JOINT COUNCIL OF ACTION
INCOME TAX EMPLOYEES FEDERATION &
INCOME TAX GAZETTED OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
A-2/95, ManishinathBhawan, Rajouri Garden, New Delhi-110 027
Email: itefcentral@gamail.com: Tel: 98682 77455 & 89021 98888
Joint Convenors
K.P. Rajagopal & Bhaskar Bhattacharya
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No. M-12/N-1/12-15/ Dated: 9th April, 2014.
To
Shri R.K. Tewari,
Chairman,
Central Board of Direct Taxes,
North Block,
New Delhi-110 001.
Sir,
Sub: Protest against the attitude of the of the Authorities towards the demands of Promotee Officers and Employees- Regrding–
In the meeting of the Permanent Grievance Redressal Committee held today, the 09.03.2014 co-chaired by the Member (P&V) and Member (R), the representatives of ITEF and ITGOA had to stage a walk out. This extreme step had to be taken by us to bring forth the anger, anguish and frustration of our members towards brazen, chicanery in some cases and insensitive and nugatory attitude on certain others taken by the Board.
The report of the Cadre Restructuring was jointly made by all organisations. There had been unanimity of opinion in all respect and in all matters except in the case of manpower computed in Directorates (Table 7.1 was a later interpolation by the DIT (HRD). The report had the approval and signature of all Federations. The Board was visibly reluctant to have the same approach at the implementation stage when the proposal received the assent of the Cabinet. When the sub-committees were constituted, the representatives of ITEF and ITGOA did not find a place though on insistence, members of the Federations were co-opted/invited, their views/suggestions were totally disregarded. The Committee’s report received alround criticism from a wide spectrum of emvers of staff and Officers. When the Federations brought this to the notice of the Chairperson and Member (P&V), we were assured that
i) The Board will independently look at the allocation issue and would not go by the recommendations of the Committees.
ii) Only the additional posts created in the CR proposal alone will be taken for allocation. The existing strength of each region will not be disturbed.
iii) Table 5.4 will be the basis of allocation of posts to the Directorates and newly created posts will be under the control of the Pr. CCIT, Delhi.
iv) No reduction of the existing sanctioned strength, and
v) The final proposal of the Board will be subjected to discussion with the Federation before the same is submitted to the higher authorities viz. Revenue Secretary and Finance Minister for their approval.
None of the above assurances were honoured. The final notification was issued on 31.03.2014, which was a bolt from the blue. If we presume that the notification was kept pending issuance upto 31.03.2014, only to avert a probable instantaneous agitation from the Officers and Staff, we cannot be faulted. We do believe that the whole exercise have been done with the sole purpose of meeting out the interest of IRS Officers, their posting preferences and he likes.
Only for promotions to the Cadre of Assistant Commissioners, out of 20751 posts created on account of Cadre Restructuring, the approval of the cabinet had been sought to phase it out in five years. If this is not to safeguard the interest of directly recruited IRS Officers, what purpose it serves is beyond our comprehension.
The Board must note the fact that there had been no promotion to the cadre of Assistant Commissioners even for the RY 2013-14 which became due more than a year back and the vacancy for promotion in ACIT cadre stands to be around 550 today, as calculated in Notification dated 31-05-2013, for RYs 2013-14 & 2014-15 considering both regular and CRC vacancies and thus making the ITOs in the Department to wait for more than 13 years for the next promotion whereas the residency period stipulated in the RR is only three years.
Ever since the Supreme Court judgement in the case of Union Vs. NR Parmar, the Federations had been demanding issuance of certain instructions to the field formations to be adopted uniformly in revising the seniority. The case before the Supreme Court itself was the product of partisan attitude of the authorities and the neglect of monitoring the seniority list of officers/officials periodically. Despite several assurances, the matter has not been addressed till date making it impossible for the Cadre Controlling Authorities to effect the promotions.
The IRS recruitment rules were drafted and submitted to the Board without addressing the objections of ITGOA. The rules have been finalised by the Board and sent to the Finance Minister for his approval. We demanded for further discussion before its finalisation, especially in the light of the DoPT OM dated 04.03.2014, which is not granted.
We do not propose to present a catalogue of issues, discussed on several occasions in the last three years but did not have settlement till date. Suffice to say that even the orders issued by CBEC, the other wing of Department of Revenue in the matter of fixation of pay on promotion as OS/Stgr. is not available for the employees in the Department. Long pending and legitimate demand for entitlement of Advance Increment Scheme to Sr. Tax Assistant and Stenographer Gr. II on passing Departmental Examination for higher posts is pending for years in the CBDT. Further the CBDT has been taking different stance on this matter on the orders of the Central Administrative Tribunals thereby making every individual to seek legal remedy.
The Board has agreed to grant NFSG to the left out officers of 2001 batch from 01.01.2014 but the delay in implementing it causes denial of the effect to some of the officers while in service.
We were assured that matching number of posts in the cadre of AO/PS commensurate to the posts of Pr. CCIT/Pr.CIT would be created immediately. Though some posts are created in the cadre of AO, that too not in matching number, no scheme of creation of higher posts in the cadre of PS is conceived.
The Authorities were assuring us to expedite the implementation of the schemes approved from the incentive fund for increasing the infrastructural facilities in the Department some of which are approved in the year 2012. The pendency of the following schemes is indicative of the lackadaisical way the Board is taking up the issues for getting approval from the concerned authorities.
a) Six Air Conditioners per Range for staff rooms approved in the year 2012
b) Laptops to Inspectors approved in the month of April, 2013
c) Replacement of laptops to Officers
d) Mobile handsets to All personnel approved in the month of April 2013
e) Increase in the reimbursement of local travel expenses to IITs and Notice Servers.
The Changed attitude of the Board is reflected in the revised norms finalised for allotment of Guest Houses. The Entitlement hitherto available to the employees have been removed and reduced to only dormitory, as in nowhere air-cooled rooms are available whereas the expansion and modernisation of Guest Houses were possible only from the grant of incentive funds sanctioned by the Government for general infrastructure development in appreciation of the efforts put by the entire personnel of the Department for its overall performances.
Under these circumstances and in spite of the protest registered by us today in the above meeting, we hope that as head of the family your goodself and the Member (P&V) shall make a sincere efforts to cause a meaningful and serious discussion on the legitimate and long pending issues raised by us and shall instruct the concerned to put earnest efforts to implement the decisions taken. We also bring to your notice that for lack of serious efforts to settle our issues, if the discontentment of the officers and staff brew to a situation of breakdown of industrial peace in the Department, the whole responsibility shall lie on the Head of the Department.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully
(KP Rajagopal) (Bhaskar Battacharya)
Joint Convenors
