Master Circular: Pension Disbursement by Agency Banks

RBI/2005-06/142 DGBA.GAD (MC) No. 679/31.05.001/2005-06 August 24, 2005 All Agency Banks Dear Sir, Master Circular- Disbursement of Pension by Agency Banks Reserve Bank of India has been issuing various instructions relating to Payment of Government pension by Agency banks. We enclose a master circular incorporating important instructions on the subject. You may also access the circular on our website  www.rbi.org.in  . 2. Please acknowledge receipt. Yours faithfully, (Girish Kallianpur) Deputy General Manager Master Circular- Disbursement of Pension by Agency Banks Payment of Pension to Government Pensioners under the various schemes for payment of pensions through Public Sector Banks 1. Introduction 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 here 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 : i. As soon as the sanction of Dearness Relief at revised rates is received from Ministry of Finance, Orders for payment of Dearness Relief to pensioners at revised rates are issued and the copies of such orders are immediately sent to Heads of all Agency Banks by e-mail as well as by FAX with instructions to take necessary action for expeditious payment of Dearness Relief. ii. The orders are put on web-site of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance and Pensions ( http://www.persmin.nic.in ) iii. Copies of orders are also sent by post to Heads of all Agency Banks and published in leading newspapers by Indian Banks' Association. RBI would no longer be forwarding Government orders in respect of dearness relief to Agency Banks. 4. 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. 5. 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: i. 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. ii. 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. iii. 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. iv. One copy of the SSA will be sent to concerned Accountant General for information and record. v. 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. vi. 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. vii. The RBI, CAS, Nagpur would debit the concerned State Government Account as per the procedure. 6. 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. 7. Scheme of Payment of Pension to Railway Pensioners by Public Sector Banks – Steps to avoid Fraudulent Payments (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. 8. 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. List of Circulars consolidated by the Master Circular Sr. No.

Reproduced for reference with acknowledgment — Source: Reserve Bank of India · RBI/2005-06/142 · issued 24 Aug 2005. The plain-English explanation above is BankPulse’s own independent summary.

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