Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 17: Executive employees of Excise and State Taxes Department have urged the Lieutenant Governor’s administration to redress their three-decade-old demand for removal of their pay anomaly.
“Since 1989 we have been demanding and persuading the Government for removal of pay anomaly of executive staff. The demand being genuine can be acknowledged from the fact that various representations regarding the matter has been forwarded by Commissioners of Excise and State Taxes Departments from time to time,” the executive employees said in a meeting.
They said a new representation was recently forwarded by KK Sharma then Advisor to Governor to Director Codes and Principal Secretary Finance but nothing favourable has been done till date. They repented that despite performing same duties in the organizations of similar nature and quality they have been given less salary with much lesser Grade Pay than their counter parts in Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).
“A comparative analysis of the Pay Grades of executive employees in Excise and State Taxes Department in J&K and their counter parts in CBEC Department is that the Grade Pay of Inspector in J&K is Rs 4200 whereas in Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) the Inspector gets Rs 4600 Grade Pay. The Grade Pay of Sub-Inspector in J&K is mere Rs 2400 but his counterpart in CBEC gets Rs 4200 with a huge difference of Rs 1800. Thus there is a remarkable anomaly of Grade Pay in comparison to employees of CBEC and Excise and Taxation employees of J&K,” they pointed out.
They said another anomaly exists in the J&K Excise and Commercial taxes (Sub-Ordinate) Service Recruitment Rules 1991 as an Inspector having minimum qualification for direct recruitment. They appealed the J&K administration to remove their pay anomaly and increase their Grade Pay keeping in view the right of “Equal Pay for Equal work”.