Now, you will get all PF, pension dues on or before retirement date on PM Narendra Modi push

New Delhi | November 2, 2016

Your provident fund (PF) and Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) dues will be paid by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on or before the day you retire. A decision to this effect has been taken by EPFO and instructions have been issued by the Central Provident Fund Commissioner, V P Joy on Tuesday to all its offices as a follow up the directions received from Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the recent PRAGATI review meeting held on October 26. The PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation) was held to reviewing programmes and projects of the central and state governments.

“It has been decided that PF and pension payments to members of EPF Scheme 1952 and EPS 1995 are made on the date of retirement itself,” Joy has said in his communication to EPFO offices.

The move comes a day after the CPFC issued instructions regarding settlement in respect of death cases on priority within 7 days.

Joy has instructed EPFO offices to take several steps to ensure payment of dues on the day of retirement. These include:

Generate a monthly list of retiring EPF/EPS members attaining the age of superannuation three months in advance by concerned offices. This should be communicated to the concerned members and their respective employers.

The employers should be requested to make payment of contributions in advance in respect of such retiring employees one month in advance of the date of their retirement.

A complete set of PF and pension claim form along with the communication to fill up the forms and submit to the concerned office complete in all respect at least 14 days prior to the date of retirement should be sent to the retiring employees

The PRO and officials in the Facilitation Centre should be instructed to scrutinise the claim forms received in respect of retirement cases and guide the claimants for submission of all required documents in one attempt only.

For this purpose an official trained and deputed in the facilitation centre will receive the retirement claims. Proper display in regard be made on the seat/counter “please contact for retirement cases’ in Hindi, Regional Language and English.

All such retirement claims should be stamped in bold ‘ Retirement claims – Top Priority” The PF claim settlement amount must invariably be credited to the member accounts on or before the date of retirement.

Source : http://www.financialexpress.com

7th CPC Transport Allowance

7th CPC Transport Allowance : Transport Allowance (TPTA) is granted to cover the expenditure involved in commuting between place of residence and place of duty. The existing rates are as under:

Moreover, officers drawing GP 10000 and higher, who are entitled to the use of official car, have the option to avail themselves of the existing facility or to draw the TPTA at the rate of ₹7,000+DA pm. Differently abled employees are granted this allowance at double the rate, subject to a minimum amount of ₹1,000 plus DA.

Many representations have been received regarding Transport Allowance. Most of them advocate granting the allowance at the same rate to all employees, irrespective of their place of posting, on the grounds that fuel prices affect everybody equally.

Analysis and Recommendations : The Commission notes that TPTA is fully DA-indexed. The first issue to be considered is whether the rate of Transport Allowance should be the same for all places. There are arguments both for and against this view.

Proponents of the idea argue that petrol prices are almost same everywhere. Moreover, public transport system is better developed in many of the A1/A Class cities, thereby reducing the cost of commuting significantly. The argument, therefore, is that A1/A category places do not need to have a higher rate.

Opponents point out that the categorization of A1/A has been abolished for other purposes (like HRA, CCA) but retained for Transport Allowance. Incidentally, only 13 cities fall under this categorization: six in A1, viz., Hyderabad, Delhi, Bengaluru, Greater Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and seven in A, viz., Ahmedabad, Surat, Nagpur, Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow and Kanpur. Recently, six more cities, viz., Patna, Kochi, Kozhikode, Indore, Coimbatore and Ghaziabad have been added to A1/A categories, making it nineteen in all. (Incidentally, vide a recent notification No. 21(2)/2015-E.II(B) dated 06.08.2015, the use of term “A1/A” has been dropped for these nineteen cities. Hence, the Commission will refer to these nineteen cities as “Higher TPTA cities.”). In all these places the commuting distances are far more than in other cities. Moreover, the public transport system is not as developed as it should be in all these places. Therefore, it is argued, the distinction should remain.

After considering both the viewpoints, the Commission is of the view that by and large the commuting distances and associated difficulties involved in Higher TPTA cities are much more compared to other places. Hence, the argument that the distinction should stay is a valid one.

The second issue is whether Transport Allowance should be the same for all personnel posted at the same place. Here the Commission feels that a question of status of employee is involved and hence, complete parity is not possible.

Regarding the optimal rate of Transport Allowance, the Commission notes that the allowance is already fully DA indexed. Therefore, since DA has already reached 119 percent and is likely to rise further before the implementation of our report, the following rates of Transport Allowance are recommended:

Officers in Pay Level 14 and higher, who are entitled to the use of official car, will ave the option to avail themselves of the existing facility or to draw the TPTA at the rate of ₹15,750+DA pm. Differently abled employees will continue to be paid at double rate, subject to a minimum of ₹2,250 plus DA.

JCM Staff Side suggestion on Transport Allowance : The 5th CPC had introduced transport allowance for employees working in classified towns on account of various factors like unprecedented growth of city limits, increase in volume of traffic and non availability of residential accommodation at reasonable rents near offices, which are usually located in the heart of cities. If these were the factors it appears that the 5th CPC did not take into account that it is usually a low paid employee who finds residence at a very long distance from his office whereas officers are offered residences very near to their offices. If, therefore, transport allowance was meant to defray the transportation charges from residence to office and back the higher rates should have been recommended for the low paid employees who were residing at a distant places. Since the 6th CPC‟s recommendation in this regard was implemented, there had been several rounds of increase in the fuel charges making a cascading impact on the public transport fares.

Taking these factors into account, we suggest that the following rates of transport allowance may please be recommended.

At first glance, both transport allowance and traveling allowance might look the same. But, the two are very different for Central Government employees. Recent spate of orders issued by the DOPT and Finance Ministry on TRAVELLING ALLOWANCE was the inspiration behind this write-up.

Pay Range X classified city Y classified towns.

Pay upto Rs. 75,000 Rs. 7500 + DA Rs. 3750 +DA
Above Rs. 75,000 Rs. 6500 +DA Rs. 3500+ DA

In its order last week, the DOPT said that senior officers who have to travel by air for official purposes may not have to submit the boarding passes while settlement of TA claims. They will have to henceforth submit the passes only when required. The very next day, the Finance Ministry issued an order that made it mandatory for senior officials to submit boarding passes alongwith TA bills for air journey performed on Government account.

The concept of Transport Allowance was introduced by the 5th CPC to defray the cost of commuting between residence and office. The 6th CPC while recommending CCA to be subsumed in Transport Allowance. Transport Allowance is given to the Central Government employees for their everyday commute to and from the workplace. Based on their Grade Pay or Band Pay, this could be anything between Rs. 400 to Rs. 3200 per month. It also depends on the population of the city or town where the office is located. Transport allowance is twice the normal amount for physically challenged employees.

Travelling allowance is given to employees who have to travel out of station for official work. There are a number of rules, guidelines and restrictions that control travelling allowance. DOPT and the Ministry of Finance issues amendment orders related to travelling allowances from time to time.

Traveling allowance differs based on the employee’s grade pay. The ‘Grade Pay’ for determing the TA/DA entitlement is as indicated in Central Civil Service(RP)Rules 2008. Depending on the grade pay, the employee has to opt for the appropriate class of accommodation while travelling via bus, train, ship or by aeroplane. The employee can refund only that amount that he is entitlement for. The Finance Ministry order published on 23.9.2008, OM explained the details of the Travelling allowance and entitlements for Government officials as per title given below…

Government officials on Tour : Travelling Allowance and Entitlements, Entitlement for journeys on tour and travel entitlements within the country, International Travel Entitlement, Mileage allowance for journeys by road, Daily Allowance, Travelling allowance on Transfer, Transfer Grant and Packing Allowance, Transportation of Personal Effects, Transportation of Conveyance, Travelling allowance Entitlement of Retiring employees, Lumpsum Transfer Grant and Packing Allowance

Daily Allowance : If the official tour on is of longer duration, then the employee is paid Daily Allowance to meet his boarding and lodging expenses. This too depends on the Grade pay of the employee. This is what is known as TA/DA. While seeking the TA/DA claims, the employee has to present receipts and bills.

In this regard, the notification, that senior officials are not required to submit the boarding passes while seeking settlement of TA claims of their air travel expenses, was confusing.

The order is not applicable to Group ‘C’ employees. But some have misunderstood the order and have assumed that it was for the air travel facility that is available as part of the Leave Travel Concession.

7th CPC : 5th Meeting of Committee on Allowances for Postal Department

No. 7-3/2016-PCC
Government of India
Ministry of Communications
Department of Posts

Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg,
New Delhi - 110001

Date: 01.11.2016

To
1. Shri R.N. Prashar,
Secretary General,
National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE),
7th Floor, North Avenue, PO Building,
New Delhi - 110001.

2. Shri.D.Theagarajan,
Secretary General,
Federation of National Postal Organization (FNPO),
T-24, P&T Atul Grove Road,
New Delhi -110001.

3. Shri Shivkant Mishra,
Secretary General,
Bhartiya Postal Employees Federation (BPEF)
T-21 Atul Grove Road,
New Delhi -110001

Sub : 5th Meeting of Committee on Allowances constituted to examine the recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission regarding Allowances.

Sirs,

The 5th Meeting of the Committee on Allowances is scheduled to be held on 3rd November 2016 at 5.00 PM in Room No. 72, North Block, New Delhi under the chairmanship of Finance Secretary & Secretary (Expenditure). During the meeting the allowances relating to Department of Posts will be discussed.

2. In this context, the Implementation Cell, Department of Expenditure has requested to send the names of members of such recoged Associations who will present their views on the allowances recommended by the 7th CPC relating to Department of Posts in the meeting to be held on 03.11.2016. Accordingly, it has been decided to invite General Secretaries of. all three federations to attend the said meeting.

3. It is therefore requested to kindly attend the 5th Meeting as scheduled on 03.11.2016 on allowances relating to Department of Posts.

Yours faithfully,
(S.V. Rao)
Director (Establishment)

Source : confederationhq.blogspot.in

Postal department coughs up 9.9L to PPF depositor

AHMEDABAD: It was a moment of vindication for 52-year-old Saurin Dalal, a resident of Paldi, when, recently, the postal department finally sent him a cheque, releasing the interest on his deposit and other charges, amounting to Rs9.9 lakh. Dalal, had to fight for four years to get his hard earned money back from the grip of the postal department, in whose Public Provident Fund (PPF) scheme he had invested his savings. A city-based consumer action group helped him to assert his rights.

"I had invested a certain amount in the PPF account and when the deposit matured in August 2010, I received the principal amount without the interest. The interest amounted to Rs5.68 lakh," said Dalal.

After several follow-ups with the postal department, Dalal approached Consumer Education & Research Centre (CERC) for redress.

"We followed up with the postal department as a mediator, however, we were compelled to file a case in the court in 2012. Even as the court ordered in favour of the consumer in 2014, the postal department appealed against the order," said Pritee Shah, chief general manager, CERC.

Following the appeal, the court directed the postal department to not only to shell out the Rs5.68 lakh interest amount to Dalal, but also to pay an interest of 9% for the delay in payment with effect from August 2010, when the PPF deposit had matured. That apart, the court also directed the postal department to pay Rs 10,000 as litigation costs, and Rs 15,000 in compensation for mental agony of the consumer.

Speaking about the increase in such cases, Shah emphasized on making the redressal system, fair, speedy and efficient across banks, non-banking finance companies, postal departments and other deposit agencies. "Consumers also must remain equally alert and must follow-up from time to time," she added.

MEETING WITH SECRETARY (POSTS)

          Shri Umasankar Chakraborty, General Secretary AIPAOEU (NFPE) along with Com. Giriraj Singh , President NFPE & General Secretary R-III ,Com. K. Ramachandram , Ex. President  AIPAOEU & Com. N. Jagdish Federal Councilor of Administrative Union met with Secretary Department of Posts on 02^nd  November ,2016 and discussed the various issues relating to Implementation of GDS Committee report, Re-fixation of pay of the Ex. Servicemen officials, Cadre Structuring for  the Postal Administrative staff   and Posting of full time  Director  in O/o the DPLI, Kolkata. The discussion was very constructive