43904418 Cadre Restructuring AICEIA Objections Proposals to CBEC

ALL INDIA CENTRAL EXCISE INSPECTORS’ ASSOCIATION

OBJECTION & DEMANDS OF AICEIA ON CADRE RESTRUCTURING PROPOSAL 2010

COMMENTS/OBJECTIONS

1. Neither the proposal lacks any vision nor far sight and all that has been done is to ensure systematic and time bound promotion to direct recruit Group A officers and a largesse to their blue eyed boys- the Appraisers. The limited benefit made available to Inspectors of Central Excise in certain cadre zones are only incidental in the scheme.

2. The proposal fails to realize the problems faced by the Inspectors of Central Excise. The major problems being

(a) Disparity in promotion among the 15 seniority zones of Central Excise Inspectors.

(b) Disparity in promotion vis-à-vis Preventive Officers & Examiner(c) Unfair ratio between Central Excise & Customs that grossly

discriminates Superintendents of Central Excise for promotion to the post of Assistant Commissioner

(d) Skewed ratio for Group B Gazetted Executive to entry level Group A posts

3. Though the proposal in Chapter 6 asserts that there is an acute stagnation in the Group B level, no mechanism has been evolved to remove the same. For the sake of records, it is pointed out that the Inspectors of Central Excise recruited in the year 1972/73 are yet to be promoted as Assistant Commissioner and it is not the 1976 batch as stated in the report.

4. The present proposal would widen the disparity among the Central Excise seniority zones as evident from the table below. At present the gap between the best case and worst case is 10 years. (North East 1986 & Delhi 1996). This proposal would widen the gap to 15 years. (please see table in Annexure A). While Inspectors of 2002 batch gets promoted in 7 out of 15 cadre zones, Inspectors in 8 Zones would lag behind as follows. The situation is acute in 5 zones.

Zone Batch getting promoted

Gap between other 8 zones

Shillong 1988 (part) 15 yearsWest Bengal 1992 (part) 11 yearsTamil Nadu 1992 (part) 11 yearsKerala 1993 (part) 10 yearsUP/UTHARANCHAL 1993 (part) 10 yearsAndhra Pradesh 1997 (part) 6 yearsRajastan 1997 5 yearsBihar/ Jharkhand 1998 (part) 5 years

This huge disparity would de-motivate & demoralize officers in this zone and doom their prospects permanently and would lead to prolonged unrest.

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It would be worthwhile to quote the finding of the High Powered Committee constituted by the Ministry – “The absence of the sufficient scope for healthy vertical growth on periodical intervals reduces the stake of officers in giving persistent outstanding performance and, thus can diminish the commitment to the departmental objectives and dilute the adoption of best practices in the indirect tax administration. Further, the affected officers having reduced devotion and commitment for departmental objectives have greater tendency to adopt unhealthy and unethical practices, which in a long run can create grave consequences for efficiency and integrity of the tax administration as a whole.” This is a well recognized axiom and the current proposal lost sight of this.

5. The present proposal would widen the gap between Central Excise & Customs in the matter of promotion to the grade of Assistant Commissioner. While the 1995/96 batch of Superintendent of Central Excise only would be promoted as Assistant Commissioner, the 2007 batch of Appraisers would get their promotion. While all the Examiners of 2004 become Assistant Commissioner, Inspectors of 1988 would still remain as Inspectors. This proposal puts the Central Excise officers in an ignominious situation of working under an officer who is more than 10 years junior to him.

6. Though CBEC has accepted and committed that personnel of the department should have at least 3 promotions, no mechanism to ensure that has been evolved.

7. The proposal adopts revenue as the criterion for creation of Commissionerates in Central Excise & Service Tax and no. of documents handled in the case of Customs. The yard stick of revenue applied for Central Excise & Service Tax is fallacious and is not the right indicator of work load. The fixation of higher revenue norm for Service Tax commissionerate than a Central Excise Commissionerate is without any rationale. In the case of Service Tax, the assessee base would be the right indicator of workload. The growth in revenue in each region would depend on various local factors and adoption of revenue criterion in a zone as the condition precedent of the promotion prospects of officers in that zone is unfair, arbitrary and obnoxious.

8. The proposal erred in assessing the work involved in various sections in headquarters/division and hence the proposed strength of 80 Superintendents in executive commissionerate is grossly inadequate. The bare minimum requirement of Superintendents for staffing a commissionerate with 5 divisions and 25 ranges would be 107. (please see Annexure B)

9. The sanction of only one superintendent in Chief Commissioner’s office and Commissioner (Appeals) Office is too very unrealistic and has no correlation to the work load involved.

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10.The proposal renders 321, 175 & 68 Inspectors surplus in West Bengal, Kerala & Tamil Nadu Zones respectively. The proposal reduces the strength of Superintendents by 36 in Kerala Zone.

11. The proposal does not contain any scheme to do away with the disparity of Central Excise cadres with Customs. As per this, 1995 batch of superintendents alone would be promoted while the 2007 batch of appraisers and 2001 batch of Superintendent (customs) would be promoted. Though the Board has accepted the fact that the present ratio of promotion to Assistant Commissioner has to be scrapped and a new mechanism has to be brought in, the proposal is silent on this. While giving a march over to Customs cadres, the proposal grossly discounts the fact that more no. of Central Excise Inspectors/Superintendents is doing Customs works than the exclusive Customs cadres.

12.As this proposal also takes into account the immediate future requirements of the Department and as the Board is well aware that the bogey of stagnation cannot be wiped away with one swell stroke called restructuring, this proposal should have projected certain means by which upward mobility of the Group ‘B’ cadres could be maintained. In this regard, the proposal of this Association regarding curtailment of DR quota to Gr. ‘A’ to 25 % should have been discussed in detail.

13.The cursory rejection of separate adjudication mechanism demanded by this association is not proper since the GST regime contemplates this. A corollary to this would be the proposal to head Divisions by JC s. These demands were not considered in the right perspective.

CHANGES DEMANDED

1. One time relaxation should be granted to fill up all the vacancies arising in the cadre of Assistant Commissioner including consequential vacancies should be filled up by promotion.

2. The posts in the Assistant Commissioner level arising out of restructuring shall not be filled up in accordance with the present ratio of 6:2:1 and it should be on the basis of date of joining at the level of Inspector. In case putting in place a mechanism in the recruitment rule in lieu of the existing ratio would require time due to various factors, the present provisions in the recruitment rule to relax any of the rules may be invoked.

3. In 4 cadre zone- viz. North East, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu & Kerala, no additional executive Commissionerates have been proposed. Some of these Commissionerates in these zone at present have a sanctioned strength of more than 80 Superintendents (the revised strength as per proposal). These posts have been sanctioned on account of factors like presence of customs formations, more than 5 Ranges per division etc. These sanctions, which have been made after collating complete data about workload, should be

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augmented considering the fact that they are integrated commissionerates who have to handle service tax and central excise work load, geographical reach, etc. The sanction for Audit Commissionerates to these zones should be over and above this strength. These sanctions should be retained and the sanction for Audit Commissionerates to these zones should be over and above this strength. This dispensation should be extended to UP/Uttaranchal also. Apart from this, in some zones Central Excise Commissionerates are proposed to be abolished. Though ST Commissionerates are proposed to be created in their place, it has to be appreciated that the work in the CE Commissionerate proposed to be abolished does not vanish and the additional burden would have to be shouldered by the remaining Commissionerates. Hence on this functional consideration, the strength of Superintendent/Inspector in the CE Commissionerate proposed to be abolished should be retained in the zone and redistributed to the Commissionerates to which the jurisdiction of abolished Commissionerate would go. This would entail creation of 936 nos. of Superintendents posts as follows.

Zone No. of Commissionerates with more than 80 Supdts

Additional posts to be created

West Bengal 9 313*Tamil Nadu 11 314*Kerala 3 118UP/UTARANCHAL 8 191Total 936

* This includes the staff strength of CE Commissionerate proposed to be abolished.

4. Though the demand at 2 above would accord equal opportunity to all Central Excise Inspectors across the zones in the matter of promotion to Assistant Commissioner’s grade, the continuation in the entry level of Inspector for several years more than their counter parts in other zones would be frustrating. Hence it is demanded that in the 7 zones that lag behind, all Inspectors who have completed 10 years of service should be upgraded. This measure would not entail creation of additional posts than that is proposed as adjustments would be done in the strength of Inspectors. This will also not create additional financial burden on account of ACP/MACP. In this regard reference is made to the creation of large no. of higher level posts in Central Secretariat Service in tune with the observation in the 83rd report of the Department Related Standing Committee on Home Affairs that ‘grant of ACP should not stop grant of in situ promotions to stagnated Assistants’. In order achieve this in the 8 lagging behind zones, the following number of Inspectors posts would have to upgraded to the level of Superintendents.

Zone Posts to be upgraded

Shillong 312West Bengal 740Tamil Nadu 572

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Kerala 179UP/UTHARANCHAL 370Andhra Pradesh 106Rajastan 19Bihar/Jharkhand 35Total 2243

It is to be appreciated that the functional distinction between Inspector and Superintendent has by and large ceased to exist and therefore this pattern of post distribution would not cause any administrative difficulties. It has to be taken note that this principle has been recognized as early as in 1996-97. The total posts in Group B executive level may maintain flexibility between Inspector & Superintendent grades so as to achieve this objective.

ALTERNATIVELY

The newly created posts should be distributed among zones on the basis of stagnation evenly among the zones.

5. Application of the straitjacket formula of proposed staff strength without deviation would render 321, 175 & 68 posts of Inspectors surplus in West Bengal, Kerala & Tamil Nadu Zones respectively. These posts should be retained by applying the principle in demand no. 3 above.

6. The norms for creation of ST Commissionerate should be assessee based and the number of ST Commissionerates proposed should be reworked out.

7. It is fallacious and unreasonable to link the creation of Audit Commissionerate to the creation of Zones since the norm of 3 executive Commissionerate per zone has not been meticulously followed in all cases. This has resulted loss to those regions where more executive Commissionerates per zone has been retained. It is therefore demanded that an Audit Commissionerate should be created for every 3 Commissionerates and part thereof in a region.

8. Zone specific details of the lagging behind zones are appended as Annexure C.

Yours faithfullyEncl: Annexures A-C

(KOUSIK ROY)SECRETARY GENERALAICEIA

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ANNEXURE- A

EFFECT OF CURRENT PROPOSAL IN CENTRAL EXCISE CADRES ZONES (INCLUDES CUSTOMS FORMATION MANNED BY CENTRAL EXCISE)Cadre Zone Revised

strength of Supdt

Existing strength of Supdt

Increase in no. of Supdt

% of insprs promoted

Batch of (Gen) Inspectors promoted

UP - UTTARANCHAL

1206 831 +375 29.55

DELHI & HARYANA

2330 1023 +1307 84.65 2002 *

PUNJAB, HP, J & K & CHANDIGARH

804 410 + 394 60.52 2002

RAJASTAN 482 271 + 206 47.25 1997NORTH EAST 402 326 + 76 17.27 1988 partBIHAR & CHATTISGARH

644 371 + 273 49.55 1998 PART

WB 1208 1184 + 24 1.19 1992 partORISSA 402 191 +211 52.49 2002 *A.P 1046 713 + 330 30.30 1997 partKARNATAKA 1210 711 + 499 50.05 2002 *T.N 1288 1264 + 24 1.27 1992 part

KERALA 392 428 -36 -5.34 1993 partMAHARASHTRA @ 3252 1607 + 1645 65.25 2002 part

BHOPAL @ 850 430 + 420 67.31 2002*GUJARAT 2012 1349 + 663 32.81 2002 part

* In these zones after promotion of 2002 batches posts would remain unfilled for want of qualified candidates

@ 3 existing Commissionerates in Nagpur are reorganized into 6, 4 has been included in Maharashtra cadre and 2 in Bhopal cadre

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ANNEXURE BMINIMUM REQUIRED STRENGTH OF SUPERINTENDENTS IN AN EXECUTIVE

COMMISSIONERATE

Sl No

Name of Section Headquarters Division

1 Preventive/PRO/IFC 8 22 Arrears Cell 1 13 Technical 2 14 Export Claims/Rebate 2 1

RTI 1 15 Training 16 Computer 17 Statistics 2 18 Vigilance 1

9 Legal/Prosn 410 Review Cell 511 Adjudication 3 112 Audit * 4 113 Data processing cell 2

Total 35 9

* For coordinating objection of CERA & Audit Commissionerate

Commissionerate 37 + Division 9x5+ Range 25x1 = 107

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ANNEXURE C

TAMILNADU REGION

• Based on the revenue criterion and work load it is proposed• Retaining the existing number of Central Excise Commissionerates • Two more Service Tax commissionerates, over and above the present

proposal are to be created in this region.• Out of the 4 ST commissionerates in this region, 1 should be at Coimbatore

and 3 in Chennai.• One more Audit Commissionerate is also proposed in this region.• One more Customs (P) Commissionerate is to be created in this region.

Though the norms adopted in this proposal for creation of Service Tax commissionerate is revenue of Rs. 3000 crore (PLA+CENVAT) and assessee base of 17500, a ST Commissionertae was sanctioned in Chandigarh purely on assessee base. The Chennai City area has a present assessee base of 71000 which calls for creation of a minimum of 3 ST Commissionerates. Similarly there are 26000 ST assessees in Coimbatore Commissionerate which calls for creation of a ST Commissionerate in Coimbatore.

The abolition of one Central Excise Commissionerate is not warranted as one Division is Chennai IV Commissionerate (namely Poonamallee Division) and one Division is Chennai III Commissionerate(namely Tambaram Division) have got huge revenue potential, heavy workload, wide jurisdiction and are developing very fast. These two divisions could be attached (or bifurcated and attached) to the commissionerate which was proposed for abolition. The transfer of about 800 hundred percent EOUs to this region from the Custom House also has to be factored in to assess the work load in Central Excise Commissionerate.. This region as per the proposal would have 11 CE/ST Commissionerates and hence in line with the demand no. 7 of the submission, one more Audit Commissionerate has to be created.

Para 5.1 (iv) of the proposal deals with the Chennai Customs (P) Zone wherein it is mentioned that the Tuticorin and Tiruchirapally Commissionerates were intitially created as Customs Preventive Commissionerates which is factually wrong. Tiruchirappally Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate was in existence since 1997. Tuticorin Commissionerate was carved out of Tiruchirapalli Preventive Commissionerate in November 2002 and though defined as Tuticorin Preventive Commissionerate, it only attends assessment and clearance of import/export goods and is functioning as one of the major Ports in India. As such the Tuticorin Customs House Commissionerate fulfils the norms for an Integrated Customs Commissionerate by handling the required number of documents viz., 150000 BEs & SBs. It is an irrefutable fact that the Tiruchirapalli Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate alone is attending the preventive work by manning 17 Preventive formations covering the entire of 950 kms of coastal stretch of Tamilnadu and

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hinterland of entire Tamilnadu State except the jurisdiction of Chennai Customs Zone.

The other Customs formations coming under the jurisdiction of the Trichy Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate are as follows.,

• Trichy International Airport• Coimbatore International Airport • Air Cargo Complex at Coimbatore• Five ICDs & one CFS at Coimbatore/Tiruppur• Minor Ports at Karaikal, Custom Houses at Nagapattinam, Pondicherry &

Cuddalore• ICDs at Pondicherry, Karasoor, Arakkonam & Karur• Madurai Airport (to be notified as International Airport shortly)• Air Cargo Complex at Trichy (to be notified shortly and proposed to

commence working from 01.12.2010)• Ferry service to Thalaimannar from Rameswaram ( to be started shortly)• Handling Customs Private Bonded Warehouses

As stated in the proposal, the reorganization of the Customs (P) Commissionerates cannot be done on the basis of quantifiable parameters and the same has to be done keeping in view of the vulnerability of geographical regions over which these formations exercise jurisdictions. Customs (P) Commissionerates should be so organized that their main focus remains Customs Preventive work and it does not get diluted by any revenue collection related functions.

Going by the principle adopted in the reorganisation of the Amirtsar Customs (P) Commissionerate by bifurcating and creating Customs Commissionerate at Ludhiana which may exercise control over all revenue generating formations located in the State of Punjab, the revenue functions of Tiruchirapally Customs (P) Commisionertae may be delinked and a new integrated Customs Commissionerate may be created and the present Tiruchirapally Customs (P) Commissionerate may be retained with on focus Customs Preventive work.

Thus the creation of another Commissionerate would ensure undivided attention of Tiruchirapally (Preventive) Commissionerate to Customs Preventive functions. The coastal area is prone for clandestine movement of contraband including drugs and also highly vulnerable and sensitive in view of the close proximity to Srilanka. The highest single seizure of 62.5 kgs of heroin was made by this Commissionerate.

WEST BENGAL, SIKKIM AND ANDAMAN NICOBARProposed to

• Retain the present Central Excise Commissionerates and create two more.• Create one more ST Commissionerate.• Create one more Audit Commissionerate• Create Customs Commissionerate for North Bengal & Sikkim

In his report to the DGHRD(CBEC), the Chief Commissioner of Central Excise, Service Tax & Customs of West Bengal Zone has recommended for creation of four

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Service Tax Commissionerates in Kolkata, creation of one more Central Excise Commissionerate within the present jurisdiction of Bolpur Commissionerate, bifurcation of existing Haldia Commissionerate and creation of one Customs Preventive Commissionerate in Siliguri, with no proposal to abolish any existing Commissionerates in West Bengal Zone, after taking into consideration the revenue realization, assessee base, vast jurisdiction, mega industrial projects which are likely to be commissioned shortly as well as future growth potential with the introduction of the GST. This proposal has been supported by facts and figures. Hence it is demanded that all the existing Central Excise Commissionerates in this region should be retained. In addition two more Commissionerates are demanded to be created as above.

The ST Commissionerate at Kolkotta is presently having an assessee base of more than 60000 and projected to grow to 64000. Yet by deviating from the principle adopted in the case of creation of ST Commisionerate at Chandigarh, this Commissionerate is only proposed to be bifurcated. In line with the demand no 6 of the submission, it is requested to trifurcate the ST Commissionerate at Kolkotta.

This region as per the Restructuring proposal would have 09 CE and 02 ST Commissionerates and hence in line with the demand no. 7 of the submission, one more Audit Commissionerate for Central Excise has to be created.

In the Customs side no new Commissionerate has been proposed for this region, though a separate Customs Preventive Commissionerate in Siliguri for North Bengal and Sikkim area has been proposed both by the Chief Commissioner as well as the Study Group constituted for review of the organizational structure of Customs formation.

The Siliguri Commissionerate has in its jurisdiction, the following Customs formations.

• Panitanki LCS• Changrabandha LCS• Jaigaon LCS• Fulbari LCS• Radhikapur LCS• Sherathang LCS

These LCS are organized under Two Customs Divisions, Siliguri & Naxalbhari Customs Divisions spread over the districts of Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, North Dhinajpur, Darjeeling and the entire state of Sikkim. Apart from this a Preventive & Intelligence Unit having jurisdiction over these two Divisions also exist.

Besides these Hilli LCS and Mahadipur LCS under Malda Customs Division of Customs (P) Commissionerate West Bengal also exist in this region.

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Going by the analogy of creation of Ludhiana Customs Commissionerate, a separate Customs Commissionerate is required to be created in North Bengal, separating the Customs formation from the existing combined Commissionerate of Central Excise, Service Tax & Customs in Siliguri and Malda Division of Customs (P) Commissionetae, West Bengal for the increasing volume of International Trade with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet(China) which is in consonance with the ‘Look East’ policy of the Government as well as for the effective implementation of the anti smuggling and anti-national activities in that area covering International borders with those four countries.

The existing Customs (P) Commissionerate may be reorganized by trifurcating Krishnagar Division & Barasat Division as proposed by the Study Group III.

NORTH EAST REGION

It is proposed to• Creation of one more Central Excise Commissionerate.• Creation of Service Tax Commissionerate• Specific sanctioned strength for Guwahati Commisionertae• Creation of another Customs (P) Commissionerate.

The present proposal lacks proper appreciation of the ground realities and has ignored the actual working environment, workload, geographical (total 2,55,168 Sq. Km. Land area) and political condition and acute nature of the stagnation that exists in the cadres of Inspectors in the Shillong zone. The absence of any specific proposal for removal of acute stagnation and regional disparity in promotion, the proposal for continuation with the existing three Central Excise and Service Tax Commissionerate and one Customs Preventive Commissionerate reflects the step motherly treatment meted out to the fraternity of Inspector of central excise & Customs of Shillong zone consisting of whole North Eastern zone in general.

No relaxation of the so called criteria or norms of revenue and assessee base has been considered for the restructuring in respect of this zone despite of the severity of the position of stagnation as narrated above and the geographical bottlenecks and economical backwardness of the zone. This zone comprises of the seven states having total 2,55,168 Sq.Km. Land area with a population of 1,86,20,554 (as per the 2001 census). The economic activities in the zone are so scattered that certain range office and division office are situated at a distance of more than 500 km from the Commissionerate Head quarters. The following proposals are made in respect of this Zone.

The assessee-base of Shillong Zone is 1466 nos. i.e. 488.66 per Commissionerate as on 31-03-2010. The projected assessee-base of the zone for 2010-11 is 1613 nos. whereas in Bhubaneshwar Zone assessee-base is 1145 nos. i.e. 381.66 per Commissionerate. In Ranchi (Patna) CE Zone assessee-base is 1801 nos. i.e. 360.20 per Commissionerate is proposed. Further, the aspect of additional work load,

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involved in the Commissionerate where area based exemption by way of refund of duty are operational, is totally ignored and not taken into consideration while proposing the cadre restructuring for the zone. The area based exemption schemes have a dual negative aspect on the so called norms adopted for the restructuring. For example, the revenue collected and subsequently refunded under the area based exemption schemes are not included in the revenue figure of the Zone in one hand and the additional work load of the Commissionerate(s) in collection, assessment, processing of refund claims, pre-audit of refund claims, and review of the refund orders on the other hand have not been taken into account while assessing the work load of the Commissionerate(s). considering the above factors we demand the creation of an additional CE Commissionertae in this Zone.

Guwahati Central Excise Commissionerate was created on 1.12.2008 without any sanctioned strength. Immediate steps should be taken for allocation of

required sanctioned strength as per the Ministry’s norms.

On service tax side, the projected revenue collection of the Shillong zone for 2010-11 is estimated to be 423 crores from around 14,000 (expected to grow substantially) assessees . Considering the scattered location of the assessee over a vast geographical area (2,55,168 Sq.Km.) under the seven states of the region and the imminent prospect of growth in the infrastructure and industrial sector Propelled by the look east -policy of the Govt. of India and the norms recommended by the study group-I at Sl. No. 1A(iii) of chapter 10, at least 2 (two) exclusive Service Tax Commissionerate for the zone needs to be created.

The existing Shillong Customs(Preventive) Commissionerate covering whole of seven North Eastern states covers a total of 5243 Km. of International border with four countries namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Myanmar (and not with two countries as projected in the draft proposal). The existing Shillong Customs(Preventive) Commissionerate has its Indo-Bangladesh borders of 1500 Kms, Indo-China Border 1000 Kms, Indo-Bhutan Border 1100 Kms and Indo-Myanmer Border 1643 Kms. (The Shillong Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate has got International Borders with 4 countries, namely China, Myanmar, Bhutan and Bangladesh covering a total of 5243 kms International border whereas the draft proposal shows that Shillong Customs Preventive Commissionerate has got international borders with only 2 countries namely,China & MMyanmar)The strategic importance of proper vigilance of the vulnerable international borders where cross border narco-terrorism, smuggling of arms ammunition besides the normal trade smuggling is rampant. Importance of state of art infrastructure and proper manpower for preventive function by customs has always been recognized at various levels. It is shocking that while creation of separate customs Commissionerate at Ludhiana has been proposed by setting aside the quantifiable parameters keeping in view of the vulnerability of the geographical region, despite of existence of similar or more factors like existence of International Airport, ICD and marine preventive activities in the North

Eastern Region, no proposal for creation of new Commissionerate of Customs has been made for Shillong Zone. Considering the sensitivity Customs(Preventive) Commissionerate Customs(Preventive) Commissionerate and

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vulnerability of the International Borders shared by the region provide enough reasons for creation of another Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate.Hence we propose for creation of one more Customs Preventive Commissionerate in this zone.

KERALAProposed to

• Create additional sanction equivalent to the strength of a ST Commissionerate.

• Augment staff strength for Customs formations under Central Excise

In respect of Kerala Zone, the study group of DOPM had conducted comprehensive study of the working of the Ranges in Kerala as recently as in 2006 and re-organized the then existing 114 Ranges in to 88 Ranges from January 2007, after considering all aspects like geographical reach, assessee convenience etc. Applying the ratio of 1 : 25 in respect of 1 commissionerate to 25 Ranges, needs to be modified in respect of Zones like Kerala, where industrial units and service providers are distributed across the states unlike in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai. Besides, the operational control of a large number of 100% EOUs has now been entrusted with Central Excise with effect from 01.08.2010. Further, the sanctioned strength of Inspectors and Superintendents at Karipur and Trivandrum International Airports which have 23343 flights with international passengers numbering 26,78,236, is far less as compared to other international airports. Shift system has been made operational in Karipur Airport from 2009 without any additional sanction and by diverting posts from branches of Headquarters office of Calicut Commissionerate. The Service Tax assessee base in Kerala is projected to grow to 27095. Kerala being a thickly populated state, the whole state in fact could be treated as a metro and hence city based asseessee norms for Service Tax generally adopted cannot be made applicable to Kerala. This assessee base, had it been in a city would have qualified for a separate Commissionerate and hence in the special circumstances of Kerala, the staff strength required for a service tax commissionerate may be added to the strength of the zone, apart from retaining the present sanction and augmenting strength for Airports and other Customs work.

RAJASTAN REGION

• Proposed to create another Customs Commissionerate

On examination of the proposals for reorganization of Customs Zones, it has been observed that although Amritsar Customs (P) commissionerate does not qualify on revenue parameters, yet the Board has proposed to create an additional commissionerate at Ludhiana by bifurcating it on the premise that:

“..the reorganization of Customs (P) formations can not be done on the basis of quantifiable parameters and the same has to be done keeping in view the vulnerability of geographical regions over which these formations exercise jurisdictions. Customs (P) Commissionerates should be so

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organized that their main focus remains Customs Preventive work and it does not get diluted by any revenue collection related functions.”

Para vi on page 53 of the Proposals

Similarly, the Tuticorin & Tiruchirapally Commissionerates under the Chennai Customs (P) Zone have been retained despite not fulfilling the criterion of revenue / work-load parameter on the ground that :

“Being Customs (P) Formations, the existence of the two Commissionerates need not be justified on the basis of quantifiable parameters such as number of Bills of Entry and Shipping Bills etc. These two Commissionerates cover the entire highly sensitive coastline (except the coastline falling within the jurisdiction of Chennai Customs Zone) of the State of Tamil Nadu.”

Para iv on page 52 of the Proposals

Creation of new Customs Commissionerate at Ludhiana and retention of the Customs (P) Commissionerates at Tuticorin & Tiruchirapally is a very welcome step. However, it is shocking and appalling to observe that the same analogy has not been applied in the case of Jodhpur Customs (P) Commissionerate which alone exercises jurisdiction over the highly sensitive and vulnerable 1077 KMs long Indo-Pak border (as against the 561 KM long international border of Punjab state), and is area-wise by far the largest (3.42 lac Sq. KMs, as against the 0.50 lac Sq. KMs area of Punjab), topographically inaccessible and inhospitable desert / semi-arid jurisdiction spanning across the entire state of Rajasthan. It would be pertinent to mention here that Jodhpur Customs (P) Commissionerate was initially created for preventive functions, but the workload of this Commissionerate has significantly increased in the recent times. Apart from attending to the Customs Preventive functions, Jodhpur Customs (P) Commissionerate is also handling the work of examination & assessment of import & export consignments, examination & supervision of a large volume of factory stuffed containers for export as well as clearance of passengers at the International Airport, Jaipur and Land Customs Station at Munabao (Barmer). The LCS, Munabao and International Airport, Jaipur and 8 new ICDs have become operational / functional much after the last restructuring in 1997 and no additional posts have been sanctioned / created for these formations. All this additional workload is being handled by reallocation of Staff on the basis of old sanctioned strength. Numerous letters have been written by the Commissioner of Customs, Jodhpur to the Board for augmenting the Staff strength by sanctioning additional posts for these highly sensitive formations (copy enclosed) and the urgent requirement of additional staff has also been reiterated time and again by our Inspectors’ Association, but to no avail.

Therefore, based on the same analogy, as applied in the case of bifurcation of Amritsar (P) and retention of Tuticorin & Tiruchirapally Commissionerates, the case of Rajasthan for carving out / creation of another Customs Commissionerate merits equal consideration, if not more

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ANDHRA PRADESH

For this Zone it is proposed to

• Create an additional ST Commissionerate in Hyderabad, over and above the current proposal

• To tag the proposed Hyderabad Customs Commissionerate to any of the CE Zones rather than to the Visakhapatnam Customs Zone.

In line with demand no. 6 of the submission and the norms adopted for creation of Chandigarh ST Commissionerate two ST Commissionerates should be created in Hyderabad Zones instead of one that has been proposed as the ST assesses base of Hyderabad Zone is around 37000 by the end of March,2010. This assesses base is expected to see exponential growth in the foreseeable future and hence Hyderabad Zones requires at least two exclusive Service Tax Commissionerates instead of one for effective implementation of Service Tax Law and augmentation of service tax revenue.

One exclusive Customs Commissionerate for Airport and ACC is proposed in Hyderabad,We propose the two ICDs functioning in Hyderabad should also be brought under the proposed Customs Commissionerate and the staff strength fot this work has to be sufficiently augmented. As regards the zone to which this Commissionertae is to be attached the proposal in one page says that it will be attached to Vizag Customs Zone and in another page it says that it will be attached to any one of the two zones of Hyderabad. For administrative and geographical convenience it should be attached to any one of the two Hyderabad Zones as the proposed Vizag Customs Zone is situated away by more than 600 Kms from Hyderabad. Since this being land customs, hitherto it is being managed by Central Excise Officers only and as such all the posts of Superintendents and Inspectors should be allotted to Central Excise in the proposed restructuring.

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43904418 Cadre Restructuring AICEIA Objections Proposals to CBEC

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