Govt to clear Rs 5k cr sop for central govt pensioners

Apr 21 2017 : The Times of India (Hyderabad)

Sidhartha

New Delhi:





The government is set to clear a `5,000 crore package for pensioners after Sunday's municipal elections in the capital to address their concerns related to the award of the 7th pay commission for central government employees and seniors. The revised pension will be taken up by the Union cabinet along with three-four issues related to the pay of central government employees, even as a committee headed by finance secretary Ashok Lavasa finalises its recommendations for allowances for government employees, including an increase in the house rent allowance (HRA).
The panel is expected to submit its recommendations next week but there are indications that the change in allowances may not take place immediately. The revised pension sche me has been finalised and the government has postponed a decision due to the code of conduct for Delhi municipal elections. The Cabinet may clear it next week,“ said a source who did not wish to be identified.
The pay panel had recommended an increment-linked pension formula along with the option for multiplying the pension based on the sixth pay commission's recommendations by 2.57. To quickly implement the suggestions, the government opted for the second option as the increment-linked pension model was seen to be difficult to implement. This has created a situation where those who retired by December 31, 2015 are receiving a lower pension compared to someone who retired a month later. For instance, someone who retired as a secretary before January 2016 gets a pension of Rs 1.02 lakh compared to the Rs 1.12 lakh for someone who retired at the end of the month.

RTI REQUEST FILED ON BEHALF OF A WIDOW WHO APPROACHED NFOESM-IN SIMILAR CASES OTHERS CAN USE IT AS A FORMAT

Online RTI Request Form Details

RTI Request Details :-

RTI Request Registration number	DEXSW/R/2017/50207
Public Authority	Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare

Personal Details of RTI Applicant:-

Name	Mrs SOBHANA DEVADASS
Gender	Female
Address	CC NO 46/475C, THREE STAR APPARTMENT , DON BOSCO ROAD ( OPP. PETROL PUMP), VADUTHALA- KOCHI-23
Pincode	682023
Country	India
State	Kerala
Status	Urban
Educational Status	Literate
Phone Number	Details not provided
Mobile Number	+91-xxxxxxxxxx
Email-ID	menontalk2u[at]gmail[dot]com

Request Details :-

Citizenship	Indian
Is the Requester Below Poverty Line ?	No
(Description of Information sought (upto 500 characters)
Description of Information Sought
From Mrs. SOBHANA DEVADASS CC NO 46/475C THREE STAR APPARTMENT, OPP: PETROL PUMP, DON BOSCO ROAD, VADUTHALA, KOCHI-682023 ------------ Dated: 19/04/2017 TO PCDA Allahabad Sub: RTI Request regarding arrears Payable under PCDA Circular-568, Delinking 33 Years service for Pre-2006 Ex-service Family Pensioners. I am a Widow of a Short service commissioned officer of the following Particulars. SERVICE NO- SS 25625A RANK- CAPT NAME- K. DEVADASS SERVICE- ARMY Branch- Arty Qualifying service-13 Years NAME OF FAMILY PENSIONER-Mrs.SOBHANA DEVADASS Date of commencement of family Pension-30/04/1983 PPO NO- -M/Family/135/88 Bank A/C No-10367440372 Disbursing Bank Branch-State Bank Of India, Perumannoor Branch, Kochi-682015 CPPC Address- Centralised Pension Processing Centre (CPPC) ,LMC Compound, Behind Main Block, Vikas Bhavan-PO, Trivandrum-695033 Name of Pension Sanctioning Authority- PCDA Allahabad I am entitled to an arrears of Payment as per PCDA circular 568 Annexure-A Column No 7 as applicable to Capt of ECO/SSCO ,Normal rate of family pension @ Rs. 9687 in respect of delinking of 33 years of service for Pre-2006 pensioners. The above is duly authorized by Para 4,5,6&7 of MOD letter issued by DESW Dated 30/09/2016 and attached to PCDA Circular 568. On my enquiry to CPPC, They have informed me that it is applicable only for pensioners who pensioned between 01/01/1996 to 31/12/2006 Vide their letter Dated 29/03/2017(Copy of letter attached).My present Basic Family Pension is Rs 9279 & Eligibility as per Annexure A column no 7 Normal rate of family pension for the Rank of Capt is Rs 9687(Difference of Rs 408). Hence they have denied me the arrears due to me w.e.f 01/01/2006 to till date on account of PCDA Circular 568 by rules which is not mentioned anywhere in PCDA Circular 568 or in MOD Circular DESW dated 30/09/2016 attached to PCDA Circular 568. Hence I wish to obtain Through RTI act ,Copy of the following documents from PCDA Allahabad for claiming my actual eligible arrears as per PCDA Circular 568. 1) Copy of calculation done by PCDA Allahabad for arrears payable to me in respect of delinking 33 years service vide PCDA circular 568 Annexure- A column No 7 as applicable to family pensioners of the Rank of Capt -ECO/SSCO (Normal rate of family pension). 2) Copy of letter issued by you if any restricting the benefits under PCDA Circular 568 to Pensioners who were Pensioned Between 01/01/1996 to 31/12/2005 as clarified by State bank of India,CPPC,Trivandrum vide their letter to me Dated 29/03/2017 (Copy attached). Yours faithfully, Mrs.Sobhana Devadas W/O Late Capt K. Devadass.
Concerned CPIO	Nodal Officer
Supporting document (only pdf upto 1 MB)

FRAUD IN THE NAME OF ARMY GROUP INSURANCE FUND (AGIF)

Certain firms/individuals are cheating serving/retired army personnel by claiming to be Agents of AGIF or having tie up with AGIF.  They insist on serving/retired army personnel to become members of their Firm/Club by paying membership money.  The Firm then promises to facilitate the processing of claim/loan and refund of their pending money from AGIF.

2.   AGIF has NOT employed Firm/Agent and has NO tie up with any one.  Therefore, beware of such fraudsters and not pay any amount to them. AGIF does not charge any money for payment of claims.  Particulars of anyone claiming to be Agent of AGIF may please be confirmed from AGIF by mail/Telephone at the following numbers :-

 

ARMY GROUP INSURANCE FUND

ADJUTANT GENERAL'S BRANCH

INTEGRATED HQ MOD (ARMY)

RAO TULA RAM MARG

PO.  VASANT VIHAR

POST BAG NO.14

NEW DELHI-110057

TELEPHONE NUMBERS

          

MD  AGIF               011-26143757

 PDAS                    011-26143759

Director (Coord)    011-26142369

Director (EMI)        011-26143852

Director (Claim)     011-26144837

Director (Fin)          011-26149813

Exchange AGIF      011-26142749

011-26147230

011-26151031

E-Mail - adagif@gmail.com

RTI pleas on pension issues should be decided in 48 hrs: CIC

 

 Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi  April 2, 2017 Last Updated at 15:19 IST

Right to information (RTI) applications seeking pension details should be replied to within 48 hours as it pertains to the "life and liberty" of the elderly, the Central Information Commission has held as it pitched for early redressal of such grievances.

The Commission also directed that if an RTI application is a genuine grievance of a pensioner, steps should be initiated within 48 hours to redress it.

The directive of Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu will come to the aid of over 58 lakh central government pensioners.

Acharyulu in a recent order held that the information pertaining to pension of a person pertains to his/her life and liberty which is mandated to be replied to within 48 hours as per the RTI Act.

He said the moment an RTI application on pension issue is received, there should be a mechanism at the entry stage to discover and identify if it reflects a pension related grievance.

He said it should be brought to the notice of the responsible officer by the CPIO on the same day and if it is a genuine case, the grievance should be addressed. The result should be communicated within 48 hours, followed by redressal within 30 days.

Acharyulu said considering the "living needs" of elderly pensioners, it is important that records of their dues should be considered as "life and liberty" related information under the RTI Act.

"The moment RTI application on pension issue is received, there should be a mechanism at the entry stage to discover and identify if it reflects a pension related grievance/issue and should be acted upon immediately," Acharyulu said in his directives to Employees' Provident Fund Office, Raipur.

He said all the cases relating to delay in fixation and payment of pension and also arrears shall be dealt with urgently, considering them as request for information concerning the life or liberty under section 7(1) of RTI Act.

"Any grievance regarding these issues should also be treated as 'right to life' under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution and the public authorities shall do all the needful to address the issue within 48 hours," the Information Commissioner said.

Acharyulu said some authorities say that unless an imminent danger is there to life or liberty, this clause cannot be invoked.

"It is an extraneous extension of imagination without any basis. The expression used in the Act is simply 'where the information sought for concerns the life or liberty of a person', which should mean it is enough if it concerns the life or liberty. That need not be in imminent danger," he clarified in his order.

He was adjudicating the case of one Amrika Bai who had filed an RTI application seeking to know discrepancy in the payment of pension to her.

When she could not get proper response, she approached the Commission questioning non-payment of arrears of pension in a time-bound manner.

"The arrears involved is only an increase of 4 per cent on the basic pension of Rs 1,986, which comes to Rs 80. Though it is a very small amount it matters most for an old age appellant, who lost her husband and depends upon sons or daughters," Acharyulu said.

LETTER FROM DESW REGARDING STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF SC JUDGEMENT IN NAVAL VETERANS CASE

  F.No.5(33)/2017/D(Pen/Legal)

                   Ministry of Defence

            Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare

                        D (Pen/Legal)

Subject : Seeking Information under RTI Act, 2005-RTI Application of MBC Menon

                The Chairmen National Federation of Ex-servicemen dated 27.02.2017

     Please find enclosed an online RTI Request No.DEXSW/R/2017/50096 dated 

27.02.2017 from MBC Menon, The Chairman National Federation of Ex-servicemen on the subject regarding the implementation of Hon'ble Supreme Court judgement in CA No.2147/2011 dated 27.10.2016 addressed to undersigned CPIO.  The same is transferred to you under section 6(3) of RTI Act 2005 for necessary action, under intimation of the undersigned.

                                                                             Sd/ ....................23.3.2017

                                                                                  (A K Agarwal)

                                                                                   U.S.D(P/L-1)

                                                                                    Tel.No. 2301 5021

CPIO  DPA(Navy) Sena Bhawan New Delhi 110011

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mod ID No.5(33)/2017/D(Pen/Legal) dated 23.03.2017

Copy to

                 MBC Menon

                 The Chairman National Federation of Ex-servicemen

                  AC/149A, Shalimar Bagh

                  New Delhi, Pin 110088

IF DISABILITY PENSIONERS HAVE ANY PROBLEM REGARDING IT DEDUCTION MAY CONTACT ADV,NAVDEEP SINGH(Rtd Maj)

Law Office of NAVDEEP   SINGH                                 

Advocate, Punjab & Haryana High Court

Office-cum-Residence : # 1063, Sec 2, Panchkula – 134112, Haryana

Phones : 099888-LEGAL, 093161-32817    Email : navdeepsingh.india@...

Your reference :                                                                        

 Our  reference :

 To:

Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD)

State Bank of India, Mumbai

                                                                                      01 September 2016

ILLEGAL DEDUCTION OF INCOME TAX ON DISABILITY PENSION BY THE STATE BANKOF INDIA IN CONTRAVENTION OF DIRECTIONS OF THE GOVT

1.    Shocking instances have come to light wherein your bank has indulged in deduction of Income Tax at source in case of Disability Pensioners. On further inquiry, it has been informed that the action is based upon some ‘advice’ rendered by a Chartered Accountant that income tax exemption is only available to those pensioners who have been invalided out before completion of their service for normal pension, that is, those released earlier than 20 years in case of Commissioned Officers and 15 years in case of ranks other than Commissioned Officers, and that the said exemption is not available on the service element of those who have been released/ retired/discharged with a pension after serving more than 20/15 years of service as above.

2.    Firstly, your attention is invited to Instruction No 2/2001 issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes in this regard which amply explains the issue (Appx A). Your attention is also invited to Paragraph 88.3 of the Pension Payment Instructions issued to all your banks by the Government (Appx B) which leaves no scope of doubt regarding exemption of income tax from the entire disability pension, including service element. Moreover, the interpretation of your bank in this regard is absolutely incorrect, absurd and militates against the rules and norms promulgated by the Government as above. It may be recalled that Income Tax exemption on complete disability pension is available to defence personnel since the 1920s.

3.    On discussion, it emerges that the confusion has been created due to the terminology of ‘Service Element’ which is hereby clarified for your benefit in the following lines. Disabled personnel who are granted disability benefits at the time of release from service are known as Disability Pensioners.  The said Disability Pension consists of two elements- service element and disability element. Both elements taken together are known as Disability Pension. There is no minimum qualifying service required for the grant of Service Element with effect from 01 January 1973. The calculation of service element however is different in cases of those personnel released from service before completion of pensionable service limits vis-a-vis those who are released on completing pensionable service limits. In case of the latter, the service element is granted at a rate equal to Service Pension. The fact that the pension granted for service in both cases is known as Service Element becomes clear from a bare perusal of Regulation 183 of the Pension Regulations, 1961, which contains two clauses, that is, 183(1)(a) for those who are released with sufficient service to earn a pension, and 183(1)(b) for those who are released before completing sufficient service to qualify for normal service pension. The said Regulation is enclosed as Appx C. Please note from the Regulation that in both cases the service part of the pension is known as Service Element. Even the normal service pension rates reflected under Regulation 183(1)(a)(i) are categorized as ‘Service Element’.

4.    The fact that the service part of pension, whether a person is released prior to completion of service limits or after completion of service limits (20/15 years), is known as ‘Service Element’ also becomes clear from a perusal of the recent Circular No 554 (Appx D) issued by the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions) to all banks, including yours. Paragraphs 1(i) and (ii) and then 1(iv) & 1(v) as well as Paragraph 6 of the same clearly stipulate that in case of disability pensioners, the amount of service part of the pension is known as ‘Service Element’ irrespective of the fact whether a person has lesser or more than 20/15 years of service. In simple words, the service element of pension in cases of those disabled personnel who have completed pensionable limits is equal to normal service pension, but being disability pensioners, it is nomenclatured as ‘Service Element’.

5.    Even otherwise, it would be important to point out that disabled personnel released prior to completion of pensionable terms as well as those who are released on completion of terms or at own request are all treated at par as far as disability pension is concerned. In fact, all those who are in low medical category at the time of release are to be treated as ‘invalided’  as per rules (Also Appx C) as has also been held as per interpretation of teh pre-existing rules by the Hon’ble Delhi High Court in CW 2967/1989 Mahavir Singh Narwal Vs Union of India decided on 05 May 2004 as affirmed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in SLP 24171/2004 on 04 January 2008 and also in the recent decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Civ Appeal 11208//2011 Union of India Vs Angad Singh Titaria decided on 24 Feb 2015.

6.    In view of the above, you are requested to inform all your branches to cease and desist from flouting guidelines of the Central Board of Direct Taxes in this regard and direct them to honour income tax exemption on both service as well as disability elements of disability pensioners as was being done till now. It may be appreciated that the opinion of your Chartered Accountant cannot override existing law and rules that have been followed since times immemorial.

7.    You are requested to issue directions to refund the illegally deducted amount to all affected disabled pensioners within a period of 7 days from the receipt of this letter.

Thanking You

Sd/-

Navdeep Singh

Advocate, High Court

AN IESM PROJECTION OF WORK SHEET ON NON IMPLEMENTATION OF ORIGINAL DEFINITION OROP

One Rank One Pension was approved by UPA Govt in budget dated 17 Feb 14 and then by NDA Govt in their budget dated 10 Jun 14. UPA Government issued an executive order dated 26 Feb 14 for the implementation of OROP dues to veterans at the earliest. This was never implemented by the MOD nor a demand note was ever raised. The approved definition of OROP by two Governments is given below.

Definition of OROP as per Govt Executive Order of 26 Feb 2014.

One Rank One Pension (OROP) implies that uniform pension be paid to the Armed Forces Personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement and any future enhancement in the rates of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. This implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners, and also future enhancements in the rate of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners.

Govt Changed Definition of OROP which kills the Soul of OROP.

Again, another attempt has been made to change/ distort the definition of OROP in GOI notification dated 7 Nov 15. OROP definition given in 7 Nov letter is reproduced below.

One Rank One Pension (OROP) implies that uniform pension be paid to the Defence Forces Personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of their date of retirement, which implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners at periodic intervals.

Example to Prove that what Govt has implemented is not OROP.

1.                85% strength of Defence Forces consists of other Ranks ie From Sepoy to Havildar. Let us  take example of a Sepoy of ‘Y’ Group with 17 years of Service who retired prior to implementation of OROP with effect from 01 July 2014 and compare his pension with the same Class of Sepoy who retired after 01 Jan 2016 the effective date of 7^th CPC, the working of pension is as under:-

(a)	OROP basic Pension of Sepoy who retired prior to implementation of OROP as per 6th CPC = Rs 6665 / per month.
(b)	DA 125%                                =      Rs 8331/-
(c)	Total Pension                          =  Rs 14996/ per month
(d)	His Pension of 7th CPC as per existing order with effect from 01 Jan 2016. =  6665  x  2.57+2% D = 17129+2 % DA                   = 17129+342.58 = Rs 17462 / per month
(e)	Pension of Sepoy of the same class who retired after the Govt implementation of OROP  after 01 Jan 2016 as per 7th CPC.           =  Rs 8300 x 2.57 + 2% DA           =  Rs 21331 + 2% DA = Rs 21331 + Rs 427 = Rs 21758/- per month
(f)	The difference  in Pension of the same class of Sepoy  = Rs 21758 – 17462 = Rs 4296/- per month.
(g)	The gap in pension of the same class is Rs 4296=- per month. How this can be OROP, since OROP means same pension of the same rank of Defence Veterans irrespective  of the Date of Retirement.
	Similarly a Widow of Sepoy of the same class will get Rs 2578/- less per month.

  

2Hence what the Govt has implemented is not OROP but one time increase in Pensions.

3.It is also pertinent to mention that the changed definition will not be  OROP.  

 The original definition needs to be restored.