Disbursement of Pension by Agency Banks – Master Circular

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 basic pension, increased Dearness Relief and other benefits as and when announced by the Governments. Various circulars issued in this connection are summarized here under for information.

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.

With a view to avoid inconvenience to the pensioners, Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) and Ministry of Railways (Railway Board), have decided to adopt the nomination forms (‘A’ & ‘B’). Agency banks were advised to issue necessary instructions to all pension paying branches to accept Nomination Forms ‘A’ or ‘B’ as the case may be, submitted by Central Civil/Railway pensioners for the payment of arrears of pension to the heir(s).

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.

(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.

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 followrding month (except for the month of March scrolls, which should invariably reach latest by 3 week of every year). The 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 10 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 reimbursing 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 pensionthpaying bank, by debit to Government Account so as to reach PCDA (Pension) by 15 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 regularmonthly payment cases which will continue to be prepared separately along with separatesummary sheet.

(v) Pension paying branches should prepare separate summary sheets for regular monthly pension payment cases as well as first pension payment case.

Joint Account of the pensioner with the spouse could be operated either by ‘Former or Survivor’ or ‘Either or Survivor’ basis subject to the following terms and conditions:

(a) Once pension has been credited to a pensioner’s bank account, the liability of the Government/Bank ceases. No further liability arises, even if the spouse wrongly draws the amount.

(b) As pension is payable only during the life of a pensioner, his/her death shall be intimated to the bank at the earliest and in any case within one month of the demise, so that the bank does not continue crediting monthly pension to the Joint Account with the spouse, after the death of the pensioner. If, however, any amount has been wrongly credited to the Joint Account, it shall be recoverable from the Joint Account and/or any other account held by the pensioner/spouse either individually or jointly. The legal heirs, successors, executors etc. shall also be liable to refund any amount, which has been wrongly credited to the joint account.

(c) Payment of Arrears of pension (Nomination) Rules 1983 would continue to be applicable to a Joint Account with the pensioner’s spouse. This implies that if there is an ‘accepted nomination’ in accordance with rules 5 and 6 of these Rules, arrears mentioned in the rules shall be payable to the nominee.

Existing pensioners desiring to get their pension credited to a joint account as indicated above are required to submit an application to the bank branch, from where they are presently drawing pension in the prescribed form. This would also be signed by the pensioner’s spouse in token of having accepted the terms and conditions laid down by Government of West Bengal. The above facility is applicable to the existing/future pensioners.

It has been decided in consultation with the Central Pension Accounting Office, Ministry of Finance, Government of India to issue pension slips to the Central Government pensioners (Civil) at commencement of pension and thereafter, wherever there is a change in quantum of pension. All the agency banks were advised to issue suitable instructions to their pension paying branches.

It has been decided in consultation with the Office of Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pension) to introduce Single Window System for reimbursement of Defence Pension with effect from April 1, 2007. Hence, the Reimbursing Banks i.e. RBI (PADs), SBI and its associate banks will cease to reimburse Defence pension payments made by the banks with effect from April 1, 2007. Pension payments transactions may be reported through Link Cell in Nagpur to Central Accounts Section, Reserve Bank of India, Nagpur for fund settlement as in the case of Central Civil Pension. The agency banks are required to send the Payment scrolls to the office of the PCDA (P), Draupadi Ghat, Allahabad.

All the past transactions remaining outstanding prior to April 1, 2007 for which Pension Payment Scrolls Advices are wanting shall be resolved through Reimbursing Branches of RBI/SBI and its Associates.

Government of Arunachal Pradesh has modified the scheme for payment of pension permitting credit of pension also to a Joint Account operated by pensioner with his/her spouse in whose favour an authorization for family pension exists in the pension payment order (PPO). The joint account of the pensioner with the spouse could be operated either by ‘former or survivor’ or ‘either or survivor’ basis subject to the following terms and conditions:

a) Once pension has been credited to the pensioner’s bank account, the liability of the Government/bank ceases. No further liability arises, even if the spouse wrongly draws the amount without the knowledge of the pensioner.

b) As pension is payable only during the life of a pensioner, his/her death shall be intimated by the spouse to the bank at the earliest and in any case within one month of the demise, so that the bank does not continue crediting monthly pension to the joint account with the spouse, after the death of the pensioner. If, however, any amount has been wrongly credited to the joint account, it shall be recoverable from the joint account or his/her account held by the pensioner/spouse either individually or jointly. The legal heirs, successors, executors etc. shall also be liable to refund any amount, which has been wrongly credited to the Joint Account.

c) Existing pensioners desiring to get their pension credited to a Joint Account as indicated above are required to submit an application in the prescribed form to the concern bank branch, from where they are presently drawing pension. The pensioner’s spouse in token of having accepted the terms would also sign this. The above facility is applicable to the existing/future pensioners.

d) Opening of Joint Account with any other person for credit of pension, except the spouse in whose favour family pension is authorised in the PPO, shall not be permissible. Family pensioners are not covered under this revised scheme.

(Ref. DGBA.GAD. H-10975/45.05.031/ 2006-07 dated January 9, 2007 Ref. DGBA.GAD. H-17663/45.05.031/ 2006-07 dated June 12, 2007 Ref.DGBA.GAD.No. 3856/45.05.031/2007-08 dated October 8, 2007 Ref.DGBA.GAD.No.H 12704/45.05.005/2007-08 dated June 11, 2008 Ref.DGBA.GAD.No.924/45.05.012/2008-09 dated July 23, 2008 Ref. DGBA. GAD.No.H 2090/ 45.05.015/ 2009-10 dated September 1, 2009)

It has been decided by Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO)/Ministry of Defence/Railway and Governments of West Bengal, Goa and Kerala to issue pension slips to their pensioners including family pensioners. Accordingly, pension slips as per the prescribed format are to be issued to these pensioners/family pensioners at the commencement of pension and thereafter, whenever there is a change in quantum of pension. All the agency banks were advised to issue suitable instructions to their pension paying branches.

The Government of Assam has modified the scheme for payment of pension permitting credit of pension also to a Joint Saving/Current Bank Account operated by pensioner with his/her spouse in whose favour an authorization for family pension exists in the Pension Payment Order (PPO). The joint account of the pensioner with the spouse could be operated either by ‘Former or Survivor’ or ‘Either or Survivor’ basis subject to the following terms and conditions:

(a) Once pension has been credited to a pensioner’s Bank Account, liability of the Government/bank ceases. No further liability arises, even if the spouse wrongly draws the amount.

(b) As pension is payable only during the life of a pensioner, his/her death shall be intimated to the bank at the earliest within one month of the demise, so that the bank does not continue crediting monthly pension to the Joint Account with the spouse after the death of the pensioner. If, however, any amount has been wrongly credited to the Joint Account, it shall be recoverable from the account and/or any other account held by the pensioner/spouse individually/jointly. The legal heirs, successors, executors etc. shall also be liable to refund any amount, which has been wrongly credited to the Joint Account.

(c) The Payment of Arrears of pension (Nomination) Rules 1987 would continue to be applicable to a Joint Account with the pensioner’s spouse. This implies that if there is an ‘accepted nomination’ in accordance with rules 5 and 6 of these Rules, arrears mentioned in the rules shall be payable to the Nominee.

Existing pensioners desiring to get their pension credited to a joint account as indicated above are required to submit an application to the bank branch, from where they are presently drawing pension in the prescribed form. This would also be signed by the pensioner’s spouse in token of having accepted the terms and conditions laid down by Government of Assam. The above facility is applicable to the existing/future pensioners.

It has been decided in consultation with Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) to permit credit of Pension also to a Joint Account operated by DOT/ Ex-DOT, DTS & DTO pensioner (absorbed in BSNL) and drawing pension through authorized banks, with his / her spouse in whose favour an authorization for family pension exists in Pension Payment Order (PPO). The Joint Account of the pensioner with the spouse could be operated either by ‘Former or Survivor’ OR ‘Either or Survivor’ basis subject to certain terms and conditions as mentioned in the Office Memorandum of Government of India, Ministry of Communications & I.T.,Department of Telecommunication, New Delhi. All agency banks have been advised to issue the instructions to their pension disbursing branches accordingly.

It has been decided to accept the recommendations of the Prabhakar Rao Committee relating to pension payments and accordingly all agency banks have been advised to issue instructions to their dealing branches to adhere to these recommendations and also instruct their internal Auditors / Inspectors to bestow due attention to the adherence to the items of work by the branches listed with respect to the checklist (enclosed therewith) and comment on the quality of customer service in their reports which may be made available to Reserve Bank’s inspecting officers, as and when they visit the branches.

Government of India, Ministry of Personnel , Public Grievances & Pensions, New Delhi have accorded the sanction of regulation of pension/family pension of all the pre-2006 pensioners / family pensioners w.e.f. January 2006 vide letter No.38/37/08-P & PW(A) dated September 1, 2008. These orders apply to all pensioners/family pensioners who were drawing pension / family pension on January 1, 2006, under the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972. CCS (Extraordinary Pension) Rules & the corresponding rules applicable to Railway Pensioners & pensioners of all India services, including officers of the Indian Civil Service retired from services, on or after January 1, 1973. These orders do not apply to retired High Court and Supreme Court Judges and other Constitutional /Statutory Authorities whose pension etc. is governed by separate rules / orders.

Accordingly all agency banks have been advised to issue suitable instructions to adhere to the Government recommendations while disbursing the pension to the pensioners.

We have been receiving the large number of complaints from pensioners regarding non payments of pension in the last four working days of each month. Instead, pension is paid by the agency banks on the last working day of the month which causes much hardship to the pensioners and they have to wait in queue for a long time.

In this connection, we had reiterated the instructions contained in our earlier circular GA.NB.No.307/45.01.001/94-95 dated June 1, 1995 and advised all agency banks to spread over disbursal of pension during the period of last four working days of the month, except for the month of March, which will continue to be credited on or after the first working day of April.

Although suitable instructions were issued to the agency banks, for issue of Pension Slips and for updation of PPO, we have been receiving complaints from Pensioners’ Associations regarding non-issue of Pension Slips by pension paying branches. They have also complained that the pension paying branches do not update both halves of Pension Payment Order (PPO), whenever there is change in basic rates of pension advised by the concerned Government Departments. We have, therefore, advised all Regional Offices to ensure that the Inspecting Officers from PADs invariably look into the aspect of Pension Slips and updation of PPO and furnish specific comments thereon while conducting the inspection of agency banks.

Government of India have advised us that the overpayments of pension made by the banks are not credited back to Government account by the banks in lump sum but are remitted in installments as and when recovered from the pensioner. As this causes loss to the Government, all agency banks have been advised that whenever any excess / overpayment is detected the entire amount thereof should be credited to the Government account in lump sum immediately. We have reiterated instructions issued vide our circular dated April 18, 1991 and June 1, 2009 for recovery of excess payments and lump sum refund of excess/ overpayments respectively.

The Ministry of Railways (Railway Board), New Delhi has informed that banks are not advising the pensioners about the details of the payments made to them on account of the revised pension. Therefore, in order to bring more transparency in the procedure of payment of arrears Ministry of Railways have requested us to instruct all Public Sector Banks to provide a copy of the ‘Due and Drawn’ statement to the pensioners. All the Public Sector Banks have, therefore, been advised to issue suitable instructions to their pension paying branches for issuance of ‘Due and Drawn’ statement in the prescribed form to Railway pensioners, whenever there is a change / revision in their pension, so as to avoid inconvenience to the pensioners. They have been advised to report the action taken in the matter to the Ministry of Railways under advice to Reserve Bank.

It is observed that the guidelines issued by RBI are not being meticulously adhered to by the banks, may be due to ignorance of the bank staff and that of the pensioners. In order to take care of the problems/ difficulties faced by the sick and disabled pensioners in withdrawal of pension / family pension from the banks, we have reiterated the instructions issued earlier to all the agency banks and advised them to categorise the cases of sick and incapacitated pensioners as under:

1. Pensioner who is too ill to sign a cheque / unable to be physically present in the bank

2. Pensioner who is not only unable to be physically present in the bank but also not even able to put his/her thumb impression on the cheque/ withdrawal form due to certain physical defect / incapacity.

With a view to enabling such old/sick/incapacitated pensioners to operate their accounts, banks have been advised to follow the procedure as under:

a) Wherever thumb or toe impression of the old/sick pensioner is obtained, it should be identified by two independent witnesses known to the bank, one of whom should be a responsible bank official.

b) Where the pensioner cannot even put his/her thumb/ toe impression and also would not be able to be physically present in the bank, a mark can be obtained on the cheque/withdrawal form, which should be identified by two independent witnesses, one of whom should be a responsible bank official.

Accordingly, the agency banks are requested to instruct their branches to display the instructions issued in this regard on their notice board so that sick and disabled pensioners could make full use of these facilities. The banks are also advised to sensitise the staff members in the matter and to refer to the FAQs on pension disbursement hosted on our website www.rbi.org.in in case of any doubt.

Reserve Bank of India is receiving several complaints from the pensioners alleging inordinate delay in disbursing the revised pension and arrears. Position was reviewed by RBI and the agency banks have been instructed as under:

i) Pension paying banks should compensate the pensioner for the delay in crediting the pension/ arrears thereof by paying compensation at a fixed interest rate of 8 per cent for the delay after the due date and the compensation shall be credited to the pensioner’s account automatically without any claim from the pensioner on the same day when the bank affords credit for revised pension/ pension arrears, in respect of all delayed pension payments made since October 1, 2008.

ii) Pension paying banks have been requested to put in place a mechanism to obtain immediately the copies of pension orders from the pension paying authorities directly and make payments without waiting for receipt of instructions from RBI so that pensioners should get the benefits announced by the Governments in the succeeding month’s pension payment itself.

iii) System of attending to customer service including pension payments may be reviewed.

iv) The branch continues to be a point of referral for the pensioner lest he/she feel disenfranchised.

v) All branches having pension accounts should guide and assist the pensioners in all their dealings with the bank

vi) Suitable arrangements are made to place the arithmetic and other details about the pension calculations on the web, to be made available to the pensioners through the net or at the branches at periodic interval as may be necessary and sufficient advertisement is made about such arrangements.

vii) All claims for agency commission in respect of pension payments must be accompanied by a certificate from E.D. / CGM- in- Charge of Government business in case of SBI and its Associate Banks that there are no pension arrears to be credited/ delays in crediting regular pension/arrears thereof.

(Ref.DGBA.GAD.No.H-6493/45.03.001/2010-11 dated March 21, 2011, DGBA.GAD.No. H-74/45.03.001/2011-12 dated July 5, 2011, DGBA.GAD.No. H-8024 & 8026/ 45.03.001/ 2011-12 dated June 6, 2012 and DGBA.GAD.No. H-562 & 563/ 45.03.001/ 2012-13 dated July 27, 2012)

The Single Window System (SWS) has been introduced in case of the reimbursement of Railway Pension payments with Bank of Baroda and Allahabad Bank effect from April 1, 2011, with United Bank of India with effect from July 1, 2011, with State Bank of India and Dena Bank with effect from July 1, 2012 and with Bank of Maharashtra and Union Bank of India with effect from August 1, 2012. Railway pension payments made by these banks will be reimbursed by RBI, Central Accounts Section, Nagpur.

Agency banks have been advised to strictly adhere to the instructions contained in the scheme for payment of pension to Railway pensioners.

It has been decided to allow the Link branches of the agency banks to submit the reimbursement claims to Reserve Bank of India, Public Accounts Departments/ Central Accounts Section, Nagpur for Central /State Government pension payments in 4 lots instead of 3 lots in a month.

The Single Window System (SWS) has been introduced in case of the reimbursement of Telecom Pension payments with State Bank of India, its Associates and Nationalised Banks with effect from October 1, 2012 Telecom pension payments made by these banks will be reimbursed by RBI, Central Accounts Section, Nagpur.

The Department of Posts has introduced a scheme for payment of pension to Postal pensioners/ family pensioners through Nationalised Banks in addition to Post Offices with the concurrence of the Controller General of Accounts, Ministry of Finance and Comptroller & Auditor General of India vide their Office Memorandum No 26-26/2012-PA (PEA)/D.1133- 1207 dated October 19, 2012.

All agency banks disbursing Central Government pension have been advised that in case the spouse (Family pensioner) opts for existing joint account for credit of family pension, banks should not insist on opening of a new account when the spouse is the survivor and having a joint account with the pensioner and in whose favour an authorization for payment of family pension exists in the Pension Payment Order (PPO).
 

RBI Forwarding letter:

Master Circular- Disbursement of Pension by Agency Banks

RBI/2013-14/101

All Agency Banks

Dear Sir/Madam

Master Circular- Disbursement of Pension by Agency Banks

Please refer to our master circular RBI/2012-13/103 dated July 02, 2012 on the above subject. We have now updated the master circular incorporating important instructions issued by us till end of June 2013. A copy of the same is enclosed for your information. This circular may also be downloaded from our website www.mastercirculars.rbi.org.in.

2. Please acknowledge receipt.

Encl: As above