Procedural actions for revision of pension of pre-1.1.2016 retirees of Central Government in pursuance of the OM of Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare dated 12.5.2017

No.1(13)/EV/2017

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Expenditure

New Delhi, the 23rd May, 2017

Office Memorandum

Subject: Procedural actions for revision of pension of pre-1.1.2016 retirees of Central Government in pursuance of the OM of Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare dated 12.5.2017 – Regarding.

The Ministries/Departments of the Central Government are aware of the orders issued by Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoP&PW) contained in their OM No. 38/37/2016-P&PW(A) dated 12.5.2017 regarding revision of pension of pre-1.1.2016 retirees. In terms of para 4 thereof, the revised pension/family pension w.e.f. 1.1.2016 in respect of all Central civil pensioners/family pensioners, including CAPF’s who retired/died prior to 1.1.2016 may be revised by notionally fixing their pay in the pay matrix recommended by the 7th Central Pay Commission in the level corresponding to the pay in the pay scale/pay band and grade pay at which they retired/died. The said OM further provides that this will be done by notional pay fixation under each intervening Pay Commission based on the formula for revision of pay. 50% of the notional pay as on 1.1.2016 shall be the revised pension and 30% of this notional pay shall be the revised family pension w.e.f. 1.1.2016.

2. The Ministries/Departments are aware that actual implementation of the aforesaid order contained in the OM dated 12.5.2017 of the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare involves a procedure for revision of pension of such pensioners, which covers a number of agencies like the Heads of Departments/Heads of Offices, under whose administrative control a particular pensioner had worked before retirement/death, the concerned PAOs, pension accounting organizations like CPAO in case of civil pensioners and similar pension accounting organizations pertaining to pensioners in Ministries of Railways, Defence and Department of Posts, etc. Therefore, a coordinated action amongst these agencies is required to ensure that revision of pension in such cases is processed expeditiously.

3. Accordingly, while the substantive matter pertaining to revision of pension of pre-1.1.2016 Central Government retirees concerns Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare as already provided in their aforesaid OM dated 12.5.2017 and any further substantive order thereon issued by them, there are certain procedural actions which need to be taken by the concerned administrative agencies in each Ministry/Department as well as the pension accounting organisations like the Central Pension Accounting Office under the Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure; Controller General of Defence Accounts under the Ministry of Defence and similar pension accounting organisations under the Ministry of Railways and Department of Posts etc so that appropriate implementation of the orders of Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare as per their OM dated 12.5.2017 is carried out expeditiously.

4. In order, therefore, to put the procedural issues in this regard in perspective and to provide for coordinated action amongst the concerned agencies, the following procedural points of action are to be taken by the concerned agencies as brought out below:

(A) Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance

(i) The fitment tables for fixation of notional pay will be worked out by the Department of Expenditure and provided to Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare for appropriate guidelines for the purpose of issue of any further substantive order in the matter.

(B) Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare

(i) The appropriate guidelines/ instructions for revision of pension based on fitment tables for notional pay will be issued for use by the pension revising administrative authorities, PAOs and pension accounting organisations in the Central Government.

(C) Pension Accounting Authorities

(i) The Central Pension Accounting Office in case of civil pensioners and similar pension accounting offices in the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Railways, Department of Posts etc., shall pass on the available and relevant data of live pensioners to the concerned PAOs by 31.05.2017, if such data is already available with them. This action will be completed within two weeks. In cases where the data is not available, the same will be obtained by the pension accounting offices from the disbursing banks and shall be passed on to the concerned PAOs. This action will be taken up simultaneously and completed within four weeks.

(ii) The pension accounting offices, while passing on the data to the concerned PAOs, may also devise a suitable mechanism for electronic revision, as far as possible, to enable PAOs to process the cases of pension revision expeditiously.

(iii) The central pension accounting offices like the CPAO, at the time of passing on the data to the concerned PAOs, shall send a few illustrative examples on pension revision in such cases to the pension disbursing Banks to enable them to consider suitable changes in the software, if necessary, for the purpose.

(D) Pay & Account Office (PAO)/Head of the Department.

(i) The concerned PAOs, on receiving data from the pension accounting organizations, shall immediately, and not later than 3 days from the receipt of data, pass on the data to the concerned administration/establishment Branches/Heads of the Office (HOO)s under various Heads of Department (HODs) of the Ministries/Departments. The HOOs will also check their records to ascertain the actual numbers of retirees.

(ii) The concerned administration/establishment branches/Heads of Offices (HOO) under various Heads of Departments (HODs) of the Ministries/Departments shall take action to revise the pension in case of retirees who had worked under their administrative control, based on the orders issued by the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare dated 12.5.2017 and any further order containing the fitment table providing for notional pay, after due verification of the relevant records.

(iii) In cases where records are readily available with the HoD/DDO, the action to process revision of pension shall be initiated forthwith and not later than 30 days from the date of receipt of the list of pensioners by the PAOs from the CPAO. In such cases, revised pension cases will be sent to the PAOs for further necessary action by the concerned administrative Branches/HOOs, which normally process the pension cases in case of employees under their administrative domain on their retirement/death.

(iv) In cases where records are not readily available, the concerned HOOs/HODs will ensure appropriate action for verification of such cases and ensure expeditious revision of pension as per the prescribed procedure and passing on the same to PAOs for further necessary action.

(v) On receipt of revised pension cases from the administrative/establishment branches, the PAOs shall take further appropriate action expeditiously and pass on the duly verified pension revision authorities to the pension accounting offices like the CPAO, which will in turn take further action to issue necessary instructions/authority to the disbursing Banks without delay.

(vi) Once the revised pension authority is received by the Banks, they will ensure timely payment of revised pension and arrears, if any, to the accounts of pensioners.

5. In order to ensure effective monitoring of the progress of pension revision based on the procedure outlined above, a monitoring mechanism will also be followed as brought out below:

(i) DOP&PW will periodically monitor the Ministry-wise progress of pension revision. For this purpose, Ministry-wise details would be made available by the respective pension accounting organisations, viz, CPAO, CGDA, etc, to the Department of P&PW.

(ii) The progress of pension revision at the HOD/HOO level will be monitored by the concerned JS(Admn) of the Ministry/Department on a weekly basis. This will be included as one agenda in the Senior Officers Meetings (5OM) in each Ministry/Department.

(iii) CPAO and similar pension accounting organisations shall place online a dashboard of the progress of revision of pension cases with PAOs, CCAs, nodal authorities of Ministries/Departments and Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare.

(iv) In order to ensure timely action on the part of Chief Controller of Accounts/Controller of Accounts/PAOs and Pension Accounting Organisations, a weekly progress meeting shall be held at the level of Chief Controller of Pension and this shall be monitored on monthly basis by Controller General of Accounts, CGDA and similar levels in the Ministry of Railways, Department of Posts, etc.

sd/-

(Amar Nath Singh)

Director