ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2006

(Kolkata, 18th & 19th January, 2006)

MINUTES Of THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE Of THE ALL INDIA FEDERATION Of SUPERINTENDENTS Of CUSTOMS HELD IN MUMBAI ON 6TH AND 7TH SEPTEMBER, 2004.

The Annual Conference of the All India Federation of Superintendents of Customs was inaugurated by the Chief Commissioner of Customs, Shri Joseph Domnic at 11.00 a.m. on 6th September 2004. The inaugural function was also graced by Chief Commissioner of Customs S/Shri K.M.Tiwari and A.P.Kala and Commissioners of Customs S/Shri D.S. Sra, M.C.Thakur, K.P.Mishra and Y.G.Parande. The function was also attended by large number of guests and fraternity members. The Chief Guest Shri Joseph Dominic and other distinguished guests S/Shri K.M.Tiwari, A.P.Kala and Y.G.Parande delivered speeches to guide the Federation on the right path and wished all success of the Annual Conference. The inauguration function was concluded with a note of grand success with the speeches by President Shri Anupam Majumdar and Vice-President Shri Asutosh Bala.

After the inaugural function was concluded, the delegates and members of the General Body assembled to start the Annual General Meeting of the All India Federation of Superintendents of Customs.

The meeting was attended by the following members:

FEDERATION
Shri Anupam Majumdar	:	President
Shri  Ashutosh Bala	:	Vice President
Shri S.P.Dudeja	:	Vice President
Shri Peeyush Pandey	:	Joint secretary
KOLKATA ASSOCIATION
Shri P.Bagh	:	President
Shri Amitava Bandopadhaya	:	General Secretary
Shri M.K.Mishra	:	Asst Secretary
Shri Duti Patar	:	Treasurer
Shri S.Aich	:	Member
Shri Amit Jain	:	Member
Shri A.K.Kar	:	Member
Shri M.A.Khan	:	Observer
Shri T.Bhattacharya	:	Observer
Shri R.K.Kar	:	Federation Invitee
shri Balachandra Prasad	:
VISAKHAPATNAM ASSOCIATION
Shri B.K.M.Raju	:	President
Shri S.Raghuram	:	General Secretary
Shri M.Seetha Ram	:	Member
KOCHI ASSOCIATION
Shri S.A.S.Nawas	:	General Secretary
Shri Sharath Chandran	:	Observer
MUMBAI ASSOCIATION
Shri R.S.Potdar	:	President
Shri Dwarika Prasad	:	General Secretary
Shri K.M.Moeen	:	Vice President
Shri Mukesh Agarwal	:	Joint Secretary
Shri P.K.Gupta	:	Treasurer
Shri Atanu Choudhury	:	Member
Shri Sunil Dole	:	Member
Shri K.P.Narayanan	:	Member
Shri M.P.Vasudevan	:	Member
Shri A.S.Ahir	:	Member
Shri Rakesh Chandra	:	Member
Shri A.K.Pundir	:	Member
Shri N.B.Rao	:	Member
Shri Deepak Pandit	:	Observer
Shri P.V.Ashok Kumar	:	Observer

The Annual General Meeting was presided by the President Shri Anupam Majumdar, who called the meeting to order. Welcoming the members of the General Body, he briefed the reasons for the resignation of the Secretary General Shri V. B. Singh. He also narrated the personal tragedy faced by the Secretary General Shri V. B. Singh due to the sad and untimely demise of father and brother in close succession. President Shri Majumdar also informed that in such sad and depressed state of mind secretary General Shri V. B. Singh resigned from the post of secretary General and President himself took over the charge of the Federation for the remaining period.

President Shri Majumdar then invited the members to deliberate on the following agenda points:

1. Confirmation of the minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at Mumbai on 6th & 7th September 2002.

2. Discussion on matters arising out of the minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 6th & 7th September, 2002.

3. Presentation & adoption of the Annual Report.

4. Presentation & adoption Statements of Accounts for the years 2002-2003 and 2003- 2004.

5. Unification of executive cadres of Group - 'B' in Customs.

6. Increase of quota for promotion to Group 'A' in terms of the judgement dt.10-7-2001 of the Hon'ble CAT Mumbai in O. A. number 485/99 and 556/99, pending finalisation of unification of executive cadres of group B in Customs.

7. Proper deployment of Superintendents of Customs by earmarking the specific places of posting. Deployment in Export clearance work in all Custom Houses.

8. Extending the geographical jurisdiction of the Commissioners of Customs of the port cities to retain the Customs work for Customs staff in view of the expansion of city limits.

9. Allocation of the job of collection of Service Tax from Customs related services after empowering the Superintendents of Customs (P) as the proper officers, under the Service Tax Act, 1995.

10. Customs work for Customs in all respects.

11. Rationalisation of ratio between Superintendent of Customs (P) and Prev. Officers at par with all the Commissionerates.

12. Any other points with the permission of the Chair.

12A. Increase and introduction of Rummaging Allowance, Diet Allowance, O. T. Allowance, Night Duty Allowance and Uniform Allowance.

12B. Website for the federation.

12C. Proper office space and proper infrastructure for the superintendents.

12D. Undue harassment by vigilance department on baseless complaint.

12E. Inclusion of Hyderabad Airport, Calicut Airport and Bangalore Airport under airpool policy.

12F. Demand for granting retrospective effect to the pay revision with effect from 1/1/96.

13. Selection of headquarters for the year 2004-2005.

14. Election of the office-bearers of the Federation for the year 2004-2005.

15. Appointment of Internal Auditor for the year 2004-2005.

16. Selection of the venue of the III Annual conference.

17. Address from the President.

18. Vote of thanks.

Point No. 1:

On invitation by President, Shri Anupam Majumdar, Federation's Vice-President Shri Asutosh Bala, read out the minutes of the Annual General Meeting held in Mumbai on 6th and 7th September 2002. Shri Bala also mentioned that the brochure published and circulated for the Annual Conference also include the minutes and members may also go through it. After the members were satisfied that the said minutes were correctly recorded, it was unanimously accepted and confirmed.

Point No. 2:

Shri A. Bandopadhya of Kolkata raised the issue of recognition by the Government of India, under the CCS [RSA] Rules, 1993 which stipulates a cadre based association. He also mentioned that CBEC has issued a list of 23 cadres for granting recognition in which the cadres of Superintendents of customs and Preventive Officers of customs are shown separately; therefore no Superintendent can be a member of any other association excepting exclusively of the Superintendents. Shri K. M. Moeen of Mumbai supported his view and desired that the matter may be taken up with CBEC so that no association or federation should exist with the membership of Superintendents and Preventive Officers jointly. It was unanimously decided to approach the Board on the issue and not to grant recognition to any combined association or federation of two cadres of Superintendents of customs and Preventive Officers of customs. There being no further discussion arising out of the minutes, the point was closed.

Point No. 3:

The Annual Report was presented by President Shrl Anupam Majumdar. He requested to go through the Annual Report which may be found in the brochure, already circulated among the members. The report was unanimously accepted without any discussion.

Point No. 4:

Vice-President Shri Asutosh Bala presented the duly audited statement of account for the year 2002-2003 and 2003-2004. He mentioned that since AGM was not conducted last year the audited account for both the years are now presented to the house. Shri P. K. Gupta of Mumbai Association informed the members that the case filed before CAT, Mumbai, by the Federation has been financed to a large extent by the Mumbai Association, in addition to its own expenditure on the court case pending before the Hon'able Supreme Court filed by the President of Mumbai Association. He called upon all the members to raise legal funds for the Federation as well as for the Mumbai Association's Court case. After the members went through the accounts and no further point was raised, both the accounts for the year 2002-2003 and for the year 2003-2004 were accepted and passed unanimously.

Point No. 5:

Taking part in the discussion, Joint Secretary Shri Piyush Pandey, read out the minutes of the meeting held on 13th August 2004 with the Board Officials on the issue of merger of analogous cadres of Group B, C and 0 under CBEC. He also read out the Letter dt. 13/8/04 submitted by the Federation to Joint Secretary [Admn], Shri Saurabh Chandra, on the issue. After an elaborate discussion, it was unanimously decided to reiterate the Federation's stand to first merge the Appraisers with the Superintendents of customs in the Custom Houses and after a careful consideration of the results of such merger, the next step of merger of Customs with Central Excise could be taken up for discussion.

Point No. 6:

Shri Atanu Choudhury of Mumbai gave a detailed account of the pending court cases. He also stressed the need of creating a fund for the legal expenses. He also mentioned that the matter before supreme court might take further very long time and therefore, the expenditure may increase. Responding to the need of fund, Shri Amitava Bandopadhya of Kolkata mentioned that they had earlier contributed Rs. 15,000/- and would further contribute another Rs. 15,000/-. Shri Raghuram of Vizag Association also agreed to make some contribution towards the legal fund. Shri Nawaz of Cochin also promised to make some contribution towards the legal fund, but he urged upon the Federation to pursue the Board to make promotion to the available vacancy.

At the request of the members, Vice-President S. P. Dudeja also gave a detailed account of the court cases.

It was decided to pursue the Board on the issue of increase in the Promotional quota as well as to carry on the court cases to their logical end.

At the suggestion of Shri Nawaz of Cochin, a committee with the following members was formed for the purpose of regular interaction and maintaining liaison with Board to pursue our issues:

Committee Members:
Shri S.P.Dudeja	:	Convener
Shri S A S Nawas	:	Member from Cochin
Shri A Bandopadhaya	:	Member from Kolkata
Shri Dwarika Prasad	:	Member from Mumbai
Shri A P S Dhillon	:	Member from Mumbai
Shri K M Moeen	:	Member from Mumbai
Shri A Bala	:	Member from Federation
Shri Anupam Majumdar	:	Ex-Officio Member

Point No. 7:

Initiating the discussion, President Shri Anupam Majumdar informed the members that different Custom Houses have different pattern of postings of Superintendents and therefore an uniformity is needed; at the same time, proper deployment of Superintendents with a proper job description is also urgently required. He invited the members to present their views. Shri Bandopadhaya of Kolkata & Shri Amit Jain of Kolkata took part in the discussion and demanded that the Superintendents be posted in the regular assessment and clearance job which is handled by the Appraisers. Shri P. K. Gupta of Mumbai suggested that proper training programme should be imparted to the Superintendents for the purpose of getting adequate knowledge in the job of assessment and clearance of imports and exports. Shri Nawaz of Cochin mentioned that there was no problem of deployment of Superintendents in Cochin Custom House. Shri Dwarika Prasad of Mumbai mentioned that in the cadre restructuring, a large number of Superintendents have been shown for the import side, but their actual deployment in import side has not been shown. He demanded that CBEC may issue a clarification identifying the place of work of our Superintendents in import side. Shir Raghuram of Visakhapatnam demanded that the Superintendents be introduced in export clearance work at Visakhapatnam.

It was thereafter decided that the associations will prepare their proposal for posting of their Superintendents of the concerned Custom House in all the fields they consider and thereafter pursue with the local administration to get new avenue for expansion. A copy of the said proposal will also be sent to the Federation for taking up the matter in the Board's level.

Point No. 8:

President Shri Anupam Majumdar got to the notice of the members that the geographical jurisdiction of the Commissioner's of Customs of the Port Cities must be extended to retain the customs work for Customs Staff in view of the expansion of city limits.

Shri P. K. Gupta moved a resolution on behalf of Mumbai Association and the same was unanimously taken by the members.

Point No. 9:

The point was discussed at length. It was felt by the members that service tax will be the most expanding department and therefore deployment in service tax will expand the job opportunities of Superintendents of Customs. Shri Raghuram of Visakhapatnam, Shri Amit Jain of Kolkata and Shri Nawaz of Cochin expressed their views on the issue. Shri Nawaz moved a resolution in the matter and the same was unanimously taken by the members.

Point No. 10:

Taking part in the discussion, Shri Amit Jain of Kolkata mentioned that the officers of Customs and not of the Central Excise should work in the Special Economic Zone as the work relates mainly to Customs. Shri A. K. Pundir of Mumbai mentioned that the Ministry of Commerce through an advertisement in the newspaper called for options for posting in SEZ, but no Superintendent of Customs applied. It was finally decided that we will try to stake our claim in SEZ in order to expand. Shri Amit Jain of Kolkata was asked to prepare a brief on the issue.

Point No. 11:

Shri Dwarika Prasad of Mumbai expressed his view that this point has lost its importance after the cadre restructuring. Kolkata, Cochin and Vizag also had the same opinion. It was unanimously decided to drop the point from agenda.

Point No. 12A:

After a brief discussion it was decided to demand for an increase in the available allowances and demand for introduction of night duty allowance.

Point No. 12B:

It was decided to examine all relevant procedure and seek department's permission, if needed, to start a website for the Federation.

Point No. 12C:

The issue was raised and was elaborated at length by Shri Mukesh Agarwal of Mumbai. It was unanimously decided that the Associations would sort out such problems at the Custom House level and if needed Federation may intervene as and when requested by the Associations.

Point No. 12D:

The point was raised by Shri K. M. Moeen of Mumbai Association. He gave a detailed account as to how innocent Superintendents are subjected to harassment on baseless, anonymous or pseudonymous complaints. It was felt by the members that the customs department being very vulnerable to complaint of corruption, some persons lodge false or baseless complaint to settle some personal score with the officer.

It was, thereafter unanimously decided to raise the issue before CBEC and Associations should send feed back to the Federation on specific cases of such nature.

Point No. 12E:

Shri B.K.M. Raju of Visakhapatnam raised the point. It was brought to the notice of the house by Shri P. K. Gupta of Mumbai that Hyderabad and Bangalore Airports have already been brought within Airpool policy and that the Airpool policy also underwent some changes. It was decided to re-examine the issue.

Point No. 12F:

After a brief discussion, it was decided to demand for granting retrospective effect to the pay revision with effect from 9/9/96.

Point No. 12G:

President Shri Anupam Mazumdar proposed the amendments to the Constitution & Rules of the Federation in the following details:

(a) Rule 14 (iii) From "Five" to "Six".

(b) Rule 13 (b) - To add after last line -" Such Executive Committees of the constituent Associations shall be formed by holding local elections by secret ballot, in case of contest."

(c) Rule 25 - to add in the second line between 'present & at '_" and voting". All the proposed amendments were approved by the members unanimously for approval of the Govt. of India before endorsing the said amendments in the Constitution & Rules.

Point No. 13:

It was proposed by Shri Dwarika Prasad of Mumbai Association to retain Mumbai as the Headquarters for the year 2004-2005 and it was unanimously accepted by all the members.

Point No. 14:

As proposed by Shri Dwarika Prasad of Mumbai and seconded by Shri A Bandopadhaya of Kolkata, the following office bearers were elected unopposed:

President	:	Shri Anupam Majumdar
Vice President	:	Shri  Ashutosh Bala
Vice President	:	Shri Peeyush Pandey
Secretary General	:	Shri S.P.Dudeja
Joint secretary	:	Shri M.P.Vasudevan
Treasurer	:	Shri A.K.Pundir

The new office bearers were given a warm welcome with huge applause.

Point No. 15:

As proposed by Shri P. K. Gupta of Mumbai and seconded by Shri Atanu Choudhury of Mumbai, Shri N. B. Rao was elected as internal Auditor unopposed.

Point No. 16:

The members of Mumbai Association requested Kolkata Association to host the III Annual Conference at Kolkata. Shri A. Bandopadhaya of Kolkata agreed and gave consent on behalf of Kolkata Association to host the next Annual Conference at Kolkata.

Point No. 17:

President Shri Anupam Majumdar in his address gave total importance on the organisation. He requested all Associations to have regular interaction with the general members, concentrate more on local issues, set short term and long term goals for the Association, work for these goals and always keep the members barest of the developments concerning them. He thanked the members for their co-operation. He thanked Mumbai Association for successfully organising the Annual Conference.

Point No. 18:

The meeting was concluded with vote of thanks raised by Shri S. P. Dudeja.