AN ANALYSIS OF CENTRALISED PENSION PAYMENT SYSTEM

AN ANALYSIS OF CENTRALISED PENSION PAYMENT SYSTEM

The pension paying banks are centralizing the payment for their convenience.  But the pensioners are put into great hardship.  The parent branch is unable to help the pensioner, because they have sent all the documents pertaining to the pensioner to the CPPC.  The CPPC is flooded with thousands and thousands of documents of the pensioners.  They are dumped in such a way that the CPPC officials are unable to trace out without the help of a sub-ordinate staff.  The officials attending a pensioners query is not equipped with full defence pension guides or circulars.  As a result the defence pensioner continues to get incorrect pension for months together.

The revision of defence pension on account of various anomalies is not so easy like revising the dearness relief.  In the case of revision of Dearness Relief, the rate of revised D.R. is same to all pensioners irrespective of their Rank and Basic pension.  If the basic pension fixed is correct, the D.R. paid will never go wrong.  On the other hand, if the revised pension fixed is wrong, the payment of D.R. will have no relevance.

The Super computers installed by the Banks (SBI’s super computer at Mumbai) are capable of completing millions of pension payment in few hours.  But the accuracy of the amount arrived depends upon the basic data recorded by the banks in the system.  It is the erroneous basic data about the defence pensioners put in by the banks in their computer systems, is the main reason for such a hue and cry by the defence pensioners.

The problems of defence pensioners with the banks are not going to be solved till such time the basic data are up dated correctly.  Simply outsourcing the pension work will not help.  The outsourcing agencies should have thorough knowledge about defence pension.  They should update the basic data with the original records before finalizing the revision of pension.

If the banks are finding it difficult for suitable outsourcing, they can approach different ex-servicemen welfare associations for assistance in the matter.  Every year some crores of rupees goes unclaimed in the defence pension allocation due to short payment to defence pensioners throughout India.

The Auditors visiting the banks branches are verifying the pension payment at random. They do not scrutinize the complete records.  Now after the formation of CPPCs in various banks, in main cities, the Auditors should have no problem to verify all records.  If the annual auditing of a CPPC is done thoroughly, things may improve.  The audit report must be made available to the needy pensioners through RTI Act and should be made accountable for its accuracy.  All the ex-servicemen welfare associations should take up the matter more seriously in the banks in the matter.