Meeting Minutes to review the status of implementation of 7th CPC pension revision
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF FINANCE
DEPARTMENT OF EXPENDITURE
CENTRAL PENSION ACCOUNTING OFFICE
TRIKOOT-II, BHIKAJI CAMA PLACE,
NEW DELHI – 110066
PHONES: 26174596, 26174456, 26174438
CPAO/IT&Tech/Revision (7th CPC)/19.Vol-III/2016-17/124
30th August, 2016
Minutes of the Meeting
Subject: Minutes of the meeting held on 22.08.2016 under the Chairmanship of Addl.CGA with all the Heads of CPPCs/Government Business Divisions of Authorised Banks to review the status of implementation of 7th CPC pension revision and other issues.
A meeting with all the Heads of CPPCs/Govt. Business Divisions to review the status of implementation of 7th CPC revision and other issues was held on 22.08.2016 at PFMS Conference Hall, 4th Floor, Shivaji Stadium Annexe, New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Addl.CGA. A list of participants is enclosed at Annexure-I.
Following agenda items were discussed.
I) Status of implementation of 7th CPC Pension Revision
1) Readiness of the banks for timely and correct revision of pension and payment of arrears by 31st Aug 2016:- As per DPPW OM dated 4th August, 2016 all the pension disbursing banks have to complete the task related with 7th CPC pension revisions and payments of arrears by 31st August, 2016. Banks were also instructed vide OM No. CPAO/IT & Tech/Revision (7th CPC)/19.Vol-III/2015-16/109 dated 11th August 2016 from CPAO instructing them to complete the task by 31st August 2016 and report the revision through e-scrolls. In the meeting, instructions were reiterated to ensure payment of revised pension alongwith arrears to all pre-2016 pensioners by 31.08.2016. All banks expressed their commitment for payment of revised pension alongwith arrears to pensioners by 31.08.2016. However, the State Bank of India mentioned that it was targeting the date of 8th September, 2016 to complete the process on which both the Addl. CGA and CC (P) instructed SBI that the target date of 31.08.2016 is non-negotiable and SBI should use all their resources to complete the payment of revised pension alongwith arrears by 31.08.2016. Since payment of pension presently being drawn by the Pensioners/Family Pensioners under 6th CPC will provide basis for revision under 7th CPC, correctness of pension under 7th CPC revisions would depend upon the accuracy of the revisions effected by the Banks under 6th CPC. Internal Audit of CPAO has pointed out in many cases mismatches between the pension authorized by the CPAO and the pension paid by the Banks vide letter dated 22nd July 2016 to banks. In these cases, banks were either making overpayments or underpayments to the pensioners. If not corrected, these discrepancies in the payment would percolate to the 7th CPC revisions also which may lead to the pensioners’ grievances and court cases. Therefore, banks were advised to comply with the audit observations while revising such cases as per 7th CPC without breaching the deadline of 31st August, 2016.
2) Strategy of banks to deal with pending cases of revision under 6th CPC:- It was discussed that there were possibilities where Revision Authorities had been sent by the CPAO but banks had not yet acted upon these authorities pertaining to the pension revisions under DP&PW O.M. dated 30.07.2015 & 06.04.2016. Further, other revisions under 6th CPC pending with Departments may also be received by the banks later after effecting revisions under 7th CPC by them based on the existing pension.
To deal with these pending cases under 6th CPC, banks were advised to make suitable strategy and provision in their software to revise these cases under 6th CPC at a later date too and provisions for further required adjustments for 7th CPC revisions may also be made.
3) Monitoring of implementation of 7th CPC by CPPCs/GBDs: As banks have to effect 7th CPC revisions along with payment of arrears by 31st August, 2016, close monitoring of implementation of the same was required. For this purpose, banks were advised to constitute a group of officials who may keep a close watch on the status of implementation on daily basis. This group may deal with the issues related with manpower, software, infrastructure and availability of records to ensure that correct revisions are done and arrear payments are made by 31st August, 2016. Banks were also advised to strengthen their Internal Monitoring and Control System for timely and correct payment of pension and revisions.
4) Reporting of revised cases to CPAO by banks: The objective of government is to ensure timely and correct revision of pension under 7th CPC. It becomes necessary for CPAO to monitor the same. Therefore, after paying the revised pension and arrears, banks were advised to flag the revised cases in the Format -A of the e-scrolls to be submitted to CPAO so that revised cases may be identified at CPAO. To enable the banks for flagging of such cases, necessary modifications have been made in the Format-A of e-Scroll by changing the heading of column-18 to “Applicable Pay Commission”. Under this column, banks have to fill “7” for the cases which have been revised under 7th CPC by them. Further banks were advised to incorporate in the column 27 of the Format in e-scroll titled “Pay Commission”, 7th CPC and send it alongwith Format-A.
Banks sought certain clarifications on the 7th CPC revisions and the clarifications of CPAO have been put on CPAO website on 24th August 2016. A copy of the same is at Annexure-II.
II) Other Issues
a) Furnishing the details/records of pending revision of Pre-2006 pension cases: Despite all efforts of PAOs and CPAO, still 4,857 (1.13%) cases as on 22nd August 2016 pertaining to Civil Ministries/Departments were pending for revision as per 6th CPC recommendations. In these cases, details of pensioners required for revision are neither available with CPAO nor with PAO/Ministry/Department. Since banks are paying pension to these pensioners, they were advised to forward the details of such pensioners/family pensioners to CPAO for immediate revision of pension. In those cases where banks are not having requisite details of these pensioners, they were supposed to contact the pensioners on the contact details available with them under KYC norms and get the details.
b) Delay in commencement of family pension to spouse on death of pensioners:- It has been reported by the pensioners and pensioners associations that there is inordinate delay in start of pension in favour of spouse after the death of pensioners. Ideally there should not be any delay in the start of family pension in favour of the spouse of deceased pensioners because family pension in favour of spouse is co-authorized in the original PPO of pensioners itself through joint bank accounts. The family pension must be started immediately after submission of death certificate of the pensioners. It is essential for CPAO to monitor such types of cases; however, it becomes difficult because the date of death of pensioner is not known to CPAO. Though, provision of reporting of date of death of Pensioners is available in the Format ‘F’ of the e-scroll. However, banks are not providing this information to CPAO. Therefore, banks were advised to take necessary steps in this regard to ensure timely payment of family pension in the event of death of pensioners and report the same to the CPAO through Format-F of e-Scroll.
c) Automatic Restoration of Commutation of pension and payment of Additional Pension: The commuted portion of pension must be restored after 15 years from the date of payment of commutation automatically. Similarly, on attaining the age of 80 years, additional pension to the pensioners should also be paid automatically. It was mentioned to the banks that it has been noticed that in many case timely restoration of CVP and payment of additional pension are not done by the banks resulting into sufferings to the pensioners. These issues are reported by the pensioners and pensioners associations to the government time and again. In the recent SCOVA meeting also these issues were raised on which Secretary (P&PW) expressed his deep concern and desired that CPAO should take monthly report on it from the banks. To ensure timely restoration of CVP and payment of additional pension on attaining the age of 80 years, banks were advised to make necessary provisions in their software for flagging of such cases and regular monitoring thereof so that pensioner may not feel harassed on these grounds.
d) Use of CPAO website to respond on the action taken on pensioners’ grievances: Banks were informed that CPAO has developed web responsive pensioner’s service on its website www.cpao.nic.in for the registration and tracking of grievances registered by the pensioners. Facility to forward bank related grievances and taking online response thereof has been developed. For this purpose login IDs have been created for every head of CPPC and necessary instructions (along with login id and password) have already been circulated by CPAO for the use of this service by the banks. To monitor the disposal of grievances by the banks, separate login IDs have also been created for the officers of Government Accounting/Business Divisions. However, it is noticed that banks have not started using this facility for taking action on the grievances of pensioners forwarded online through this system. They were advised to use this facility immediately.
Further, banks were also advised to have separate website for CPPCs which should be able to redress pensioners grievances too as per para 9.2 of CPPC guidelines issued by CPAO.
e) Readiness of SFTP for implementation of digitally signed pension revision authorities: After the implementation of paperless movement of digitally signed revision authorities for SBI, PNB, Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda, other 25 banks were instructed through CPAO OM dated 28/01/2016 to get ready with their SFTP server so that w.e.f. 16.02.2016 this project might be implemented in all the banks. Accordingly, all the banks were requested to provide Server fingerprint for SFTP, Username of SFTP and Password for the SFTP to the CPAO. However, 7 Banks i.e. Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, State Bank of Travancore, United Commercial Bank and Syndicate Bank were still to provide these details. Consequently, this project was yet to be implemented with these banks. These 7 Banks were advised to complete all formalities in this regard without further delay so that the digitally signed pension revision authorities may be implemented with them also.
f) Status of Aadhaar Seeding: CC (P) appreciated the overall seeding of Aadhaar by the banks which was more than 75% of the total civil pensioners. Further, quoting the reference of DP&PW letter dated – 10.08.2016 addressed to CMDs of all Pension Disbursing Banks, he advised the banks to complete the Aadhaar seeding for remaining pensioners also while revising the pension under 7th CPC.
g) Delay in receipt of Scrolls from Banks: Though Banks are required to send e-scrolls to CPAO either on the same day or by next day, but delay ranging from 1 days to 68 days has been observed. Banks were advised to ensure that e-scrolls are timely sent to CPAO.
h) Timely credit of revisions of pension effected consequent to Oms dated-30th July, 2015 and 6th April 2016 respectively of DP&PW: Instances have been reported where the revision of pension already sent by CPAO consequent to Oms dated-30th July, 2015 and 6th April 2016 respectively of DP&PW have not been effected by banks for long or with too much delay. Banks were instructed to have their internal timelines to effect revisions and keep a close watch to avoid delays.
Meeting ended with the vote of thanks to the chair.
(Vijay Singh)
Sr. Accounts Officer (IT&Tech)
Original Copy
