Sub: Framing of IRS Recruitment Rules –regarding.

INDIAN REVENUE SERVICE  (CUSTOMS & CENTRAL EXCISE) PROMOTEE  OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION.

Secretary General:                    Address for communication:                 President:             

Lokanath Mishra                         C.R.Building , Bhubaneswar-751007       A.K. Sharma                                  

Mob. 09437314941                      mail Id:jailoknathjee@gmail.com           Mob.09815300006           

To,

Sh. K. Srivastava,

The Chairman, CBEC,

North Block, New Delhi.

Sub: Framing of  IRS Recruitment Rules –regarding.

Sir,

It is learnt that the file regarding amended of  IRS recruitment Rules in r/o cadre restructuring is to be placed before your goodself for approval. As this Association came to know, the concerned hand has bifurcated the post of Asstt. Commissioner into two grades in very unfortunate & discriminatory manner under proposed rules. 

2. The regular post of Asstt. Commissioner has been mentioned in higher grade than the temporary post of Asstt. Commissioner. No need to say that all temporary posts are meant for the promotion of the promotee officers only and regular posts are to be distributed between the direct & promotee officers in the ratio of 50:50. It seems that the temporary posts of Asstt. Commissioner have intentionally been placed at lower grade than the regular posts to discriminate the former category due to the reasons known only to the concerned hand, whereas no such discriminatory approval was made by the cabinet or any other concerned authority/nodal department.       

3. In the existing IRS recruitment Rules also, there has been shown no difference between the regular and temporary posts. The post has been defined as ‘post means any post whether permanent or temporary’ under the existing rules giving equal respect & importance to both of the categories without any discrimination under the same grade. It is also worth to mention that all of the posts of Asstt. Commissioner, whether temporary or regular, have been created on the basis of the functional requirement of the CBEC without any differentiation between their function, job or work responsibilities.  

4. To show the temporary post of Asstt. Commissioner in the lower grade than the regular post of the same designation clearly means the creation of one more new post between the grade of Asstt. Commissioner and Superintendent. No need to submit that nothing such was either proposed by the CBEC in the cadre restructuring nor was approved by the cabinet.  

5. There is also no difference between the pay scale or classification of the temporary and regular posts of Asstt. Commissioner. Both have been placed in the same pay band & grade pay and also classified as Group ‘A’ without any clause of subordination. Same procedure is adopted to conduct the DPC for promotion to both from the common Group ‘B’ gazetted post of Superintendent (whether Central Excise or Customs) or Appraiser. 

6. In view of the above, it will not only be unlawful to place the temporary post of Asstt. Commissioner in a lower grade than regular post of the same designation but also be the gross injustice & discrimination to the promotee officers. Two grades can’t be created for a single post whether it is technically termed as regular or temporary.

7.    At present the Superintendents of Central Excise are  promoted as the Assistant Commissioners of Central Excise, which is the entry level Group-A (JTS) post in the Department. Because of flawed Human Resource policies of CBEC followed for long, the Group-B Executive officers are badly and unreasonably stagnated. These officers are spending at least upto 30 years of service in Gr-B Executive. Thus when they get an opportunity to enter in Group-A all turn into seasoned and well experienced executive officers having developed skills in different areas of work like detection of tax evasion, investigation, valuation, technical, legal, assessment, adjudication, analysis, data management etc. In recent times the Superintendents are also functioning as Departmental Representatives in Tribunals defending the departmental cases. They possess all the necessary knowledge on all the executive aspects of their duties on promotion to a Group –A post. While in case of Direct Recruit UPSC candidates there is a two year Training period besides they are to spend and another two years to reach the STS post. At the time of reaching STS post, which is the Deputy Commissioner, the new entrants acquire no real time field experience and heavily rely on the Superintendents even to perform their original functions like adjudication, grant of refunds/rebates and tax recovery.  Thus effectively, the JTS tenure of the direct recruit officers is predominantly confined to acquire the necessary skills to perform his/her duty in Group –A post.  Most often this period turns out to be inadequate. On other hand, as the Group-B Executive officers in CBEC are well skilled and experienced their spending a JTS would be a travesty of justice. In so far as the financial implications with regard to grant of STS to all the promotee officers it is pertinent to note that all of them, having completed 30 years of service, are already drawing Grade Pay of Rs.6600/- in PB-3, which is the grade pay for the STS post. This GP is for "STS" level post of Deputy Commissioner. To illustrate, of the total 1862 Group -B Executive officers promoted to Group-A post on 22.10.2014, ALL OF THEM have over 30 years of service under their belt. Thus, all are drawing GP of Rs.6600/-. Therefore, effectively there is no incremental cost to the Department on account of pay and emoluments of these officers.

8.    The DoPT guidelines on methods of Recruitment recommends recruitment 'by Promotion' than 'by Direct Recruitment'. The para 3.11.1 of HBRR (2010) lays guidelines on this aspect. The para 3.11.2 further illustrates the ideal ratio [1:3 or 1:5] between feeder grade to promotion Grade. In CBEC this ratio is 'poor' as it is 1:15 instead of 1:3 as recommended by DOPT.

9.      As per IRS [Customs & Central Excise] Recruitment Rules Group- A Rules 2012, 50% of the vacancies are to be filled by Direct Recruitment through Competitive Examination conducted by the UPSC, while rest of 50% are to be filled through promotions. Usually there is a hiatus of 18 to 24 months in filling up the vacancies through Direct Recruitment. Even after such recruitment the actual utility of the new entrant officers comes to fruition only after the training period of two years and another two years in real-time work environment. Such being the case the CBEC should endeavour to promote the Group-B officers in a time-bound manner to the STS grade in order to ensure smooth and seamless functioning of the Department as the promotee officers come substantial field experience.

10.  The Section Officer of Central Secretariat Services (Group ‘B’ gazetted) were allowed pay scale of Rs. 8,000-13,500/- on completion of 4 years w.e.f. 01.01.1996. These officers have been allowed Grade Pay of Rs. 5400/- in PB-3 w.e.f. 01.01.2006 on completion of 4 years also. Whereas the Superintendents of Central Excise, analogous to these posts, have not been allowed any such higher scale on completion of 4 years w.e.f. 01.01.1996. They have been allowed a lower Grade Pay of Rs. 5400/- in PB-2 w.e.f. 01.01.2006 on completion of 4 years arbitrarily without any justification. The 6th Central Pay Commission also recommended to maintain the parity between the Headquarters Organisations and the field offices vide chapter 3.1. The High Power Committee had also recommended that the Section Officers of CSS are comparable with the post of Superintendent of Central Excise. It is clearly mentioned in Note Sheet of the Department of Expenditure vide para-12  that posts belonging to DANICS, DANIPS and Section Officers in the CSS were allowed the scale of pay Rs. 8000-13500/- on completion of 4 years w.e.f. 01.01.1996. The posts in CBEC in the grade of Rs. 6500-10500/- like those in the case of DANICS/DANIPS and CSS are also filled to some extent by direct recruitment through the Civil Services Examination. Accordingly, a similar dispensation (suitably modified as per the recommendations of the Committee) for upward revision of pay scale in respect of these posts in CBEC and CBDT may merit consideration on this ground. The paragraph 2(ii) of the order dated 13.11.2003 of DOPT is extracted hereunder for ready reference:

“ 2(ii)- the Section Officers who are granted this non- functional pay scale of Rs. 8000-275-13500/- will continue to remain in Group ‘B’ (gazetted) and their eligibility for promotion to Grade I (Under Secretary) of CSS will be reckoned on the basis of total period spent in both the scales of Section Officer counted together. The copy of the order no. 21/36/03-CS.I, dated 13.11.2003, is submitted for ready reference.

11.  The pay scale of ₹.10,000-15,200/- was granted to the Grade I (Under Secretary) of CSS w.e.f. 01.01.1996 as replacement scale of ₹.3000- as per the recommendation of 5th Central Pay Commission. Vide O.M. dated 31.03.2006, the Stenographer Grade A&B (merged) of CSSS were also allowed the pay scale of ₹. 8000-13500/- on non-functional basis after completion of 4 years of service w.e.f. 01.01.1996. The copy of OM dated 31.03.2006 is annexed herewith as Annexure- 13.  The Section Officers of CSS and officers of DANICS & DANIPS were granted the pay scale of ₹. 8000-13500/- w.e.f. 01.01.96 on completion of 4 years of service as NFS and the VIth CPC recommended the Grade Pay of ₹.5400/- in PB-2 as NFGP for them but the Govt. granted the Grade Pay of ₹.5400/- in PB-3 as NFGP to these officers whereas in case of similarly placed officers of the Department of Revenue and Postal, a Grade Pay of ₹.5400/- in PB-2 has been granted by Govt. w.e.f. 01.01.2006.

12.  It is significant to see that the common entry counterparts of CSS are not only being promoted directly to a STS post after Section Officer (analogous to Gr-B gazetted officers of CBEC) but are also reaching the level of Joint Secretary (GP-Rs. 10000/-). The position in CPWD is even more interesting where an officer with a grade pay of Rs. 4600/- is directly elevated to a post with a grade pay of Rs. 6600/- (STS) and further directly to a post with the grade pay of Rs. 8700/- from a post with a grade pay of Rs. 6600/-. Thus, they don’t need to serve on a post with a grade pay of Rs. 4800/-, 5400/- and 7600/- for promotion to the post with a grade pay of 8700/- after entry into a post with merely a grade pay of Rs. 4200/-. Similar elevations are reportedly made in Railways Department also. Applying a similar rationale of promoting an officer granting a higher pay scale than the one attributable to the promoted post can be considered in the case of Superintendents being promoted directly to the grade of Deputy Commissioner (STS) without making them reside in JTS for another four years.

Considering the above justifiable facts and circumstances this Association fervently urges your good self  to grant STS pay scale to the promotee officers and thus render equitable justice duly amending the IRS recruitment Rules.  Further like CSS it is, also not required to involve UPSC to grant promotion to Gr-B gazetted officers of CBEC.    

            Thanking you,

Yours faithfully,

 (LOKANATH MISHRA),

                                                                                                                        Secretary General.