Government employees eligible for additional relief under NPS: New directive to banks to benefit pensioners

There is good news for those government employees who are eligible to get a pension or those individuals eligible to receive a family pension under the National Pension System Additional Relief (NPS-AR) scheme. The additional relief (AR) is in the form of provisional pension on defined benefit lines to be paid to the pensioners. Under the NPS-AR, the pensioners or family pensioners need to submit the requisite certificates and such certificates need to be received by the CPAO – Central Pension Accounting Office. The Department of Expenditure of the Ministry of Finance has recently issued an Office Memorandum (OM) wherein the concerned branches of the bank are requested to obtain the requisite Life Certificates from pensioners to be sent to CPAO electronically for timely payment of pension to those covered under NPS-AR. The pensioners will benefit from this directive to the banks.

The pension account holding bank is responsible for obtaining periodical certificates such as Life Certificate, re-employment certificate etc and intimating electronically to CPAO on due dates. Life Certificate is to be obtained in the month so November each year and such information should be uploaded on the CPAO website. The pension is paid to the eligible pensioner only once the Life Certificate is received by CPAO.

However, as per the OM, the Department of Expenditure has been receiving grievances from pensioners and family pensioners covered under NPS-AR wherein it is stated that some pension account holding banks are not receiving periodical certificates such as Life Certificate, re-employment certificate, for onward transmission to CPAO electronically on due dates which is resulting in a delay in crediting the pension into the pensioners bank account by the CPAO.

The pension of government employees appointed on or after 1.1.2004 is regulated by NPS, a defined contribution scheme, notified by the Ministry of Finance O.M. No. 5/7/2003-ECB 2 PR dated 22.12.2003.

For the government employees who joined government service on or after 1st January 2004 and are covered under NPS, a Provisional Pension is sanctioned in case of death or disability. Such a pension is paid to the spouse or family pensioner of the deceased government employee or to the disabled government employee. The additional relief under NPS was extended in case of death or disability of government employees covered by the NPS primarily on the following grounds:

• Retirement from government service on invalidation not attributable to Government duty
• Death in service not attributable to Government duty
• Discharge from government service due to disease or injury attributable to government duty
• Death in service not attributable to Government duty

The employee and the family members will also be paid Dearness pension or Dearness relief admissible from time to time in addition to the benefits of additional relief, on a provisional basis. The monthly provisional pension is paid directly to the bank account of pensioner/family pensioner electronically by the Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO).

Source: Financial Express