REQUEST FOR SUGGESTIONS TO BE INCLUDED IN FINAL PROPOSALS FOR CR 2018

In response to the above, we have submitted the following preliminary proposals to the DGHRD on 01.08.2018.

The final proposals are required to be submitted before 12.08.2018.

In the final proposals, we have to compare the position of the officers in the field in State GST and Central GST.

Hence, these details of different states and any other suggestions to buttress our demands may be sent by email to aisacbitc@gmail.com before 09.08.2018.

THIS IS VERY URGENT. 

PROPOSALS WILL BE INCLUDED SUBJECT TO APPROVAL BY THE AIEC.

ALL INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EXCISE GAZETTED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS (Representing the Superintendents of C.Ex& CGST) [Recognised vide CBEC Letter F. No. B 12017/10/2006-Ad IV A dated 21/01/2008] Secretary General’s Office: 6/7 A.T.D. Street, Race Course Road, Coimbatore – 641018. Email id: aisacbitc@gmail.com &manimohanr66@gmail.com

President Sanjay Srinivasan Vice Presidents:  PrabirMukhopadhyay Sanjay Kumar  K.S. Kumar P.K. JaishankarIyer Ashok Bansal Secretary General  R. Manimohan (09443063989) AsstSecy General  ShishirAgnihotri Joint Secretaries: Kousik Roy D. S. Thakur Malkit Singh  KalugasalaMoorthy SandipPanvalkar HemantGhosal VenkatramanHegde S.K. Yadav Rabi N Mahapatra Core Committee: R. Chandramouli TirthankarPyne Ajit Kumar K.G. G. Srinath Office Secretary: K.R.Dinesh Kumar

Ref. No: REORG/01/2018                                Date: 30/07/2018 To The Director General, DGHRD, CBIC, New Delhi. /Kind Attn: Shri. Sanjeev Kumar Singh, Addl. Director/ Sir, Sub: Proposal of Cadre Restructuring in 2018 – reg. Kind reference is invited to the letter in F.No.8/B/1/HRD(HRM-I)/CR/2018 dated 23.07.2018 on the above subject. 2.       At the outset, we are thankful for the transparent manner in which the entire exercise has been begun. We would like to assure our whole hearted co-operation in making this re-structuring a mile stone in the history of the CBIC.  3.       However, since the above communication was received by us on Whats App only on 27.07.2018, at short notice we have not been able to collect all materials required with regard to our proposals.  Hence, based on decisions taken in our meetings earlier, we put forth before you the outline of what our cadre expects out of this Re-structuring.  Further materials would be submitted in due course. 4. First Objective: Taking a new shape due to introduction of GST. 4.1.    There is an urgent requirement to find parity between the Officials on the CGST side with their counterparts in the State GSTs. It is very important for enabling a proper and decent interface between the Officials of both sides. 4.2.    The officials equivalent to the Superintendents in the State GST are Commercial Tax Officers and equivalent to the Inspectors are Assistant Commercial Tax Officers. 4.3.    In most of the State Governments, the Commercial Tax Officers are on the pay scale of GP 5400 (PB 2) (in some states also promoted en masse as ACs) and ACTOs are on the pay scale of GP 4600 (PB 2). 4.4.    In most of the State Governments CTOs can go up to the level of JC/ADC (7600 in PB3/ 8700 in PB4) on promotion.

4.5.    The infrastructure for working in the State GST is also different. There are more number of Tax Assistants under a Circle headed by the CTO and at least 2 ACTOs to assist the CTOs. The responsibility of assessment is also spread across up to the level of Joint Commissioner, based on monetary limits. Officers at the rank of CTO/Superintendent, Assistant Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and Joint Commissioners have been given major responsibilities in the SGST.  On the contrary in CBIC almost all major responsibilities have been loaded on the post of Superintendents alone.

4.6.    Further, in the GST formations, because no clerical staff are provided for assistance in the field formations, on one hand the Group B Officials with higher salaries are grossly under-utilized for performing what could be got done through personnel with far lesser salaries, thereby not enabling them to execute the work for which they have been primarily recruited and are capable of in a better manner if not loaded with mundane activities on a regular basis and on the other hand the work satisfaction of these highly qualified officials also gets a severe beating.  Thus both the organization as well as the officials suffer.

4.7.    Our proposals in this regard in short are as below:

1)    The pay scales and promotional avenues of the Group B officers of the Union should be at least on par if not better to that of their counterparts in the States.Towards this objective, the post of Superintendents of C.Ex and GST should be placed on the pay scale of GP 5400 (PB 2).  This will not only ensure parity between the Officers with the same level of responsibility in the State and Central GST, but also would restore parity of pay scale of the Superintendents of C.Ex and GST with that of their counterparts in the Department of Posts, etc.

2)    The nature of work to be performed by every Officer from Tax Assistant upto the level of the JC/ADC should be specified. Work distribution among gazetted executive cadres should have parity with state officers.

3)    The infrastructure in the field formations have to be on a comparable footing if the execution of work has to be competitive. For augmentation of infrastructure for GST work in the field, every Range headed by a Superintendent should be assigned not more than 500 assessees. Only then proper scrutiny, even if in terms of percentage, would be possible/ beneficial.

4)    The Range should be equipped at least with 3 Inspectors, 6 Tax Assistants and 3 MTS.

5)    Either a vehicle or necessary financial allocation for hiring one as and when required has to be provided for each Range.

6)    Any discrimination in providing facilities under the 1% incentive scheme or the likes should be done away with so that the entire facility is utilized only for execution of real field work.

5.       Second objective: Rationalisation.

5.1.    While any re-organisation of a department would have to essentially be to rationalize the work force by assigning responsibilities of a higher nature to those who are fetching higher salaries and have obtained more service, the earlier re-organisations have ended up only in creating more posts at the higher management levels and reducing the posts at the field level on grounds of matching-saving.  The end result is that there is a structure with a large head, but few hands and a nimble feet.

5.2.    Only with a clear cut policy regarding the duties and responsibilities pertaining to each cadre, the distortions in the functional body of the department could be set right.

5.3.    In addition, there is a severe bottleneck from the Gazetted Group B cadre to that of the Group A. The creation of temporary posts of ACs has not catered to the requirement because of two reasons:

(i)   There is no further upward mobility and

(ii)  The posts are shared again between the GST and Customs whereby the more stagnating in GST do not get the benefit to the intended extent

5.4.    As on date, the number of posts in the above said categories is as below:

Category	GST	Customs	Directorates	Total
DC/AC	2339	876	933	4165
SUPDT/APPRAISERS	12229	6471 [2889 (Sup CE)+ 2388 (Sup CP) + 1194 (Appraiser)]	408 [Sup CE]	19008 [Sup CE 15526]
INSP/EXAMINER/PO	16138	8426 [3861 (Insp CE)+ 2970 (Insp PO) + 1595 (Insp Examiner)	639 [Insp CE]	25203 [Insp CE 20638]

5.5.    Since the number of JC/ADC posts are only 931 in comparison to the 4165 DC/AC posts, the ratio is less than 5:1, wherein the AC/DC post includes the AC (Temp) post. If the temporary posts are taken out, the ratio will be just above 2:1. 

The ratio between the Group B Gazetted and Group A (AC/DC) is also roughly 5:1 (if temporary AC posts are not counted, then the ratio comes to 10:1).

5.6.    The ratio between the Group B Non-gazetted and Group B gazette is however around 1.3:1, but which is, not evenly distributed across the 15 CE Cadre Controlling Zones and hence has a cascading effect on the promotion of the Gazetted Group B to Group A.

5.7.    The allocation made across the Central Excise Cadre Controlling zone have uneven distribution of Gazetted and Non-Gazetted posts which is also responsible intra cadre disparity which ultimately hits the career prospect of the officers. The situation can be seen from the table below:-

Sl. No.	Name of the CCA	Sanctioned Strength of Superintendent (CE)	Sanctioned Strength of Inspector (CE)	Superintendent to Inspector ratio
1	Lucknow	936	1286	0.73
2	Ranchi	490	604	0.81
3	Mumbai	2470	2901	0.85
4	Bengluru	1118	1380	0.81
5	Cochin	439	687	0.64
6	Delhi	1815	2235	0.81
7	Chandigarh	565	689	0.82
8	Chennai	1474	2066	0.71
9	Jaipur	417	552	0.76
10	Bhopal	718	968	0.74
11	Hyderabad	1023	1352	0.76
12	Kolkata	1221	2124	0.57
13	Shilong	372	658	0.57
14	Bhubaneshwar	338	337	1.00
15	Vadodara	1722	2160	0.80
Total		15118	19999	0.76

5.8.    It is evident from the above table that despite the nature of job (in terms of correlation of  Superintendent and Inspectors) being same across cadre controlling authorities the distribution of posts to CCAs have been done without a rational basis.

5.9.    As a result, in spite of creation of 2118 temporary posts of ACs, the disparity between the three streams of officers recruited through the same SSC Exam continues. The situation can be seen from the table below:

Situation after promotion Order of 2018
Sl. No.	Cadre born in	Year of joining of Officers senior most promoted
1.	Inspector Central Excise	1984 & 1985
2.	Preventive Officer	1993 & 1994
3.	Examiner	1998 & 1999

5.10.           From the above table above it would be clear that the Inspector Central Excise born Cadre are lagging behind the Cadre of Preventive Officer by 10 years and that of Examiner by 15 years i.e. nearly half of the normal service length.

5.11.           In comparison with any other cadre of the CBEC or in CBDT, those recruited as Inspectors in Central Excise are the most affected due to stagnation.  They get only one promotion or utmost two, in their entire service.  On the other hand all other cadres get promotions between 4 and 7 from recruitment to retirement. There is no major benefit by way of MACP to this cadre because, invariably even in the promotion or MACP what is available is only an incremental benefit due to the closeness of Pay scales or pay bands of the adjacent cadres, in the hierarchy.

5.12.           The following is the comparable position in respect of those officers who had been recruited through the combined common SSC Exam, the Finance Ministry itself which is fairly conceded in the report of the Stagnation Committee with Shri. Balesh Kumar ADG (HRM-I) as the Chairman:

Name of the cadre	Present position
Inspector of Income Tax	Who joined in 1989 have become AddlCommisioners
Examiners of Customs	Who joined in 1998 have become ACs
Preventive Officers	Who joined in 1993 have become ACs
Inspectors of Central Excise	Who joined in 1985 are continuing only as Superintendents without even a second promotion

5.13.           However, even the non-regularistion of AC posts is still pending for quite some time and as a consequence vacancies in AC cadre have not been filled up and Promotee Officers could not get promoted as Deputy Commissioners even after completing the required service in Group A.

5.14.           Hence, it is expected that this re-structuring will address the urgent need to rationalize man power utilization across cadres and between zones.  Ideally each officer should be ensured of a career progression atleast to the extent as shown below:

On completion of	To be promoted as
8 years from entry as Inspector	Superintendent
15 years from entry as Inspector	Assistant Commissioner
20 years from entry as Inspector	Deputy Commissioner
25 years from entry as Inspector	Joint Commissioner
30 years from entry as Inspector	Additional Commissioner

5.15.           In order to achieve the above objective, the following proposals are made:

Considering the long history of the distortions stated above, two proposals are being made.  One as an immediate measure to be undertaken even before venturing into new terrains for long term solutions because the immediate solutions do not require any policy decisions right now, but require only an administrative resolve to execute.  The second is for long term solution by formulating policy changes during the Cadre Restructuring.

5.15.1.        As immediate measures:

(i) The 2118 posts of Assistant Commissioner, which were created for five years, should be continued keeping in mind the functional requirement of the department and also the issue of Stagnation as recommended by the Stagnation Committee headed by Sri Balesh Kumar, ADG, DGHRD. Further considering that these posts were created to cater to stagnation, it should be made available only to the actually stagnating cadres in the CBIC (i.e to the Superintendents of C.Ex& GST).

(ii) Regularisation of promotions in the cadre of ACs which has been held up for a long time now, has to be done from 1.1.97 in a just and fair ratio as directed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the judgment dated 03.08.2011 in CIVIL APPEAL NO. 1198 OF 2005 (S.P. DUDEJA & ORS VERSUS UNION OF INDIA & ORS).  Unless this is done, the vacancies will not get filled up in the regular cadre of ACs and consequently the vacancies will not get percolated to the temporary AC posts.

(iii) Any further study of actual stagnation in the cadres would become evident only after the above exercises, which have to form part of the inputs for undertaking fresh policy initiatives for the Cadre Restructuring.

5.15.2.        Fresh proposals for long term solutions in the Cadre Restructuring (apart from that has been placed in para 4.7 above) - Creation of Separate Group-B (Executive) Service for C.Ex, CGST& Land Customs(By which alone36164 Inspector CE born cadre from the level of Group B will be able to reach upto the level of JC/ADC)

(i)  An alike proposal was initially recommended by the High Power Committee. The creation of such service will create regular career progression for the ever stagnating Inspector Central Excise born cadre and also the attributes of the organized Group-A service i.e., IRS (C&CE) will remain unaffected. Such services already exist in the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Personnel & Public Grievance. It should be perceived as a way towards enabling 4 to 5 promotions for CE Inspectors in a service life of 30-32 years, since MACP has had no positive effect for these cadres in this department.

(ii) Further, in order to stop juniors of the Customs from becoming supervisory officers to the seniors in the GST/Land Customs, a separate Group B (Exective) Service will have to be formulated for the Exclusive Customs also.  This will also do away with the never ending difficulties and disputes regarding arriving at a just and fair ratio of promotion between the two streams at the time of entry into Group A Service.

(iii) If 2 separate Group B Services cannot be created, then a combined Group B Service for the entire Group B (Executive) in CBIC, provided that the base cadres of all the three streams are merged with effect from 1.1.96 as per the resolution of the CBEC or post based reservation is ensured to end inter-cadre disparities.

(iv) It would also end intra-zonal and intra-cadre disparities if these posts are kept at the Cadre Zonal levels, without disturbing the All India Cadre of the Direct IRS.

6.       Since these are only our preliminary proposals, prepared at short notice, we will be submitting our detailed proposals,in further consultations with all our units.We are also committed to supply any further inputs in this regard as and when required. 

7.       We further request that before finalization, the draft of the proposals may kindly be intimated to us so that any further improvements could also be attempted, in consultation with our members/units.

Yours truly,

(R. Manimohan)

Secretary General

Copy submitted for information to:

(1)  The Chairman, CBIC, New Delhi

(2)    The Member (Admin), CBIC, New Delhi.