Revision of rates of Risk Allowance & Patient care Allowance

The Cabinet approved revision of rates of Risk Allowance. Hospital Patient Care Allowance and Patient Care Allowance payable to about two lakh entitled Central Government employees to double the existing rates with effect from 1s` September, 2008.

The proposed revision in the rates of the Risk Allowance, Hospital Patent Care Allowance and Patient Care Allowance will provide succor to the employees at risk due to the nature of their duties. It will also result in considerable financial savings as compared to the Risk Insurance Schemes/Packages.

The financial implication of doubling the extant rate of Risk Allowance, Hospital Patient Care Allowance and Patient Care Allowance would be Rs.42.16 crore per annum, as against Rs.503.26 crore plus service tax (approximately) {Rs.40.50 crore plus service tax per annum for insurance policy and Rs.462.76 crore plus service tax for purchase of annuity} for implementing the Risk Insurance package.

The amount of Risk Allowance, Hospital Patient Care Allowance and Patient Care Allowance would be automatically raised by 25 per cent every time the Dearness Allowance on the revised pay structure goes up by 50 per cent. The proposed revision in the rates of Risk Allowance, Hospital Patient Care Allowance and Patient Care Allowance will benefit certain categories of Central Government employees engaged in duties involving special risks. 

Source: PIB

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PS Group B DPC - An update

It is learnt from Directorate that the calculation of vacancy position for holding of DPC for the the promotion to PS Gr. B cadre is still  under process. The date of joining in PS Gr. B cadre by recently passed PS Gr. B officers through LDCE have already been called for to decide the repatriation cases of officers before DPC. DPC for promotion to JTS Gr. A cadre will be held before the DPC of PS Gr. B cadre.

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Guidelines for Appointment of Auditors of PFMs and Schemes under New Pension System...

Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA)
PFRDA (APPOINTMENT OF AUDITORS) GUIDANCE NOTE 2012

Part A: Appointment of Statutory Auditors of Pension Funds
(This part of Guidance Note is issued under Clause 1 of the ‘PFRDA (Preparation of Financial Statements and Auditor’s Report of Schemes under National Pension System) Guildelines-2012’) 

I. Eligibility Conditions:
(a) Auditor of a PF shall be either a partnership firm or a corporate entity; it shall not be a       proprietorship concern.

(b) The audit entity should have a five year track record of continuous operations.

(c) Audit entity should have a minimum of five partners out of which,
(i)  Any four partners to have an audit experience of   three years, 

(ii) Any two partners to have been in practice in an audit entity for five years ,

(iii) Any two partners to have been with the appointed audit firm for a continuous period of three years.

(iv) Any one partner to be a Fellow member (FCA) of ‘The Institute of Chartered Institute of India’ (ICAI) and should have been in continuous practice for two years after enrolment as FCA.

(d) At least one partner or paid Chartered Accountant of the entity should have CISA/ISA or any other equivalent qualification.

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Work overload isn’t part and parcel, say postmen wanting out

More and more postal dept staff are opting for VRS to escape 10-hr shifts brought on by acute staff shortage 

 

At a time when the email has taken second place to social networking sites as a primary tool of communication, the city’s snail mail department is struggling with piles of undelivered mail — not because snail mail is back in fashion, but that there are too few postmen to deliver letters.
 

 Add to this extra workload the pressure from bosses to get more customers for postal savings schemes and marketing mini-refrigerators, and it’s no wonder that more and more postal staff are opting for voluntary retirement. 

Y N Bambale, secretary, National Federation of Employees Union (Pune) — the national-level postal employees union — and post officer at Ghorpadi post office, claims postal department employees are working more than 10 hours per day and blames the shortfall in staff on the existing recruitment policy. “Recruitment is done only for posts vacated due to retirement, about five per year on an average.

However, there is no recruitment to fill posts vacated due to employees taking voluntary retirement and death,” Bambale said.

Now, the situation is so bad that only Speed Posts and registered letters are getting delivered, while letters franked with basic postage are piling up and delivery of these ‘ordinary’ letters is delayed by anything up to two months.

“We want to give our customers the best possible service, but it has become a practical impossibility as there are very few staffers to do the work. Our priority is Speed Post letters, which contain important documents like passports, PAN cards, driving licenses and legal notices.

Only after delivering Speed Post letters do we get time for ‘ordinary’ letters, but these are equally important nowadays as government job interview letters are sent via normal post,” added Bambale.

On an average, says V V Muley (52), accountant at the Pune General Post Office (GPO), a postman delivers 400 letters per day in one area.

“In addition to the huge number of letters to be delivered, postal employees are given targets just like private banks to bring in business by getting people to open new saving accounts or sell ‘Chotu Kool’ refrigerators as part of a tie-up of the Indian postal department with appliance major Godrej. Letters are piling up as there is no one to deliver them,” Muley said.

Fiftysix-year-old R S Dighe, a postman with Hadapsar P.O. with 25 years of service, said one postman has two areas under him now, but earlier, two postmen would be given one area to take care of. “We’re all really fed up of this situation and want more people to be recruited. It is affecting our credibility,” Dighe said.

In all, there are 110 post offices in the city, which are divided into East and West zones with 62 and 58 post offices falling under them respectively.

“Since the last few months, there is tremendous workload especially on the postmen and Group D employees — office boys, peons and housekeeping staff.

Presently, I’m delivering to two areas, including Magarpatta City, which is a huge commercial and residential area. I need a minimum of eight hours to cover one section of this, which makes it impossible for me to deliver letters to other societies and offices in the area the same day,” Dighe said.

Muley added, “If a postman is unable to achieve his daily target and deliver the ordinary letters, he is punished in various ways like transfers, withholding increments and sometimes, even suspension from duties.”

S Badhekar, a former postman with Hadpsar P.O. who opted for voluntary retirement a couple of months ago, told Mirror, “I have been feeling the pressure over the last one year. I couldn’t work for ten hours everyday. The main problem is shortage of staff at the city’s post offices. I decided to quit and stay home instead.”

R K Jayabhaye, Director, Postal Services for Pune, said, “Yes, there is shortage of staff and postmen are having to deliver to more than one area. Recruitment will solve this problem.

There are various reasons letters being delivered late, and they have to do with the delivery process — sometimes the address is wrong, or wrong stamps were affixed. One cannot blame the system or staff shortage. Recruitment is an ongoing process. Every three years. we review all the post offices in the city and fill vacant posts accordingly.”

According to the department, 131 postmen’s posts are lying empty in both the East and West zones. Recruitment has been cleared for 80 posts and is expected to be completed in the next six months. However, there is a shortage of 45 Group D employees, but no announcement has been made regarding recruitment for them till date.

By Dheeraj Bengrut

Courtsey : PuneMirror.in, Oct 6, 2012 

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Five tips to select a savings account

If you don't research before opening a savings account, you may end up earning a lower interest rate or paying more for certain services. To maximise your earning potential and minimise your losses, ET lists the things you should consider before choosing the account.

INTEREST RATES

Though a savings account offers meagre interest rates compared with other investing avenues, you do need to park some cash here for ready availability and it doesn't hurt to choose the one that offers the highest rate. After the RBI deregulated interest rates on savings accounts in October 2011, banks have started offering variable rates.
Currently, YES BankBSE 1.14 % is giving a return of 7% a year for a balance of more than 1 lakh and 6% a year for balance of up to 1 lakh. Kotak Mahindra BankBSE 0.63 % has on offer 6% a year for deposits of more than 1 lakh and 5.5% a year on balance of up to 1 lakh. Though 0.1% seems too minuscule a difference, it can add up to a reasonable sum for higher savings. However, keep in mind that higher promotional interest rates can fall later, so choose your account according to your savings plan. Opt for stable rates if you are in it for the long term.

MINIMUM BALANCE

Go for a savings account that requires you to park a low or nil minimum monthly/quarterly average balance. This is because in case of non-compliance , you will have to pay a penalty, which can be as high as 350 a month. While ICICI BankBSE 0.00 % demands a minimum monthly average balance of 10,000, Standard Chartered's 'Breeze Banking' savings account is a zero-balance account for the first six months. After that, it demands a quarterly minimum balance of 25,000. Banks like the Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National BankBSE 2.08 %, and now, the State Bank of IndiaBSE 1.54 % don't have the minimum balance criterion.

NET BANKING

Opt for a savings account in a bank that offers you the Net and mobile banking facilities since you can conduct transactions from the comfort of your home and office. This is especially important since most banks now charge you for specified physical transactions at the bank branch, whereas these are free if you conduct them online or over the phone.
For instance, HDFC BankBSE 0.23 % will charge you 50 for stop payment of a particular cheque, but this service is free if you conduct it through Net or phone banking. Similarly, it will cost you 100 if you ask for the issuance of a duplicate statement by going to a branch, but only 50 if you do it through Net banking. So go for the bank that offers you these facilities to reduce your outgo.

TRANSACTION CHARGES

Before choosing a savings account, make sure you read the fine print because most banks now charge extra for transactions or services that you were not paying for earlier and may not even avail of. For instance, did you know that the ICICI Bank charges 100 for the issuance of a duplicate passbook and 25 for the regeneration of your debit card PIN?

Source:-The Economic Times

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Official amendments to the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2011

Official amendments to the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2011 

The Union Cabinet today approved the introduction of certain official amendments to the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2011. These official amendments have been necessitated in view of the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Finance which has examined the Bill. Based on the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Finance, the Government has decided to accept the following: 

1. that the subscriber seeking minimum assured returns shall be allowed to opt for investing his funds in such schemes providing minimum assured returns as may be notified by the Authority; 

2. withdrawals not exceeding 25 per cent of the contribution made by subscriber will be permitted from the individual pension account subject to the conditions, such as, purpose, frequency and limits, as may be specified by regulations by the Pension Fund Regulatory Authority and Development Authority (PFRDA) 

3. the foreign investment ceiling in the pension sector at 26 per cent or such percentage as may be approved for the Insurance Sector, whichever is higher may be incorporated in the present legislation; 

4. to establish a vibrant Pension Advisory Committee with representation from all major stakeholders to advise PFRDA on important matters of framing of regulations under the PFRDA Act. 

5. the membership of the PFRDA will be confined to professionals having expertise in economics, finance or law only. 

The New Pension Scheme (NPS) has been made mandatory for all the Central Government employees (except Armed Forces) entering service with effect from 1.1.2004. 27 State / UT Governments have notified NPS for their employees. NPS has been launched for all citizens of the country including unorgnised sector workers, on voluntary basis, with effect from 1st May, 2009. Further, to encourage people from the unorganised sector to voluntarily save for their retirement, Government has launched the co-contributory pension scheme titled "Swavalamban Scheme" in the Budget of 2010-11. As on 7th September, 2012 the number of subscribers under NPS is 37.45 lakh with a corpus of Rs. 20535.00 crore. 

In order to effectively invest and manage such huge funds belonging to a large number of subscribers and to ensure the integrity of the NPS, creation of a statutory PFRDA with well defined powers, duties and responsibilities is considered absolutely necessary and would benefit all NPS subscribers. 

The official amendments to the Bill will be moved in the next session of the Parliament. 

Background: 

The following recommendations of the SCF have not been accepted: 

• As regards the recommendation of SCF for compulsory insurance of the funds of subscribers by pension fund managers, a provision has already been made in the PFRDA Bill, to protect the interest of the subscribers by ensuring safety of contribution of subscribers and also by keeping the operational costs in check, 

• As regards the selection of pension fund managers in such a manner that one third of all such fund managers are from the public sector, since a provision has already been made in the PFRDA Bill that at least one of the pensions fund shall be from the public sector which sets a floor, the ceiling can be any number based on objective criteria. 

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2005 was initially introduced in the Lok Sabha in March, 2005 to provide for a statutory PFRDA. However, since the Bill and the official amendments, based on the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Finance, could not be considered by the Lok Sabha, and the Bill lapsed on dissolution of the 14th Lok Sabha. The Government had announced in the Budget 2011-12 that the revised PFRDA Bill would be moved in Parliament. Accordingly, the PFRDA Bill, 2011 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on the 24th March, 2011 to provide for a statutory regulatory body, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) under the provisions of the Bill. The legislation sought to empower FRDA to regulate the New Pension System (NPS). The PFRDA Bill, 2011 was referred to the Standing Committee on Finance on the 29th March, 2011 for examination and report thereon. The Standing Committee on Finance gave its Report on 30th August, 2011. Based on the recommendations of Standing Committee, a Cabinet Note, to introduce additional recommendations of the Standing committee on Finance was moved on 19th December, 2011. Since the PFRDA Bill, 2011 was deferred in the Winter Session of the Lok Sabha, therefore the Cabinet Note was withdrawn. 

Source : PIB

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