CSD AFD Online Registration Process 2025✓CANTEEN STORES DEPARTMENT MANUAL
FOR
UNIT RUN CANTEEN
AN OVERVIEW OF CANTEEN STORES DEPARTMENT AND IT’S OPERATIONS
Introduction
1.1. The Canteen Stores Department (CSD) has been in the service of the Defence Services since 1948. The Department which made a modest beginning with four Depots and a turnover of less than Rs 48 lakhs has now grown into 34 Area Depots and has crossed a turn-over of Rs 17,000 crores in 2016-17. The clientele has also grown steadily from a few thousand British soldiers in 1942 to over four million Services‟ households today. Of them, nearly 90% of the clientele comprises JCOs, other Ranks and their families.
1.2 CSD provides its consumers, all over the country, quality products of daily use at rates less than those prevailing in the market. These items are meant for sale to Armed forces, Defence civilians, ex-servicemen and their families.
1.3 The Department by itself does not come in direct or daily contact with its customers. Only Managers/In-Charges (I/Cs) of Unit-Run-Canteens (URCs) interact with the Department/CSD Area Depots. These Managers/I/Cs represent the needs of the clientele while demanding items from the Depots. It is, therefore, necessary that these persons must really be aware of what their customers’ need. Needless to say, the Department continues to be scrutinised every day by the customers for availability, rates and range of the products. While the CSD attempts to provide a wide range of consumer items the range at present is approximately 5735 items including AgainstFirm-Demand items.
Organisation
1.4 CSD functions under the Ministry of Defence. CSD is efficiently managed by Defence civilian officers and few serving officers on deputation from Armed forces. However, the remaining workforce comprises Civilian Central Government Employees. The organization structure of CSD is given at Appendix 1A to this chapter.
CSD Head Office
1.5 CSD Head Office is located at Mumbai. The Department controls and manages its field operations through a network of 34 Area Depots located across the length and breadth of the country. These Depots have been grouped into five Regions based on the Indian States and their contiguity. Accordingly, the Northern Region with its office at BD Bari (Jammu) covers the states of J & K and Punjab. The Western Region with its office at Delhi controls the Area Depots located in the states of Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, UT of Chandigarh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The Central Region has its office at Lucknow and it takes care of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West part
of Orissa and Uttarakhand. The Eastern Region with its office at Narangi (Guwahati) controls the Area Depots located in the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, North part of Orissa and the seven states in North-Eastern India. The Southern Region has its office at Pune and controls the field operations in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and Goa, Southern part of Orissa and Union Territory of Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Regional Office
1.6 Each Region is commanded by a Regional Manager (RM). As would be seen from Appendix 1-A to this chapter that each of the Regions has six to eight Area Depots under its command & control. The Area Depots are categorised as Small, Medium, Large and Extra large depots depending upon their annual turnover. On an average, each Area Depot caters to about 100 URCs.
Vision & Mission
1.7 The following are the Vision & Mission of CSD:-
Vision:-
To achieve highest level of consumer satisfaction by adopting pragmatic and proactive strategies to optimally utilize and develop human, infrastructure, material and financial resources of the Canteen Stores Department to withstand the dynamics of emerging economic realities of modern India.
Mission:-
To meet the aspirations of Armed Forces fraternity by making available latest and quality consumer products at a cheaper rate on All-India basis. Objectives:-
Provide consumer goods of high quality to the troops wherever they are at prices cheaper than the prevailing market rates, as far as possible.
Ensure that the level of consumer satisfaction is maintained at the maximum.
Generate reasonable profitability to sustain the organisation, permit growth and provide additional facilities for troops and their families.
Formulate and execute development programmes to improve and maintain organisational effectiveness.
Periodically analyse and assess the diverse long-term needs and aspirations of Defence Services and undertake timely measures to meet them.
Inventory
1.8 There are nearly 5735 items in the CSD inventory including items Against-FirmDemand (AFD). Each item has an independent Identification Number called Index Number and a Nomenclature.
1.9 Every effort is made to ensure that the CSD inventory achieves the following:-
Have at least two to three different suppliers of similar products to ensure unfailing availability and alternatives at all times.
Cater for the Officers, JCOs, ORs, Ex-Servicemen, Defence Civilians and Retired/Family Pensioners Defence Civilians as per their needs and purchasing capacities.
Provide a variety of established and popular brands.
Generate adequate competition amongst suppliers to ensure quality and price advantage.
Cater to the needs of all types of clientele, e.g. male, female and from a baby to an aged person.
Inventory Grouping.
1.10 For the purpose of warehousing management and ease of indenting by URCs, the inventory has been grouped into following seven groups, based on functional usage and mentioned in the Pictorial Price-List published by the Department during January each year and issued to all URCs.
| GROUP | Type of Item | Items covered |
| I | Toilet Requisites | Toilet Soaps, Oral Care, Hair care, Cosmetics, Detergent, Diapers and Napkins etc., |
| II | Household Requisites | Electrical Appliances, Cookers, Crockery, Kitchenware, Sewing Machines and other Household requisites such as Gas Stove, Flask, Casserole, Light Products and Torch Cell etc., |
| III | General Use Items | Hosiery items, Plastic ware, Footwear, Luggages, Undergarments, Helmet, Sunglasses, Track suit, Sports Goods and Plastic Furniture etc., |
| IV | Wrist Watches & Stationery | Wrist Watches & Stationery |
| V | Liquor | Rum, IMFL, Brandy, Scotch Whisky, BIO, Breezer, Wine & Beer etc., |
| VI | Food & Medical Items | Food, Beverages & Medicinal items etc, |
| VII | AFD Items | Television, Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Twowheelers, Cars, Tractors, Cooking Ranges (Ovens & Chimneys), Air Conditioners & Geysers etc. |
AFD Items
1.11 AFD items have been divided into two categories.
Category – I.
These items are not stocked by the Depots but are arranged by CSD and collected by consumers directly from dealers e.g. Refrigerators, TVs, Washing Machines, Air conditions, Microwave Ovens, Cars, Tractors and Two-wheelers etc. These are supplied as per the following procedure :-
The individual customer is required to submit the prescribed form (available with depots/CSD website) duly filled-in and countersigned by the Commanding Officer of the unit, in case of Servicemen & by Station Headquarters or DSS&A Board in case of Ex-servicemen, along-with a UTR generated by a payee Bank and duly signed and stamped by the Banker in token of having transferred the amount through RTGS/NEFT, towards the price of the item. The UTR shall invariably mention the name of the customer who has actually transferred the amount. Every Depot has separate account number and bank; hence, customer is required to verify Bank Account number of the Area Depot before transferring money through RTGS/NEFT to avoid any complication at later stage.
The individual customers will obtain information from CSD Website at www.csdindia.gov.in or from CSD Area Depots & confirm about the availability of these items with the respective dealers. The dealers, in turn, will keep CSD Area Manager informed about the availability of the items from time to time.
After completion of formalities at the depot, like preparation of Official Receipt, Local Supply Order(LS) on supplier etc., the individual is given an authority letter and a copy of LS Order which is to be submitted to the distributor/dealer for getting the delivery of the item demanded. Normally, AFD-I category items are delivered, based on availability with local dealers.
Category – II.
These items are procured by CSD Area Depots based on firm demand received from URC to depot and sold to consumers through URCs for example Ovens, Geysers, Foot Model Sewing Machines, Cooking Ranges, Air Coolers, coir mattress and few other high-value household durable goods (details contained in the Pictorial Price-List) as per the following procedure :-
A separate indent marked AFD-II, duly signed by the Commanding Officer countersigned by Brigadier or equivalent officer should be sent to the depot once a month alongwith the normal demand.
Based on the above indent, orders are placed by the depot on the firm for the supply of item.
On receipt of the item at the Area Depot, the same is invoiced and issued to URC.
Normally it takes three to four weeks for receipt of such items from suppliers.
URCs must ensure immediate collection of such items from depot.
Demand for AFD-II category items, once placed, cannot be cancelled.
Introduction and Deletion of Items
1.12 CSD reviews its inventory at regular intervals and deletes items that are no longer popular with the customers. This is to give way to add new items introduced in the market, to the CSD inventory range so that the customers keep getting latest products available in the market and improved variety at all times.
1.13 The procedure for introduction of new items in the CSD inventory is that once a supplier applies to introduce an item in the CSD, a decision to recommend the item for introduction or otherwise is taken by the Preliminary Screening Committee comprising of representatives of CSD and three Services, nominated by the Services HQ. The popularity of the item and its price is ensured through Market Survey before the price is negotiated. The items are finally considered for introduction by the Board of Administration (BOA) headed by General Manager (GM), CSD. Once items are recommended by the Preliminary Screening Committee, food/liquor items are sent to Composite Food Laboratory (CFL) for Quality tests. Factory inspection/Hygiene inspection is also conducted for source of supply before introduction.
Quality Control
1.14 Providing quality items cheaper than prevailing market rate is the primary objective of CSD. There is well defined proven system of quality control of items supplied through CSD. It is important to note that stringent quality control measures, both proactive as well as reactive, are taken by the Department. Measures taken to ensure quality are enumerated below:-
Proactive Measures
1.15 On Initial Introduction
Technical Data Specification (TDS) & Master Samples are obtained from suppliers. Factory inspection including Research and Development (R&D) and Quality Control facilities are checked at site.
In case of liquor and food items, Hygiene inspection of the factory is carried out by Army medical authorities.
All food items before introduction are checked for Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) compliance and also sent for Composite Food Laboratory (CFL) / Government approved / National Accreditation Board for testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accredited labs for testing. Liquor is sent to CFLs for testing. An item is introduced in CSD inventory range only after it undergoes tests successfully.
1.16 Routine Testing.
Food and Liquor Items
Samples for testing are drawn from lots, at random, by a Board of Officers. Samples of food and liquor are drawn from CSD Area Depots and sent to Government approved / National Accreditation Board for testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accredited labs for testing including Composite Food Laboratory (CFL).
General Stores
Master Samples and Technical Data Specification (TDS) are maintained by the Department.
The Department generates a list of items at random every month and draws samples from CSD Area Depots and compares the same with the Technical Data Specification (TDS) submitted by the firms held by Department.
Samples are sent to Govt/ Govt approved/NABL accredited labs for testing.
Reactive Measures
1.17 Quality checks are conducted under the following circumstances apart from regular/routine tests carried out by the Department:-
URC Complaints & Customer complaints.
Samples are drawn by senior officers during their visits to Depots and tested.
Complaint by Depot Managers.
1.18 In all such cases where deviations are found by the Department, stringent action such as imposition of penalty and/or suspension of sale/orders is taken. In the event of repeated deviations, the item is deleted from the CSD range.