization in the Anomaly committee.

The agitation programme would be as appended below.
1. Lunch Hour Demonstration in front of Chief Commissioner’s/ Commissioner’s offices through out the country, that should start from 15th July and it will be observed on every Wednesday in every head quarters for one month.
2. 25th to 28th of August wearing of Black Badges and Lunch hour Dharna in front the above mentioned Offices.
3. Memorandum is to be submitted on 28th in front of All chief commissioners for onward transmission to the Ministry.
4. Sending of post cards to Cabinet Secretary and Finance Minister on 9th of September.
5. Lunch our demonstrations will continue on every week followed by massive poster campaign with the mention of a probable strike action.
6. Pay boycott on 30th of September..
7. Third week of October office bearers will discuss about the feasibility of a strike action in the month of November.
In the entire period of our agitation persuasion will continue.

It was also decided that special initiative will be taken for
• Collection of D.D.O certificates within August 09 and
• Reorganisation of defunct circles and branches

The minutes of the meeting will be circulated shortly.


Comradely Yours
To


The President & ( Kousik Roy)
All Office Bearers of AICEIA
(for wide circulation of inputs to
the Members of all Circles/Branches)

ON RTI

We had sought for the following information under the RTI from the Ministry of Expenditure.

a) The name of the Departments that have submitted proposals for up gradation of pay scales of posts in the pre-revised pay scale of 6500-10500 based on Clause (ii) of Section 1 of Part B or Part C of the First Schedule to the Central Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2008 and the name of the posts for which proposals have been made.
b) Copies of the proposals submitted by the Departments as stated in (a) above may be provided.
c) The extracts of the note sheets of files in which the proposals referred to in (a) above were processed/ is being processed by the Department of Expenditure may be provided.
d) The copies of the queries made/ reply given to the Departments concerned in respect of the proposals referred to in (a) above may be provided

The CPIO rejected the application by stating that it is not feasible to trace out the formation unless the name of the department and the file no. is specified. In the 1st Appeal, it was informed that the Department received 24 proposals from 17 ministries and they asked the applicant to specify the name of the Department in respect of which the information is sought.
The second appeal filed came up before the Central Information Commission on 24.06.2009. The President and Secretary General appeared for the hearing. We argued that the Department has withheld the information and Commission ordered the Department to fix a date and make available the 24 files and allow the applicant to peruse and to take copies. The written order is awaited.

CIRCULAR 03/09

Dear Comrades,
After a long gap we are issuing this circular as you all know in these days we were busy in pursuing the issues already pending near the Govt, our Ministry and the Board.
The Secretary General Visited Delhi on May 13th to 15th 2009 for following up the issues we have raised with the Board and to fix appointment with the Board Officials and Revenue Secretary for Detail discussion, on 14th May, 2009 Secretary General met with office bearers of ITEF in order to proceed jointly for common issues, during that meeting ITEF mooted the idea of going for Strike on Pay related issues and requested our participation also.
President, Working President, Vice president (east) along with Secretary General of the Association again visited Delhi between 8th and 12th of June 2009 on during this visit we met the Member (P&V) & Joint Secretary (Admn). The Member (P&V) meeting was scheduled as per the direction from the Revenue Secretary and the Chairman since they could give us sufficient time only after the budget. In the meeting the following issues were discussed.
1. Grade pay of Rs. 4600/- for Inspectors-
We apprised him that the officials in the expenditure Ministry are adopting dilatory tactics and requested him to personally talk with them; he agreed that he would meet the Secretary Expenditure immediately after the budget. He informed us that Financial Adviser as well as the Revenue Secretary has now recommended the matter.
2. Notional fixation of 6500 scale with effect from 01.01.1996-
The Member (P&V) asked us whether such notional fixation has been granted in other cases, we provided him with the details and he took a note of it . He also enquired the financial benefit that will accrue and data were furnished.
3. Grade pay of Rs. 5400/- for ACP recipient Inspectors-
We referred to our earlier representation on the matter and submitted that by the issuance of the MACPS, the matter stands clarified and requested him to issue necessary directions in this regard. He agreed to look into the matter.
4. Counting the regular service for the purpose of ACP from the 1st July succeeding the date of examination-
We presented to matter and apprised him that Board had initiated action in this regard by calling for details from the field as early as in 2007 but subsequently it lost its wind. He agreed to examine the issue.
5. Facility of option for 2003 to 2005 batch of Inspectors:
We submitted that the Board had invited options from the batches subsequent to 2005 before allocating to zones and the Board is in the process of finalizing allotment of the fresh batch and requested him accord the earlier batches a facility to exercise their option before the new batch is allotted to zones. Even though the Member (P&V) agreed to the genuineness of the request, he doubted about the feasibility. During the course of the discussion, we made a suggestion of introducing all India transfer liability to the All India Recruits by retaining their seniority in the allotted zone. He was also interested in the idea and said that he would study the feasibility.
6. Posting of Inspectors in Commissioner’s Unit-
We registered our protest to the practice that has started in some places since the Inspector posted are degraded to the level of a PA. The Member (P&V) took note of the issue.
We met the Joint Secretary (Admn) and referred to our representation regarding the letter issued by the Dy. Controller of Accounts stating that the Inspectors who received ACP after 01.01.2006 shall be placed in the grade pay of Rs. 4600/- only. We had pointed out that the instructions of the DCA was issued prior to the issuance of MACPS which clarifies that it would come into effect only on 01.09.2008 and prior to that the 99 ACPS would be operational. During our visit to Delhi, we received information that PAOs in some part of the Country has started issuing directions to recover differential salary and we requested his urgent intervention to preempt the issue.
We have submitted our representation to Joint Secretary (Admn) on unfounded deputation posting of Appraiser of Customs in the Superintendent vacancy of Chandigarh Zone thereby weakening the scope of promotion of Inspectors of that zone. We have requested to resolve the matter immediately. In addition to this we have submitted one reminder on our request made on 01.04.2009 on scope of Inspectors to work in ACES.
We met Board officials at various levels and have discussed the issues pending with their sections.
We had a meeting with the ITEF & ITGOA office bearers regarding the joint actions on pay related issues. They have proposed a strike action and requested us also to take part. We said that we would be able to confirm only after our CEC meeting at Chandigarh and as requested by them we proposed the tentative date of the strike as 20.08.2009.
We are constantly pursuing an appointment with our union Finance Minister, Hon’ble Finance Minister asked for a status report from Revenue Secretary’s office on our three point charter of demand that was submitted to him before election. We are expecting an appointment with FM & MOS (Exp) shortly.
We went to HRD office to enquire about the restructuring process in C.Ex. And came to know that the three study groups had not yet submitted their reports, we the available office bearers of the All India Association had a meeting in Delhi and discussed about our views on restructuring the draft will be ready by the end of next week and for finalisation it will be discussed at length in the Chandigarh C.E.C.
We would like to request the Office Bearers of All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association and the Branch and Circle Secretaries & Presidents to attend the Chandigarh C.E.C. meeting on time and help the host to conclude the meeting on time. We request all concerned to intimate Chandigarh circle or the All India Association at the earliest about their to and fro journey. It is further requested to place the concerned Branch/Circle’s accounts in the C.E.C. and kindly clear the dues of the All India Association, we would like to request further to bring D.D.O certificate in the meeting and where it is not available kindly make arrangement to submit it by August 15th2009.

Comradely Yours ( Kousik Roy)

Standard deduction for salaried employees may return

Ahead of the annual budget, here’s some cheer for salaried employees and pensioners. The finance ministry is considering bringing back standard deduction of up to Rs 20,000 in individual taxable incomes.
According to revenue department officials, the government may be willing to take a small hit in return for a spike in spending that it hopes will result from a bigger disposable income with the salaried classes.
Till the budget for 2005-06, a standard deduction of Rs 30,000 or 40 per cent of income, whichever was lower, was allowed to salaried employees with an annual income between Rs 75,000 and Rs 5 lakh. For those earning more, the standard deduction was fixed at Rs 20,000.
The standard deduction was meant to compensate salaried people for the fact that self-employed small business persons or entrepreneurs paid tax only on their net income after deducting business expenditure.
Industry has been demanding the re-introduction of standard deduction so that individual taxpayers are able to spend more and stimulate domestic demand. As Indira Gandhi’s finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee had in fact, raised it from Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 in the budget for 1983-84.
“There are two ways of looking at reducing personal tax. One option before the government is to do away with surcharges. The other option would be to give relief to individual earnings up to a particular level. In other words, keeping in mind fiscal deficit constraints, the benefit could be extended to only lower income earners.
This would help reduce administrative burden of the department and focus on the big fish,” said Sudhir Kapadia, Partner, Taxation, Ernst & Young. P Chidambaram had as finance minister removed the standard deduction after overhauling tax slabs and raising the exemption limit to Rs 1 lakh. He had introduced three slabs of 10 per cent, 20 per cent and 30 per cent for individuals in the Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh income bracket, Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh and over Rs 2.5 lakh respectively.
Source: The Indian Express
“Standard deduction should be restored,” the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) said in its pre-Budget memorandum to the government.