The payment of pension to retired
Government employees is governed by the relevant Schemes prepared by concerned
Ministries/Departments with the approval of Controller General of Accounts,
Ministry of Finance, Government of India or by State Governments and involves
payment of increased Dearness Relief and other benefits as and when announced
by the Governments. Various circulars issued in this connection are summarized
hereunder for information.
2. Hosting of Government
Orders on Dearness Relief (DR) etc. to State Government Pensioners on Web sites
of State Governments
(Ref: DGBA. GAD. No.H-416/45.01.003/2002-03
dated March 21, 2003 & DGBA. GAD. No. 770/45.01.003/2003-04 dated February
25, 2004)
In order to obviate the time lag
between issue of Dearness Relief orders and payment of Dearness Relief to the
beneficiary and to render expeditious service to the senior citizens, it has
been decided that pension paying agency banks should act on the copies of the
orders supplied by Government to the Head Offices and/or Regional Offices of
authorized banks in the State headquarters.
Further, it was decided to host
the Circulars on the State Governments' secured website.
All State Governments have
been given the option to send the Government Orders relating to Dearness Relief
to RBI in electronic format and also hard copy to enable Reserve Bank to host
the same on its website.
3. Payment of Pension to Central
Government Pensioners through Public Sector Banks – Steps taken by Government
to minimize delay in payment of Dearness Relief (DR) to Pensioners – Discontinuation
of forwarding Government Orders in respect of DR etc. through Reserve Bank of
India
(Ref: DGBA. GAD. No. H-506/45.01.001/2002-03
dated April 12, 2003)
In order to obviate the time lag
between the issue of Dearness Relief etc. orders and actual payment to the beneficiaries
and to render expeditious service to the senior citizens, Ministry of Personnel,
Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare,
Government of India have taken following steps :
Pension paying banks were advised
to put in place mechanism to immediately obtain copies of Government Orders
and release it to the pension paying branches for action at their end so that
the pensioners should get the benefits announced by Government in the succeeding
month’s pension payment itself. The Controlling Offices/ Head Offices of Agency
banks should closely monitor and supervise timely and correct disbursement of
Government pension to eligible pensioners. Further, in the cases of Central
Civil and Railway pensioners, the pension paying banks should endorse the names
of nominees as per nomination forms ‘A’ and ‘B’ on the front page of the pass
book and the branches may be advised to ensure that the procedure laid down
in Schemes for disbursement of pension to pensioners by public sector banks
are followed scrupulously. In order to create better awareness among staff about
pension payment schemes/ rules, banks may include this as an integral part of
the training programmes conducted by their training establishments.
5. Acceptance of nomination in
form ‘A’ and ‘B’- Central Civil Pension
(Ref: DGBA. GAD. No.H94/45.05.031/2004-05
dated August 24, 2004)
With a view to redressing inconvenience
to the pensioners and their heirs, it has been advised by the Government that
all pension paying bank branches should accept nomination in form "A"
or "B" as the case may be, submitted by the pensioners for the payment
of arrears of pension to the heirs.
6. Acceptance of Nomination (Form
‘A’ & ‘B’) in respect of Railway pensioners for the payment of arrears of
pension.
(DGBA. GAD. No. H-3611/ 45.03.002/
2005-06 dated October 10, 2005)
With a view to avoid inconvenience
to the pensioners, Ministry of Railways (Railway Board), has decided to adopt
the nomination forms (‘A’ & ‘B’) prescribed by Central Pension Accounting
Office (CPAO) for Railway pensioners also. Agency banks were advised to issue
necessary instructions to all pension paying branches to accept Nomination Forms
‘A’ or ‘B’ as the case may be, submitted by Railway pensioners for the payment
of arrears of pension to the heir(s).
7. Implementation of procedure
for payment of pensions and other retirement benefits to All India Service Officers
retiring from Government of India while on central deputation
(DGBA. GAD. No. 612-644/ 45.01.001/2004-05
dated October 7, 2004)
Agency banks are advised to follow
accounting procedure for payment of pension to All India Service Officers retiring
from Government of India while on Central Deputation as follows:
- PPO number for All India Service Pensioners
would incorporate, besides the 12 digit numeric component used for Central
Civil pensioner, a prefix indicating the service and the state cadre to which
the pensioner belongs. A sample PPO number for an IAS Officer of Punjab cadre
would be – IAS/Pb/438840400191.
- All India Service Pensioners will have the option
to draw pension only through the authorised banks i.e. Public Sector
Banks and the four authorized Private Sector Banks viz. IDBI Bank Ltd., UTI
Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd. and HDFC Bank Ltd.
- The Special Seal Authority (SSA) issued by the
CPAO would be in blue colour to distinguish it from authorities issued for
Central Civil pensioners. In addition, the authority will indicate the State
Government to which the payment is debitable.
- One copy of the SSA will be sent to concerned
Accountant General for information and record.
- The concerned paying branches of the bank after
following the necessary procedure for identifying the pensioner would release
the payment and add the name of All India Service Pensioner to the scrolls
prepared for State Government Pensioners to be routed for reimbursement to
the reimbursing branches of the Reserve Bank/ State Bank as the case may be.
Such scrolls are NOT being handled under Single Window System of pension
reimbursement for Central Government Civil Pensioners and should not therefore
be sent to CPAO.
- The reimbursing branches would follow the procedure
for the State Government Pensioners and send advice to Reserve Bank, CAS,
Nagpur and the corresponding scrolls to the concerned Accountant General.
- The RBI, CAS, Nagpur would debit the concerned
State Government Account as per the procedure.
8. Scheme for payment of pension
to Defence pensioners by public sector banks – delay in submission of pension
payment scrolls and steps to avoid fake & fraudulent payments
(DGBA.GAD. No. 867-899/ 45.02.001/
2004-05 dated October 18, 2004)
It has been observed that there
is a lag of two to three months in submitting the pension payment scrolls to
pension authorities by the pension paying banks.
Often these scrolls are bunched.
In this connection, a reference is invited to paragraphs 9(6), 10 and 11 of
the booklet "Scheme for Payment of Pension to Defence Pensioners"
wherein the procedure for transmission of pension payment scrolls by paying
branches, link branches and reimbursing branches is clearly stipulated. The
entire procedure needs to be completed as per the timeframe fixed so that the
payment scrolls are finally received at the Office of the PCDA (Pension), Allahabad
latest by 15th of the following month (except for the month of March
scrolls, which should invariably reach latest by 3rd week of April
every year).
Office of the PCDA (Pension) has
also noticed that in some cases of payment of gratuity and commutation amount
were made to imposters on fake and fraudulent PPOs by the pension paying branches
without observing prescribed checks. It has also been observed that in the cases
of first payment of pension, either PPO numbers were not mentioned on the scrolls
or incorrect PPO numbers were mentioned making it difficult to verify the correctness
of the payment. Further, these payments were being shown in the main pension
payment scrolls along with the regular monthly payments of Defence Pensioners.
The Pension Paying Branches/ Link
Branches / Reimbursing branches are advised to put in place a more efficient
system to ensure the following:
(i) Pension Paying branches to
submit pension payment scrolls to Link Branches within the stipulated time (by
10th of the following month). No bunching of scrolls is done.
(ii) Link branches to forward the
original copy of the scroll along with summary sheet and summary documents to
disbursing banks (RBI / SBI etc. as the case may be) by 11th of each
month.
(iii) Reimbursing banks should
forward the original copy of the scrolls directly to CDA (Pension), Allahabad
after reimbursing pension paying bank, by debit to Government Account so as
to reach PCDA (Pension) by 15th of the following month except for
the March scrolls.
(iv) In the cases of first payments
of pension, pension paying branches should prepare scrolls carefully indicating
correct PPO number, amount of gratuity and commutation against the name of each
pensioner and submit the same separately on a monthly basis in
addition to the regular monthly payment cases which will continue to be prepared
separately along with separate summary sheet.
(v) Pension paying branches should
prepare separate summary sheets for regular monthly pension payment cases as
well as first pension payment case.
9. Scheme of Payment of Pension
to Railway Pensioners by Public Sector Banks – Steps to avoid fraudulent payments
(No. RBI / 2005/ 334) (Ref. DGBA.
GAD. No. H 3389-3421/ 45.02.01/ 2004-05) dated January 6, 2005
We have been informed by the Ministry
of Railways, Government of India, (Railway Board) that their vigilance department
has detected cases of fraud
wherein pension / pension arrears
have been disbursed to unauthorized persons by some of the Public Sector Banks
against fake Pension Payment Orders (PPOs). They have also observed that such
fraudulent payments are made by pension paying branches without observing prescribed
checks i.e. releasing payments by relying upon calculation sheet not signed
by authorized signatory etc. as also non-compliance of laid down procedures,
in particular regarding receipt of PPOs by banks.
Railway pension paying branches
are requested to strictly follow the procedure laid down in "Scheme for
Payment of Railway Pension through Public Sector Banks" by the Ministry
of Railways (Railway Board) for disbursement of pension to Railway pensioners
to avoid fraudulent payments against fake pension payment orders.
10. Payment of Central Civil Pension
– Entry of Dearness Relief in both Halves of Pension Payment Orders (PPOs)
(DGBA. GAD. No. H.3452-3485/ 45.01.001/
2004-05 dated January 11, 2005)
It has come to our notice that
some of the Pension Paying Bank branches do not update the amount of basic pension/family
pension whenever there is change in basic rates in both halves of the
Pension Payment Order (PPO) concerned.
In this connection, we reproduce
below para 12.17 and 19.1 of the 'Scheme for Payment of Pensions to Central
Government Civil Pensioners by Public Sector Banks":
'Whenever there is change in the
basic rates of pension and/or dearness relief on pension, the paying branch
shall call back the pensioner's half of the PPO and record thereon the changes,
indicating, inter-alia, the date(s) from which the changes are effective. After
this is done, those halves will be returned to the pensioners ' (Para 12.17).
Whenever any additional relief
on pensions is sanctioned by Government an intimation to this effect will be
sent by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department
of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare) to the authorised representative (by name)
of each nominated public sector bank at the address given by the latter. Thereafter
it shall be the responsibility of the banks to collect through their representatives
operating at Delhi or otherwise, the required number of copies (to be intimated
in advance) of the sanction orders, along with the ready-reckoner relating thereto,
from the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of
Pension and Pensioners' Welfare) and send them immediately to their respective
Head Offices for direct transmission to the paying branches within ten days
for implementation. Each paying branch will promptly determine the revised rates
of relief on pensions payable to the Central Government Civil Pensioners under
its payment. The calculations of these rates applicable to individual pensioners
would be made as in Annexure XXII (Page 41) and they will be noted in disburser's
portion of the PPOs along with the date from which relief would take effect,
under attestation by the Branch Manager or In-Charge before commencing payment
of relief at the revised rates and/or payment of arrears, if any, due to the
pensioners on this account……..' (Para 19.1).
Banks are requested to draw the
attention of their pension paying branches to the above provisions and advise
them to strictly follow the instructions.
11. Disbursement of Railway
Pension by Agency Banks- Main areas where banks tend to make overpayment.
(DGBA. GAD. No. 6073/ 45.05.031/
2004-05 dated May 30, 2005)
A list of main areas where the
banks tends to make overpayments in respect of Railway pensioners received from
Financial Adviser & Chief Accounts Officer’s Office, Central Railway, Mumbai
was forwarded to all agency banks with a request to circulate the same among
their pension paying branches and instruct them to take appropriate action so
as to avoid overpayments of Railway pension.
12. Scheme of Payment of Pension
to Railway Pensioners through Public Sector Banks – Designation of FA &
CAOs of seven new zones by Ministry of Railways.
(DGBA. GAD. No. H. 10746/ 45.03.001/
2005-06 dated January 24, 2006)