7th CPC Recommend On Disability Pension

7th Pay Commission – Resolving Anomalies in Disability Pension

Press Information Bureau

Government Of India

Ministry Of Defence

Dated: 11-04-2017

Resolving Anomalies in Disability Pension

The concerns raised by the Armed Forces with regard to disability pension in the 7th Pay Commission are being addressed. The 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) recommended the following on disability pension:-

Ranks	Levels	Rate per month (INR)
Service Officers
Honorary Commissioned Officers	10  and  above	27000
Subedar Majors / Equivalents
Subedar / Equivalents	6  to  9	17000
Naib Subedar / Equivalents
Havildar / Equivalents
Naik / Equivalents	5   and  below	12000
Sepoy / Equivalents

The Commission is of the considered view that the regime implemented post 6th CPC needs to be discontinued, and recommended a return to the slab based system. The slab rates for disability element for 100 percent disability would be as follows:

The above recommendation has been accepted and Resolution dated 30.09.2016 issued accordingly.

The 6th CPC dispensation of the calculation of disability element on percentage basis, however, continues for civil side which has resulted in an anomalous situation. The issue has accordingly been referred to the Anomaly Committee. The disability element which was being paid as on 31.12.2015 will, however continue to be paid till decision on the recommendations of Anomaly Committee is taken by the Government.

This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Dr. Subhash Bhamre in a written reply to Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar in Rajya Sabha today.

Source: PIB

Withdrawal From National Pension Scheme Is Taxed

Centre introduces provision of taxation on NPS in Income Tax Act

Press Information Bureau

Government Of India

Ministry Of Defence

Dated: 11-04-2017

Tax on NPS

The provision that the withdrawal from National Pension Scheme is taxed to the extent of 60 per cent has been introduced into the Income Tax Act, 1961 (‘Act’) vide Finance Act, 2016 by inserting clause (12A) in Section 10 of the Act.

Prior to Finance Act, 2016, National Pension Scheme (NPS), referred to in section 80CCD, was under Exempt, Exempt and Tax (EET) regime i.e., the monthly/periodic contributions during the pension accumulation phase were allowed as deduction from income for tax purposes; the returns generated on these contributions during the accumulation phase were also exempt from tax but the terminal benefits on exit or superannuation, in the form of lump sum withdrawals, were taxable in the hands of the individual subscribed or his nominee in the year of receipt of such amounts unlike PPF and EPF which have been enjoying EEE regime i.e. Exempt, Exempt, Exempt.

In order to rationalize the taxability of receipts from pension plans, vide Finance Act, 2016, section 10 of the Act was amended to provide that any payment from National Pension Scheme to an employee on account of closure or his opting out of the NPS shall also be exempt from tax, to the extent it does not exceed forty percent of the total amount payable to him at the time of closure or his opting out of the scheme. Further, Finance Act, 2017 has amended section 10 of the Income-tax Act to exempt partial withdrawals by employees (to the extent of 25% of the employee’s contribution) from their NPS accounts in accordance with the guidelines prescribed under Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 2013.

This was stated by Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

Source: PIB

Redressing Grievances Of Ex-Servicemen Over OROP

Redressing Grievances of Ex-Servicemen over OROP

Salient features of the Government order dated 07.11.2015 on OROP are as under:-

· Pension of the past pensioners would be re-fixed on the basis of pension of retirees of calendar year 2013 and the benefit will be effective with effect from 01.07.2014.

· Pension will be re-fixed for all pensioners on the basis of the average of minimum and maximum pension of personnel retired in 2013 in the same rank and with same length of service.

· Pension for those drawing above the averages shall be protected.

· Arrears will be paid in four equal half yearly instalments. However, all the family pensioners including those in receipt of Special / Liberalized family pension and Gallantry award winners shall be paid arrears in one instalment.

· In future, the pension would be re-fixed every 5 years.

Personnel who opt to get discharged henceforth on their own request under Rule 13(3)1(i)(b), 13(3)1(iv) or Rule 16B of the Army Rule 1954 or equivalent Navy or Air Force Rules will not entitled to the benefits of OROP. It will be effective prospectively.

Around 3200 representations for addressing the anomalies on OROP were received from individuals / Associations which were examined and issues referred to the Judicial Committee on OROP for its recommendations. The Committee has submitted its report on 26.10.2016.

Public Grievance Cell in the Department is receiving grievances of the pensioners / family pensioners and taking up the matter with the concerned offices e.g. Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA), Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pension), etc for redressal of their grievances. Disposal of grievances is monitored at the highest level in the Government.

Out of 20,81,072 OROP beneficiaries, 20,07,090 Pensioners have already received the first instalment and lumpsum payment on account of OROP. Further, in 15,66,486 cases, 2nd instalment have also been paid.

A total of 73,982 Pensioners are yet to be benefited under OROP. Out of these 73,982 cases, details of approximately 30,000 missing information cases have been provided by Pension Sanctioning Authorities (PSAs) to various Pension Disbursing Agencies (PDAs) for making payment and in 29,612 cases payments have been discontinued due to non-identification of the pensioners.

This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Dr. Subhash Bhamre in a written reply to Shri Ram Kumar Kashyapin Rajya Sabha today.

Deficiency In Armed Forces

Deficiency in Armed Forces

The shortage of soldiers in the three Armed Forces is given as under:

Officers:

Army	Navy	Air Force
(as on 1.1.2017)	(as on January, 2017)	(as on 1.3.2017)
25472*	12785	13614

JCOs/Other Rank &Equivalent:

Army	Navy	Air Force
(as on 1.1.2017)	(as on January, 2017)	(as on 1.3.2017)
25472*	12785	13614

* Against this deficiency, 78205 recruits are under training. As such there is no significant problem of shortage in other ranks in Army.

This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Dr. Subhash Bhamre in a written reply to Shri Shankarbhai N Vegadin Rajya Sabha today.

Source: PIB News

Chief Ministers Committee Initiative to promote Digital Payments

Chief Ministers Committee Initiative to promote Digital Payments

Pursuant to the Government initiative to promote digital payments, NITI Aayog vide order dated on 30th November 2016 constituted a Committee of Chief Ministers with Shri Chandra Babu Naidu, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh as the Convener for suggesting measures to seamlessly enable all sections of the population to migrate to the digital mode of payment as well as to recommend measures that would enable India to leapfrog into the advanced digital payment systems that compares with the best global standards.

The Committee is composed of the following members:

1 Shri Chandrababu Naidu, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh – Convener
2 Shri Naveen Patnaik, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha – Member
3 Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh – Member
4 Shri Pawan Kumar Chamling, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Sikkim – Member
5 Shri V. Narayanasamy, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Puducherry – Member
6 Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra – Member
7 Shri Arvind Panagariya, Vice- Chairman, NITI Aayog – Member
8 Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog – Member Secretary
9 Shri Nandan Nilekani, former Chairman, UIDAI – Special invitee
10 Shri Janmejaya Sinha, Chairman, Boston Consulting Group – Special invitee
11 Shri Rajesh Jain, Managing Director, netCORE – Special invitee
12 Shri Sharad Sharma, Co-founder, iSPIRIT – Special invitee
13 Dr. Jayant Varma, Professor (Finance), IIM (Ahmedabad) – Special invitee
The Terms of Reference of the Committee are as under:

(i) The Committee shall identify the global best practices for implementing an economy primarily based on digital payment and examine the possibility of adoption of these global standards in the Indian context;

(ii) The Committee shall identify and outline measures for rapid expansion and adoption of the system of digital payments like cards (Debit, Credit and pre-paid), Digital-wallets/ E-wallets, internet banking, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), banking apps etc. and shall broadly indicate the road map to be implemented in one year;

(iii) It shall evolve an action plan to reach out to the public at large with the objective to create awareness and help them understand the benefits of such a switchover to digital economy;

(iv) It shall prepare a roadmap for the administrative machineries in the States to facilitate adoption of digital modes of financial transactions;

(v) Identify and address bottlenecks and indicate solutions pertaining to adoption of the steps required to move towards a digital payments economy;

(vi) Associate the key stakeholders for implementation of the suggested steps towards a digital payments economy;

(vii) Delineate and adopt measures evolved by the Committee of Officers constituted for the purpose;

(viii) Examine and address any other associated issues which are not specifically mentioned herein. The Committee may devise its own procedures for conducting business/ meetings/ constitution of sub-groups, etc.

The Committee of Chief Ministers submitted its interim report to Hon’ble Prime Minister on 24th January 2017. The committee made recommendations on (i) Setting up of target and monitoring mechanism; (ii) Expanding technical infrastructure for digital payments; (iii) Increasing supply of acceptance infrastructure; (iv) Necessary institutional, policy, regulatory changes to ease adoption of digital payment; (v) Incentivize digital transactions; (vi) Strengthening security in digital payments and (vii) Targeting specific segments for quick results. The Report of the Committee is available on the website address http://niti.gov.in/content/interim-report-committee-cms-digital-payments.

This was stated by Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

Source: PIB News

Ex-Servicemen Pay Fixation – DoPT Reply

Ex-Servicemen pay fixation – DoPT Reply

Ex-Service Men pay fixation – intervention requested

No.6/2/2017-Estt.(Pay-II)

Government of India

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

Department of Personnel and Training

North Block, New Delhi

Dated: 31st March, 2017

To

Shri M.Krishnan, Secretary General
confederation of Central Govt. Employees & workers
1st Floor, North Avenue PO Building
New Delhi – 110 001

Subject: Ex-Service men pay fixation – intervention requested – reg.

Ref: Confederation of Central Govt. Employees & workers letter No.CONF/GENL/Ex-service men/2016-19 dated 28.09.2016.

The undersigned is directed to refer to confederation of Central Govt. Employees & workers’ letter dated 28.09.2016 on the subject mentioned above.

2. It has been requested in the said letter that fresh orders/amendments be issued in the area of pay fixation of re-employed Pensioners, esp. PBORs, free from any scope of misinterpretation/ambiguity etc. The said suggestion has been taken note of …………….

3. Deputy Secretary (Pay) has seen.

Yours faithfully,

sd/-

(Pushpender Kumar)

Under Secretary to the Government Of India

Tel.No.2304 0489

Source: Confederation

Retired Railway Doctors Appointed As Contract Medical Practitioners

Retired Railway Doctors Appointed As Contract Medical Practitioners

Extension of age limit of retired Railway Doctors as Contract Medical Practitioners upto the age of 70 years

No.II/13 (B)

Dated: 10/04/2017

The Director General (Personnel),
Railway Board,
New Delhi

Dear Sir,

Sub: Extension of age limit of retired Railway Doctors as Contract Medical Practitioners upto the age of 70 years-reg.

Ref:(i) NFIR’ s letter No. 11/13 (B) dated 14/02/2017.
(ii) CMD, C. Rly’s letter No. 0561/Dr. Bansode/Retd.RMS dated 17/02/2017.

Federation vide its letters of even number dated 10/05/2016, 23/05/2016, 22/08/2016 & 25/11/2016 has been requesting the Railway Board to extend the age limit of retired Railway Doctors upto the age of 70 years facilitating their appointment as Contract Medical Practitioners.

In this connection, NFIR invites the kind attention of the Board (DG/P and DG/RHS) to CMD, Central Railway’s letter dated 17/02/2017 (copy enclosed) wherein request has been made to allow re-appointment of Dr. Bansode an eminent Cardiologist who is well versed with ECHO studies and is dedicated, highly skilled, sincere and has special rapport with the Railway patients as Contract Medical Practitioner, as a special case. Federation is of the view that the proposal of CMD, Central Railway deserves to be considered, duly modifying the extant policy suitably so that the retired Railway Doctors can be appointed upto the age of 70 years.

NFIR therefore, requests the Railway Board (DG/P & DG/RHS) to kindly see that the approval is accorded revising the age limit to 70 years for the purpose of engaging retired Railway Doctors as Contract Medical Practitioner.

Yours faithfully,

S/d,

(Dr. M. Raghavaiah)

General Secretary

Reminder -II

Central Railway
CMD’s Office,
Mumbai CST

Date : 17/02/2017

No:0561/Dr.Bansode/Retd.IRMS.

Director General (RHS)
Ministry Of Railways,
Railway Board,
New Delhi – 110 001.

Sub: Extension of age limit of Retired Railway Doctor as Contract Medical Practitioner for present age of 65 to 70 yrs.

Ref: This office letter of even no.dated :20/05/2016 & 21/ 2/2016
(copy enclosed)

In connection with the above subject, please refer to this office letters of even no.dated:20/05/2016 & 21/12/2016, where in you are requested to make the necessary changes in the policy guidelines to accommodate few deserving Retired doctors to work beyond age 65 years.

It seems, it is difficult to extend the working of Retired doctors for 65 yrs to 70 yrs as policy.

Of late, we are getting representations from anions and railways, retired and serving (copy enclosed) to extend the working of Retired Railway doctors for 65 yrs to 70 yrs.

As a matter of fact, Dr.B.R.Bansode (Physician), retired Railway doctor needs a special mention. He has been working Central Hospital, Byculla, Mumbai for more than 35 yrs. He is dedicated, highly skilled, sincere and has special rapport with Railway patients.

At present, Central Hospital, Byculla is having only 2 IRMS (Physician) and other divisions of Central Railway are having only one Physician, except Pune division, wnere there is no Physician at all.

Dr.B.R.Bansode is well trained in Cardiology and does ECHO studies in Dr.BAMH, Byculla. The other available Physicians in Central Railway are not having that much experience as of Dr.B.R.Bansode to give full justice to ECHO Cardiolography studies.

In view of this it is requested that deserving doctor like Dr.B.R.Bansode may be reappointed as Contract Medical Practitioner as a special case at least for 2 years, if not upto 70 years.

Enclosures: As stated.

S/d,

(Dr. Shyam Sunder)

Chief Medical Director

Source: NFIR