Saturday 30 April 2016
Friday 29 April 2016
CHANGES IN NATIONAL PENSION SYSTEM PROPOSED IN THE FINANCE BILL, 2016
Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Labour & Employment
27-April-2016 16:52 IST
Changes in NPS
The Government has proposed the following in the Finance Bill, 2016 with regard to the National Pension System (NPS):
Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, Minister of State (IC)
i. Allowing 40 per cent of the NPS corpus tax exempt on lump sum withdrawal.
ii. Waiving service tax on the NPS corpus utilized for purchase of annuity.
iii. The amount receivable by the nominee in case of death of the subscriber covered under NPS has been made tax exempt.
iv. One-time portability without any tax implication has been allowed to the subscriber for shifting from recognized provident fund to NPS.
v. One-time portability without any tax implication has been allowed to the subscriber for shifting from superannuation fund to NPS.
As per the provisions of the Finance Bill, 2016, 40 per cent of the pension corpus under NPS is proposed to be tax exempt on lump sum withdrawal. Also, the proposal in the Union Budget, 2016-17 for taxation of 60 per cent of provident fund corpus under the Income Tax Act, 1961 has been withdrawn by the Government. Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) remains an Exempt Scheme.
However, EPF and NPS are different schemes available to separate categories of subscribers and they are not comparable on one-to-one basis.
This information given by Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, Minister of State (IC) for Labour and Employment, in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
Wednesday 27 April 2016
Tuesday 26 April 2016
NAPE, GROUP - 'C' WRITES TO THE SECRETARY ON CBS PROBLEMS
Letter of NAPE, Group C on Problems of CBS
Sub : Excruciating state and intolerable stress among cadres due to the malfunctioning of CBS- reg.
Respected Madam,
I am compelled to bring to your kind notice, with a pang of pain and dejection, about the insurmountable misery our officials are doomed to suffer in the CBS enabled post offices. There appears to be no ray of hope for the respite to which our staffs are overdue in all levels regardless of the hierarchy. But the officials working in the post offices are put to rigorous exploitation and the resultant stress.
(a) Even though we are boasting of having brought as many 20500 offices under the nexus of CBS operation and outwitted the digital connectivity of the other stake holders, the working condition of the workers are deterioted to such degree of exploitation forcing us to intervene for an immediate solution.
The innovation does not lead to technological improvisation ensuring the best possible service to the customers. But, instead, had rendered our staff with an unsavory and humiliating experience of encountering the public wrath and curse on day to today basis.
Al the assurances the administration, had given in the past about the transient nature of the problems had not proved to be credible and worthy merit. Instead the problems are aggravating day by day making every one skeptic of the words from the authorities that be.
The staffs are working up to midnight to see that the validation followed by EOD is given staring the computers most of the time for connectivity. There was a total collapse of the connectivity impounding our staff to stay as late as mid night. The System administrators of the divisional headquarters are doomed to monitor the completion of the work round the clock and in fact have to complete the validation and other work of the sub offices by obtaining the details of the transactions over phone. The staffs of CPC are equally ordained to work tireless.
The plight of the women employees is ineffable and RISK fraught especially when they are to return to home in the late hours. Apart from, becoming totally indifferent and inattentive to their domestic chores (including child care), their vulnerability to the undesirable incidents either while working alone in remote offices or on the way back to home in odd hours are to be borne in consideration and remedy found on a war - foot basis. The employers are not all paying any heed to serious state where in the security of women staff at stake attracting various provisions of the law of land in the event of any untoward incident. Request is hereby fervently made by the undersigned for finding way and means to end this end these draconian travails meted to officials in CBS offices.
• The connectivity speed is said to be one of the prime reason for all these hardship faced by our staff some time back when the roll out was fewer
.
· The problem relating to the center server‘s imbibing capacity of the data being entered is now adduced to be the sole dominating reason for the present logjam.
· The problem relating to the center server‘s imbibing capacity of the data being entered is now adduced to be the sole dominating reason for the present logjam.
· The session counts of login session are to cope with the server.
• But oblivious to what is in store for us by the action in higher echelons; it is requested to do some plausible measure in our domain to bring down the peril facing us by adapting some procedural changes.
The over flooding of data reach out to server in the evening hours pertaining to BO transaction results in clogging and glitches, very typical of peak hour spurt in the traffic. The work in closing hours of the sub offices is to be reduced if at all any prima facie remedy is to be realized.
The following measures are suggested for these can be done in our level as per the rules and without causing any injury to customers’ interest.
(i) The conversion of all BO in the CBS offices as one day transit offices with instruction to treat the bag received for the day as bags received after closing of the account bag to HO, except taking the cash as advance remittance. The contents of the bag except RL/mails are to be kept overnight and to be incorporated in the next day account. The work of the BOS is therefore can be started right from the morning with the vouchers of previous day and can be put through in phased manner during office hours. The spread out entry of BOs transactions concurrently and leisurely with the sub offices work will avoid the accumulation in the evening and the crowding of data to server can be therefore be effectively eschewed.
(ii) Even if there is any likelihood of delay due to unanticipated glitches, the work of the day can be planned and alternate measures of shifting the CBS related work to nearby offices where the verification can be done well within reasonable time.
(iii) Constituting of special salvaging cell comprising of qualified staff with staggered attendance at focal points in order to complete the work of the Sub offices that cannot be accomplished for the aforesaid reason. As such it is a common sight that some of the sub office staffs are trying the validation in the HO in late evening hours as and when the total connectivity is lost in their office.
(iv) After close of the SO transaction along with the BO transaction of the previous day (by changing the value date), the EOD should be given at once in order to facilitate the CPC to run EOD for the circle level. The DC can therefore be run on the same day. But in the present arrangement, the initiation of EOD at post office level after validating the BO transaction late followed by CPC EOD compliance drags the DC to be run on the peak hours of the next day. Eventually telling upon the flow of the SO transactions the morning itself.
(v) Now the augmentation of server and providing additional server are impossible instantly. The heavy data flow cripples the work as per the latest findings by the experts. It is true that with more than 20000 SOLS and more number of logins, it may not possible to access the server swiftly. Further the target related spurt in the opening of accounts etc., has increased the data flow. With a net result the server what we have now in dearth of space over flooded with data and is bound to delay the transaction. The roll out of the rest of the Non CBS offices is beyond imagination with the available capacity and in fact has to be dropped in the beginning of this week.
Of late, the Infosys have advised that the duration of idle sessions be minimized and further to keep session count under check by restricting the session users. Of this couple of findings, the idle session time has since been reduced to 5 mts. for the past 4 days. Nevertheless there is no improvement.
As regards the restriction of the session users, not only for the present season, but till the server is added up the way out is to be found out by the Department. It is for sure the worker of the department cannot endure any more to undergo the rigors and drudgery of working late in the night to see the transactions are validated.
This Federation of the strong conviction that the basic work of the POSB ,as enshrined in our volume should be done manually on day to basis and the value added service like CBS and ATM can be performed periodically ,on turn basis, which will restrict the users at optimum level conducive to server to serve swiftly.
Thus the CBS will have to be termed and practiced as real time CBS. The slot should be apportioned among the sub offices with HO empowered to have access daily.
The sub offices during the restricted day should accept the transactions as in the past duly maintaining the Long book and RD journal etc., to substantiate the receipt and payment in the daily account. The vouchers can be validated by sending the same to HO on the same day along a copy of the long book and RD journal as the case may be. At Ho there should be enough staff strength (drawing officials rendered surplus from abolition of SOSB and from SBCO in staggered attendance) to do the validation and this team can be deployed in night hour attendance on par with CPC. The updation of SO transaction work during the non CBS days at HO should be timed in such way that it should not delay the EOD and DC of the day. The bandwidth of the HO can be raised considerably and thus the Core banking inclusion can be done on the same day, even though not instantly, for the costumer to get the value added service CBS uninterruptedly. This can be done till such time server capacity are enhanced or number added up. By doing so the much desired reduction in session login by the Infosys can be ensured by adapting the procedure already in vogue in our volumes without depriving the service of basic POSB to customers (in whatever way that deemed fit and plausible).
We therefore request you to kindly look in to matter and save the official from exploitation. We are left with no other choice but to leave the office as such after the close of working hours by duly incorporating the receipts and payment of the day towards POSB manually and thereby fulfilling the basic objective of the basic duty behold a Post office.
We therefore request you to kindly look in to matter and save the official from exploitation. We are left with no other choice but to leave the office as such after the close of working hours by duly incorporating the receipts and payment of the day towards POSB manually and thereby fulfilling the basic objective of the basic duty behold a Post office.
We further request your good self to defer the RICT which will increase the logged in users multi-folded till such time server is added or amplified for seamless access.
I may further be constrained to reiterate if officials are put in to hardship with no relief and if the atrocities unleashed on worker for no fault of them if goes unabated, we are left with no other choice of resorting to Trade Union action and judicial remedy drawing the attention of the Government about the barbaric way of treating the workers in the Department of Post that was not at all witnessed even in the Pre Independence day.
This conference is of genuine concern and apt desire that our department should keep abreast with all other of its counterparts, especially against the back drop of the ever growing technology and take the progress along its stride. At the same time we are of the apprehension that such adaptation to technology should not be a name sake exercise for the sake of perusing some activates at the cost of exchequer out of a hastily ill- conceived plan lacking a seminal insight. Very pertinently, the plan of execution should not jeopardize the labour laws of the country and consistently engaged in a manner relentless exploitation of labour.
As the famous adage goes” an action well started is half finished” in the case of our IT projects like Mccamish for Insurance and Core Banking in savings bank, we cannot feel gratified the way the execution are conducive for attaining the purpose of the project. We should honestly admit that we are stumbling in doing our transaction in the new software.
In other words we are heading for disastrous state in which the time tested credibility( towards the unique speed and accessibility of service) to the public will erode very soon if we are to continue the clumsy way we are doing the transaction are thorough the Mccamish and CBS.
The connectivity speed of these WEB enabled service is primarily the first issue to be resolved. The RAM capacity in tandem with the connectivity is next hitch to be concurrently spruced up for the betterment of the so called innovation. But for these the scheme will be only a farce in the apex level of hierarchy inevitably rendering the public, who have trusted us for generation together, to flee away from post offices and its products. A single policy generating in the Mccamish and new account opening in C BS are nightmarish experience and the public who are to wait for their transaction are driven to edge of our nerves. The fact that recently re-launched KVP are sold more in non CBS office than the CBS office are befitting testimony as how our switch over to new technology without proper assessment and ill equipped and deficient net work band widths. Added to this, opening of more accounts in Non-CBS office than CBS office will testify the same.
The other most deplorable aspect deserving vehement protest from us, as our staff are toiling on day to day basis in experimenting the ill designed soft ware that is thrust upon them. Most of the features in the software are not in conformity with the existing POSB Rules. We are at a loss to understand whether our officers have made us the testing ground for massive launch of any soft ware by the developers on getting a huge sum of money.
The staffs have to do the work of net enabled services of CBS (Finacle) and Mccamish without any content to heart, leave alone the satisfying the customer need. The tardy process of CBS software with the deficient and precarious connectivity makes the staff to work up to 9 late in the night.
This conference of genuine concern and desire that our department should keep in abreast of other identical sectors in respect of the technology aided execution of our transactions and other functions. But at the same time it should not be a ritualistic and perfunctory exercise hostile to the trust the public reposed on us for generations together. The trust what have earned from public in the time tested fabric is primarily the availability of financial service and swiftness in disposing the transaction. But the latest technology what we have been venturing to permeate in our department in the CBS for savings bank and Mc Caamish for insurance unfortunately turns out to be mute factors decimating the hard earned good will from public all along these years.
The rate at which the PLI business dipped down sequel to Mccamish advent is really alarming and got to be rectified on war foot basis. On the other hand, in Finacle the accounting is based on double entry book system as per the CAG insistence and the software is developed accordingly on par with banking system. The fact that our department has other multifarious business activities and the accounting of the same are to be incorporated in the final balance sheet of the day (daily account of in our parlance).The accounting are in customary single entry system unlike the Finnacle. In accounting system followed hitherto there is only one treasury where any funds, be it in receipt or payment, are monitored and accounted with per contra tallying. Any imbalance in this will be pointer to some serious lapse in fiscal propriety. But now in finacle there is vault mode akin to the customary treasury.
But in finacle the debit and credit in the sundry accounts of various kinds and especially the postmaster account (340) where the amount cleared through cheques are debited and credited is a zone of peril. Any intrusion of fake clearance in to the vault by manipulators by credit and dispersing the amount to specific accounts for further withdrawal are sure to go unchecked in as much as such of items are not reflected in treasury accounting responsible for arriving the daily account and further evade the scroll adjustment in the accounts branch. Thus the loop-holes in soft those are prone to manipulation and scandals.
Yours Sincerely
( D.Kishan Rao)General Secretary
OVER 2 LAKH NEW CENTRAL GOVERNMENT JOBS TO BE CREATED BY 2017
Good news for government job seekers.
In a good news for people seeking government jobs, over two lakh posts are estimated to be created by the Central government in its various departments.
The Central government has projected in the budget estimates for 2016-17 an increase of about 2.18 lakh in the existing workforce of 33.05 lakh, as in 2015, by 2017.
The Home Ministry will add 5,635 new jobs to take its strength to 22,006 in 2017. Similarly, there will be 47,264 new posts in police departments to take its total to 10,75, 341 in 2017 from 10,28,077 (its strength in 2015), it said.
There will be increase of 10,894 in staff strength of the Defence Ministry to take the manpower count to 51,084 in 2017, according to the budget estimates presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh on Monday said the projection has been made after due consideration and keeping in mind the futuristic vision of the government.
“The government, wherever required, takes into consideration creation of new posts. The budget estimates on the strength of Central government establishments will help provide good governance,” he told.
The Civil Aviation Ministry will have 1,080 more posts to reach a total of 2,140 by 2017. The Ministry’s staff strength as in 2015 is 1,060, according to the budget estimates.
Similarly, the Department of Atomic Energy will add 6,353 new jobs to take the total of manpower to 38,025. There will be an estimated increase of 2,072 posts in 2017 in the External Affairs Ministry as against the actual strength of 8,913 in 2015, it said.
Mines Ministry will have 4399 new jobs by 2017. The staff strength of the ministry is 8,503, as in 2015. Similarly, the Personnel Ministry will see a jump of 1,796 new posts from 8,568 in 2015, as per the budget estimates.
The Cabinet Secretariat has already asked all ministries to mention “employment generation potential” in each scheme while seeking approval of the Union Cabinet and its Committees.
Similarly, all proposals seeking approval of appraisal bodies like Foreign Investment Promotion Board and Core Group on Disinvestment need to mandatorily mention employment generation potential, the Cabinet Secretariat has said.
NORMS RELAXED FOR SSA SCHEME
In a bid to generate more interest among people in opening Selvamagal Semippu accounts (SSA) in the names of their daughters, the postal department has relaxed certain norms.
Now, people can pay deposits for 15 years towards SSA from the time of opening of the savings account. Earlier, it was restricted to 14 years. At present, long-term saving schemes like Public Provident Fund scheme too accept deposits for 15 years. The SSA scheme was launched in February last year for the welfare of girl children. Currently, there are over 12.34 lakh accounts across the State, with nearly 4.38 accounts in Chennai city.
Restrictions on withdrawal were a hitch in attracting more investors to the scheme. Customers could opt for partial withdrawal only when the applicant turned 18 years old. Now, account holders can withdraw up to 50 per cent of the balance accrued till the previous financial year for higher education once the girl child completes class X.
Officials of postal department said the account holder had to produce documentary proof like fee receipt to withdraw from their balance, including an option of withdrawing in five instalments. People will have to pay a minimum of Rs.1,000 to avoid penalty charges. However, depositors in SSA have to wait for 21 years for the amount to mature. They also have an option to close the account one month before or three months after the wedding date.
Another norm relaxed now is the option for premature closure after five years of opening the account in case of medical expenditure of account holder or death of guardian. “There has not been any dip in new accounts because of the reduction in interest rate and it continues to be one of the popular savings scheme. On an average, nearly 18,000 SSAs are being opened in the city post offices. Nearly Rs. 324 crore has been deposited through SSA so far,” said an official.
Saturday 23 April 2016
Friday 22 April 2016
Thursday 21 April 2016
NISG CORDINATION FAILED, MAY GOD SAVE CBS
While reading the heading, somebody may think that what is NISG? And what the importance of NISG is in the CBS migration work of India Post.
The National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) is a non-profit company incorporated in 2002 by the Government of India to leverage private sector resources through a Public-Private-Partnership mode in establishing Digital India.
In the IT modernization project of India Post, NISG is entrusted with the duty of co-ordination of activities of various private companies participating in the project. If we take the case of CBS migration work, the duty of NISG is to co-ordinate the work of Infosys and Sify for the effective and successful implementation of CBS in Post Offices.
There is no doubt that the implementation is happening on a larger scale but the question is whether it is in the right way or not. Answer is very simple and everyone knows it. If you think that the implementation is in wrong way, here arises the question about co-ordination.
Actually no co-ordination is happening from the part of NISG especially in Kerala Circle. Post Office staffs are unaware of this institution and its role. They are simply cursing Sify if they don’t have proper connectivity and the System Administrators cursing Infosys if it drops any migrated office on the GoLive date. After reading this article, you will include NISG too in this list.
Sify and Network Integration
We admit that, NISG has the limited power in controlling the entire activity. But they could have been contributed much more in the root level activities. If we consider a Post Office, the work of NISG starts just before installing the network equipment in the Post Office. The responsibility of NISG in the Network Integration process has been completely forgotten by its staffs even if it has been clearly defined.
There was no co-ordination at the time of installation of Network equipment. Sify has given a subcontract for fixing racks in Post Offices and the vendor who got the work acted according to their will and skill. Before giving sign off, Infosys compensated the vendor and disposed the contract. In this phase NISG was acted as a silent spectator.
According to the Directorate instructions, before giving sign off by concerned Post Office or Division after Sify migration, NISG Team should have visited the location to ensure the effectiveness of Network Integration. But no NISG staff has visited any office for this purpose.
Sify used this lapse from the part of NISG effectively in all the subsequent stages.
Sify WAN connectivity is the preliminary prerequisite for selecting a location for CBS migration. But non-Sify migrated offices are also selected for CBS migration. Some offices have migrated to CBS and even after two weeks they cannot even login to Finacle due to non-availability of Sify connection.
Were NISG officials sleeping at the time of taking such decisions? Who is responsible for the public complaints happening at such offices? Will India Post or Sify or NISG or Infosys compensate customers for the inconvenience or loss happened due to non-working of SB branches at these offices.
Manual Data Entry (MDE)
While coming to Manual Data Entry (MDE) for digitization of manual records, the lack of co-ordination can be seen everywhere. Like earlier said Rack fitting job, Infosys has given a subcontract for data entry and they also have done the work according to their will.
The data entry work was completed by violating all the boundaries. Office records were scanned and taken out of the office and the data entry work was done in the office premise of vendor. In this phase no one has come forward to protect the interest of Depositors. Even after completion of data entry work, vendor can use the scanned copy of documents for malpractices in future.
Infosys has given importance only for the numbers of manual records not its accuracy. So they have not insisted the vendor to prepare the MDE database with accuracy. Post office staffs were forced to correct the entire mistake committed by the vendors of Infosys.
In majority of Offices, the address fields are updated with Post Office name and in some other cases name and address fields are updated with word “Malayalam” if the original application forms are filled with Malayalam language. In some offices, 50% records are updated with word “Malayalam” in all text portions.
Another mistake happened due to lack of co-ordination was excess payment due to excess data entry. In majority of offices while digitizing certificates, the data entry operators made data entry for all applications including already available in the Sanchay Post. In some cases, for digitizing 100 NSC registrations they have entered 400 registrations including 300 registrations already available in the Sanchay Post. The excess records would be deleted at the time of verification or at the time of migration but Infosys had already compensated for these excess data entry.
Dropping of Migration
So many questions will arise if anything happens wrong from the part of Postal staffs in connection with CBS migration. And much type of explanations may be sought. The practice of dropping offices after completing the migration work by System Administrators is common these days. But official explanation for the reason for such dropping will not be intimated. Even NISG officials have no idea about the actual reasons for dropping of offices.
If it is due to the mistake of Infosys or due to the lack of co-ordination from any part, officers of India Post will be silent. Allotting huge number of offices for migration without assessing the volume of data or without understanding the time constraint and other limitations of DMCC may be the actual reason for dropping of migrated offices. This is another lapse of NISG as a coordinator.
Since authority and responsibility is applicable in all levels, it is the responsibility of officers to inquire and find out the actual reasons for dropping and communicate it to the root level. Otherwise the morale of officials who wholeheartedly worked day-night for CBS migration will be lost.
Conclusion
Lots of big projects are yet to be started in India Post. So the mistakes will not be repeated in future if the Department of Post will decide to educate its employees of all levels about the role and responsibilities of each institution participating in various projects and to make the employee capable enough to achieve what is good for India post.
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Government rolls back restrictions on withdrawal of provident fund.
The government on Tuesday announced a complete and unconditional rollback of new norms that barred employees from withdrawing their provident fund corpus before retirement, over a month after it scrapped the Union budget proposal to tax employees provident fund savings at retirement.
Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, who on Monday said the new rules would be partially relaxed and their implementation deferred, announced the climb-down on Tuesday evening, minutes after his Ministry reiterated Monday’sdecision in a statement.
Protests against the new norms that started in Bengaluru on Monday turned violent on Tuesday, prompting Union Labour Secretary Shankar Agarwal to assess the situation with the PF Department by afternoon. Thereafter, Mr. Agarwal recommended that the Minister announce a complete rollback. “We are cancelling the February 10 notification [restricting complete withdrawal of PF savings] and the old system will continue. This was a demand of the workers and I have announced the roll-back in their interest,” Mr. Dattatreya said.
He said the decision would soon be ratified by the trustees of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) soon.
Under the rules notified in February, employees were not allowed to withdraw their entire PF amount if they had quit or lost their present jobs, making it mandatory for them to wait till 58 years of age for a final settlement. Following initial protests from workers, the Ministry deferred the implementation of the rules from April 1, 2016 to May 1.
While deferring this by another three months on Monday, the Minister said the norms would be relaxed to allow employees buying a house, getting a child married and pursuing professional education and healthcare to withdraw their entire PF savings. A similar exemption was granted to employees who join a government organization.
In a statement on the rollback, the Ministry explained that the new norms were aimed at ensuring that employees didn’t fritter away their retirement savings during their working life and spend their old age in penury. “The objective was to provide a minimum social security to the workers at the time of retirement. It was noticed that over 80 per cent of the claims settled by EPFO belonged to pre-mature withdrawal of funds, treating the EPF accounts as savings accounts, and not a social security instrument,” it said.
“In order to address the issues, the amendment stated above was carried out with the consent of trade unions and with the intention of promoting a decent accumulation of provident fund for the members at the end of their working lifetimes,” it said.
EPF accounts are mandatory for firms hiring at least 20 employees and are funded by employees paying 12 per cent of their salary with a matching contribution from employers.
Under the norms that now stand reversed, employees could withdraw their own share of PF savings along with the interest on them. The balance, comprising the employer’s contribution, was to be withheld by the EPFO till the employee attained 58 years of age.
Tuesday 19 April 2016
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