F. No.
AICEIA/HRD/Uniform/2014/31
Date:
28.11.2014
To
The
Additional Director General (HRM)
Directorate
General of Human Resource Development,
Central
Board of Excise & Customs,
409/8,
Deep Shikha, Rajendra Place,
New
Delhi-110008.
Sub:-Guidelines
for Uniform for various Group ‘A', 'B' & 'C' grades-reg.
Madam,
Please refer to your letter F. No. 8/B/90/HRD (HRM)/2011
(Part-I)/4854 dated 21.10.2014 vide which our views were sought on Ministry's
letter F. No. C.30013/11/2011 Ad.IVA dated 02.08.2013.
On going through Ministry's above mentioned letter dated
02.08.2014, it has been found that the Board is going to make it compulsory
to wear uniforms at all times on
duty. We do not think that this move
will yield any result for the department.
Madam, it is long-time demand of the All India Central Excise
Inspectors' Association to abolish Uniform.
We had also requested vide our letter F. No. AICEIA/Merger/HRD/2012/03
dated 24.06.2014 (copy enclosed) to abolish Uniform and Control Room Duty. We want the abolition of Uniform, because of
the followings:-
1. Uniform is the legacy of
"Tobacco-Era" Excise.
Progressive changes in Excise laws have rendered the Uniform useless in
the field activities. The field operations in Central Excise are nothing but
akin to that of the field operations in Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax,
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Directorate of Central Excise Anti
Evasion, Central Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence Bureau. But out of
all the above said organizations Central Excise alone is saddled with uniform.
When the controls have shifted to an audit and intelligence gathering mode,
Uniform is more of a hindrance than a matter of pride or a necessity for
identification or protection.
2. Due to tax reforms, neither
the assessee requires attending the Central Excise Office nor the Officers
require visiting the factory premises frequently. The digitalization of the department left
little space for interaction between the assessee and the Officers. Hence, the uniform lost its relevancy.
3. Various powers provided to the
departmental officers to visit factories and carry out frequent checks have
been done away with and in this modern era even LTUs are functioning with
officers only termed as “Executives”. So, calling for officers to be in uniform
in the office throughout working hours is nothing but restoring “Inspector
Raj”, which is very much against the policy of the Government.
4. We are set to move into Good & Service Tax regime and we are supposed
to be Central GST officers while the State Sales Tax officers would be State
GST. When State GST officers would not be wearing uniform it would be
ridiculous for the Central GST Officers who would be performing the same function of Tax Collection but "wearing uniform".
Several expert bodies
including the Kelkar Committee have recommended abolition of Uniform in Central
Excise:-
(a) The 5th CPC in Para 122.3;
categorically recommended abolition of uniform for all categories of Central
Government employees except;
“Security Staff, Police
Personnel, Nurses and Railway employees other than Group ‘D’ Ministerial
categories”.
(b)
The Task Force on Indirect Taxes (Kelkar Committee), 2002, appointed by the
Finance Minister vide Chapter 7; Para 6.11.1 (i) stated;
“(i) Central Excise officers should not be required to
wear uniform. This would change the mindset on both side (Department and
taxpayer) and contribute to freer communication.”
In view of above, it is once again submitted that the uniform in Central
Excise Department is absolutely unnecessary, against the basic idea of
liberalization and burden on government exchequer. The uniform is not serving any purpose in
collection of Central Excise Duty/Service Tax.
Hence, we do not offer any view on "Guidelines for wearing uniforms
by CBEC officers", instead we request to abolish Uniform from Central
Excise & Service Tax Department.
Yours
faithfully,
Abhishek Kamal
Secretary General
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