Speaking at the four-day XIIth All India Central Excise Executive Officers Federal convention organised by the Central Excise Executive Officers Association, Nagpur at the Satpura club, Prasad castigated the government for going back on its word on several reforms proposed for the Excise department. Non-implementation of the past promises has made the matter complicated for the department officials, he said.

For the past decade the officers of the Central Excise have been demanding pay parity with the CBI and IB officials. The government too agreed in principle that since the work modality of these and the Excise were almost the same, the pay too should be equal. Yet successive governments have allowed the anomalies tocontinue generating anger among the Excise officials, he said.

For a number of years the Excise officers have been demanding upgradation and promotion of inspectors. The government has turned a deaf ear to the demand. As a result stagnation has come about in the department.

Prasad appealed to the Excise officials to be upright and just in dealing with the tax payers. There are lots of difficulties faced by the tax payers in assessment. If a fault is detected by the Excise official, it does not necessarily mean it was a deliberate attempt by the tax payer to hide revenue. The Excise officials should therefore not treat the tax payers as some sort of criminals, he said.

According to Prasad, many government departments, including the Excise, had failed to adapt themselves to the changing times. Their problems too therefore continue to remain the same year after year. Gaining expertise in work is of utmost importance, he advised the officers present.

Prasad took serious note of the fact that NagpurCommissionerate of Central Excise had failed to send observers to the convention. Even if the officers did not come as delegates, they should have been present as observers to listen and take note of the proceedings, he said. ``This just shows the officers' preference for holidays over everything else,'' he observed.

Dwelling upon the importance of self-retrospection, Singh said it necessary to review one's work from time to time, to equip oneself with the latest knowledge so that one is able to discharge duty with all fairness, he said.

Earlier, addressing the gathering, S Shrinivasan listed the major demands of the Excise officials which include upgradation of inspectors to the superintendent level, time-bound promotion and pay parity with CBI and IB officials.

The bifurcation of Mumbai Commissionerate has created many associations, all of which have yet to be recognised. He hoped there would be no controversy raised by the newly-formed association members in the ongoing conference. B Narendra Kumar,President All India Federation of Central Excise Association regretted the stagnation that has come about up in the Excise department because of the government's policy to ignore their long-pending demands.