Make Chairman of CBEC equal to Cabinet Secretary – IRS Association.
The IRS Association wants the CBEC Chairman to be on the same scale as the Cabinet Secretary and the Members of the Board to be of the rank of Secretaries to the Government. In a memorandum to the Pay Commission, the Association has suggested:-
1. Full functional and financial autonomy to be given to the Central Board of Excise and Customs.
2. The Central Board of Central Excise and Customs should be upgraded to a department, with the Chairman and Members of the Board being given the status of Principal Secretary (with the pay of Cabinet Secretary) and Secretary to the Government of India respectively. The Chairman should report to the Finance Minister.
3. The posts of Joint Secretary (Administration), Director (Admn) and Under Secretaries (Admn) in the CBEC should be encadred for the IRS(C&CE) and manned by the officers from the IRS.
4. The post of the sixth Member of CBEC be restored immediately.
5. Four Regional Members of the CBEC be approved for the North, East, South and West Zones with pay and service conditions on par with that of Secretary to Government of India.
6. Posts including those of the Additional Secretary, Joint Secretary, Director, Deputy Secretary, etc. in the headquarters administration in the Department of Revenue of Government of India beencadred within the IRS.
7. Additional units be set up in the Department of Indirect Tax for framing of policies pertaining to SEZs etc. and Service Tax.
8. The officers need to be exposed to indirect tax practices abroad and trained in the best international practices to enhance and aid skill development.
9. Corrective measure to check the exodus of officers and to create working conditions and emoluments that are comparable to those offered by the private sector.
10. Service conditions need to be harmonized between the All India Services and Central Services, and there should be one set of service rules or rules set on common yardstick and criteria.
11. Posts of Director General/Additional Director General of Anti Dumping and in the Directorate General of Foreign Trade in the Ministry of Commerce and posts subordinate to that, posts of the Development Commissioners in SEZs/EEPZs etc., posts of Directors/Special Directors/Additional Directors in the Enforcement Directorate, Economic Intelligence Bureau and Financial Intelligence Units in the Ministry of Finance, Directors/Special Directors in the National Wildlife Crime Control Bureau in the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Director General/Directors in Narcotics Control Bureau in the Ministry of Home Affairs, etc. be reserved as ex-cadre posts for all IRS.
12. The same batch across all services should be considered simultaneously, especially for posts of Joint Secretary/Additional Secretary/Secretary in Ministries/Departments of Government of India.
13. A Deputation Reserve of at least 20% for IRS(C&CE) of the Cadre strength be earmarked.
14. The officers of IRS(C&CE) on CSS deputation be permitted to avail the facility of Tenure Pool accommodation at par with AIS officers and under the existing TPAIS.
15. A re- location allowance at 25% of the gross annual pay of the officer be granted if the transfer is done to a place less than 750 kms from the current place of posting, and 40% of the gross pay if the transfer is beyond 750 kms.
16. The retirement age should be raised to 62 years.
17. An officer at the entry level is to be provided with a dedicated vehicle and such a vehicle be hired if required.
18. 1 Orderly may be sanctioned for the IRS(C&CE) at entry level.
• They have suggested the following pay scales:
Junior Management Grade Rs. 24,000 - 1,250 - 30,250 - 1,500- 40,750
Middle Management Grade Rs. 36,000 - 2,000 - 46,000- 2,500 - 66,000
Senior Management Grade Rs. 60,000 - 3,000 - 77,000 - 4,000 - 105,0005000 - 120,000
Some Bloomers in the memorandum.
The IRS officers profoundly remark about Kaultilya,
This well known treatise by Kautilya (advisor of the Mauryan Empire) on state crafts, written sometime in 300 BC, when the Great Mauryan Empire of India was on its glorious upwards move …
Was Kautilya advisor to the Mauryan empire? The Mauryan Empire lasted for nearly 250 years from 326 to 184 B.C. Was Kautilya the advisor for all the 250 years, while he was around only during the period 350-283 BC? IRS officers are not expected to know history, but should they not know about the laws they administer? The memo says,
The officers administer three major statutes i.e. Customs Act, Central Excise Act and Finance Act 1995 for Service Tax.
Isn’t it horrible that they do not know that Service Tax is under the Finance Act 1994 and not 1995? If they are not able to cite the correct law before the Pay Commission, why should the Commission consider their plea for a better pay packet? Doesn’t it show that it is after all a careless and casual service? Doesn’t it show that reading the draft twice is not a trait of the service?
The memo further states,
About 1-2% of the total strength of IRS(C&CE) officers are resigning from government service every year to join the non-governmental sector. These officers are invariably better placed in terms of monetary benefits and service conditions, thus exemplifying the fact that after years of service with the Government, they are still being considered as an excellent resource.
Do they mean that Government Service should invariably result in incompetence? And is a 1-2% exit such a dangerous trend?
And here is the biggest joke. The memo says,
In the short span of little more than a decade since Service tax was introduced, the facility of filing service tax returns has already been introduced, and now the process of expanding the services covered within the ambit of service tax is on the anvil.
Do they mean there was no facility of filing returns all these days? And since when is filing returns a facility?
And why is the IRS Association’s memorandum to the Pay Commission carried in the official web site of the CBEC? There are more than thirty associations of various cadres of employees under the CBEC. Will all the representations of all these associations be carried by the official web site of CBEC? Is it legally and morally correct for an official web site to carry the memorandum of an association?