Presidential Award of Appreciation Certificates & Medals on Republic Day, 2021

Presidential Award of Appreciation Certificates & Medals to be announced on the occasion of the Republic Day, 2021 – FinMin Order F.No. 394/77/2020-Comr(lnv-Cus) dated 03.09.2020

F.No. 394/77/2020-Comr(lnv-Cus)
Government of India Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs
(Investigation- Customs)

*****

10th floor, Tower 2, Jeewan Bharati Building,
Parliament Street, New Delhi- 110001
Email id: inv-customs@gov .in

Dated 03.09.2020

To

All the Members, Joint Secretaries and Commissioners of CBIC,
All the Principal Chief/ Chief Commissioners of Customs/ Customs (Preventive),
All the Principal Chief/ Chief Commissioners of Central Tax/ Central Excise,
All the Principal Chief/ Chief Commissioners of Customs and Central Tax/ Central Excise,
All the Principal Director Generals/ Director Generals,
The Chief Commissioner (Authorised Representative), CESTAT.

Sub: Presidential Award of Appreciation Certificates & Medals to be announced on the occasion of the Republic Day, 2021- reg.
Madam/Sir,

Every year, on the occasion of Republic Day, the Presidential Award of Appreciation Certificates & Medals are granted to the officers of the Department for :-

• Exceptionally Meritorious Service at the Risk of Life, and
• Specially Distinguished Record of

(2) The proposals for the Presidential Awards on the occasion of the eve of Republic Day, 2021, have now become due for consideration. Accordingly, the following action plan is proposed:-

1. To have greater transparency in the selection process, the criteria has been summarised in Annexure-1 and the same may be widely circulated to enable the officers to apply for the Every formation shall forward all the applications received from officers under their jurisdiction as well as the proposals of deserving officers nominated by them, along with their recommendation/ comments, in the format prescribed in the form of Proforma – I & II and Annexures – A to L enclosed with this letter.
2. The applications received by the Members of the Board in respect of the officers working under them as well as the  proposals  of  deserving  officers  nominated  by them, along with their recommendation/ comments, shall be forwarded, to DRI or DGGI, as applicable, latest by 21.2020.
3. All the Customs Zones shall forward the Applications received from officers under their jurisdiction as well as the proposals of officers recommended by them to the Director General of Revenue Intelligence (DGRI) latest by 21.09.2020.
4. All the Central Tax/ Central Excise formations shall forward the applications received from officers under their jurisdiction as well as the proposals of officers recommended by them to the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) latest by 21.09.2020.
5. The Directorates, namely, Directorate General of Audit (DG Audit) , Directorate General of Performance Management (DGPM), Directorate General of Systems (DG Systems) , Directorate General of Vigilance (DG Vigilance), Directorate of Logistics (DoL), Directorate of Data Management (DOM), Directorate of Legal Affairs (DLA), Directorate General of Taxpayer Services (DGTS), Directorate General of Human Resource Development (DG HRD), Chief Commissioner (AR), Settlement Commission, GST Council, Authority for Advance Rulings, and all the Sections of CBIC which are dealing with GST matters, shall forward their nominations to DGGI by 21.09.2020.
6. The Directorates, namely, DG Export Promotion (DGEP), DG National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN), DG Safeguards, DG Valuation, Directorate of CRCL, Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB), DG Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM), Narcotics Commissioner, Gwalior, Enforcement Directorate, all the Sections of CBIC (other than those dealing with GST) and the officers on deputation (with other Organisations/ Ministries/ Departments) shall send their nominations to DGRI by 21.09.2020.
7. DGRI and DGGI shall compile and scrutinize the nominations/ proposals so received, along with the nominations/ proposals of officers under their own jurisdiction , prepare a short list of recommendations and forward all the applications/ proposals , along with such shortlist to this office positively by 23.10.2020. For this purpose, the Proforma -Ill shall be used and the same duly completed be forwarded to this office for ready reference (in “editable” format).
8. Soft copy of the proposals, both in PDF form and Editable/ Word document, shall be forwarded to DGRI/ DGGI (as applicable), with a copy to this office positively on or before 21.2020 through email to inv-customs@gov. in . The hard copies should be forwarded only to DGRI/ DGGI, as applicable.
9. The recommending/ forwarding officers must certify that they have checked the details about the achievements of the applicant officers with the documents/ records, before forwarding the proposal(s) with their recommendations/ comments to DGRI/ DGGI, as applicable. It should be ensured that no additional documents are enclosed, other than the duly-filled in Application in the prescribed Proforma and the word limit provided for each column/ item is duly maintained.

3. Further, all the formations while forwarding/ recommending an Application/ proposal shall ensure that:

1. Vigilance History of the Officer to be enclosed- All matters relating to Vigilance including any complaint/FIR/inquiry — past, present or contemplated — relating to the officers for whom proposal for grant of Presidential Award of Appreciation Certificates & Medals is being recommended/ forwarded are invariably brought to the notice of the Ministry while forwarding such Application/ Proposal.
2. The proper authority/ Head of the Department, while recommending/ forwarding the Application/ Proposal should keep in mind the Instructions issued vide F.No.31/2/67/ADM-lll B, dated 8th May, 1969, for scrutinizing and recommending/ forwarding the cases of officers for consideration for the Awards, which have been summarised in the Annexure-1 to this letter.

4. This issues with the approval of the Member (Investigation), CBIC.

Yours sincerely,

(Ranjana Chaudhary)
Deputy Commissioner
email id: [email protected]

Encl: As above.

Copy to:

1. Chairman, CBIC, New Delhi
2. Chairman, Settlement Commission, New Delhi
3. Chairman, Authority for Advance Ruling, New Delhi
4. Director General, CEIB, New Delhi
5. Narcotics Commissioner , Gwalior,
6. Director, Enforcement Directorate, New Delhi,
7. Joint Secretary, GST Council,
8. Webmaster, cbic.gov.in for uploading on the website.

ANNEXURE- 1 to letter F.No. 394/77/2020 -Comr. CTnv-Cus.), dated 03.09.2020

Instructions on forwarding applications/recommendations for Presidential Award of Appreciation Certificates & Medals to be announced on the occasion of the Republic Day, 2021

1. The Award for Exceptionally Meritorious Service at Risk of Life and Specially Distinguished Record of Service is to be recommended on the basis of the following criteria (Based on Instructions issued vide F.No.31/2/67/ADM-III B, dated 8th May, 1969):-

A. Specific Guidelines for recommending Awards for Exceptionally Meritorious Service at the Risk of Life:

• Only those cases should be recommended for such Awards where the risk of life was grave and where the Officer knowing the risk involved in a particular act, still performed the meritorious act in question ;
• The time at which and the circumstances in which an act at grave risk to life was performed should be indicated and it should be clearly explained whether such an act was done single-handedly or with the assistance of other Cases in which the risk was merely a possibility should not be made much of in all cases including those in which seizures are made on the high seas at great risk to life and the officers are considered to be deserving of the award, all the attendant circumstances should be clearly explained and the gravity of the situation faced by the officers should be clearly brought out;
• Deserving cases of all officers (irrespective of their ranks) should be

B. Specific Guidelines for recommending awards for Specially Distinguished Record of Service:

• The cases of only those officers, who have consistently shown excellent performance during their day-to-day work and who have displayed exemplary devotion to duty, should be recommended for these Awards;

• No officer, who possesses a consistently outstanding record of service, should be left out merely for the reasons that during his/ her service career, he/ she did not have the occasion to perform any spectacular or sensational seizure; or the cases of officers who have made a number of seizures, over a period of several years, should not be ignored just because the value of seizures made by them is small; or because each seizure, taken by itself, did not disclose any extraordinary talent;
• Normally, only those officers who have put in a minimum of 15 years of service in the Department should be considered for such Award but in exceptional circumstances, the cases of the officers who have put in 10 years of service may also be recommended.

2. The word limits prescribed in the relevant columns shall be strictly adhered to.

3. the Proformas should be in A4 size paper and ‘Times New Roman’ Font, Size 11 should be used.

4. The authorities recommending/ forwarding the Applications/ Proposals should ensure that the above instructions have been strictly adhered to in respect of the Applications/ Proposals being forwarded by their

5. The Vigilance History of the Officer should to be enclosed as stated in para 3 (i) of the letter.

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