30/04/2016

1)Sri SK.Sinha, Member(Planning) will hold addl charge of Secretary Posts .

29/04/2016

1) Reservation in promotion

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2) Review of performance of public servants.

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3)Standard Operating and Accounting Procedure

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DoP seeks Cabinet nod for payments bank proposal

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DoP seeks Cabinet nod for payments bank proposal

New Delhi, Apr 27 (PTI) The Department of Posts (DoP) has sought Cabinet approval for its payments bank proposal involving a project cost of Rs 800 crore.

The Public Investment Board (PIB) has recommended that the payments bank may be set up as a public limited company under the Department of Posts with 100 per cent government equity.

"With a project cost of Rs 800 crore (Rs 400 crore equity and Rs 400 crore grant) and the draft cabinet note has been forwarded to Cabinet Secretariat seeking the approval for the project," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The Reserve Bank of India granted in-principle approval to DoP for setting up payments bank on September 7, 2015, with a stipulation to complete all formalities for setting up the bank with 18 months.

The present proposal is that the India Post Payments bank (IPPB) may set up one headquarter and up to 650 branches co-located in district headquarter post offices.

"...more than 60 large companies have approached the Department of Posts for collaboration with the prospective IPPB," the Minister added.

Prasad said the project may be rolled out in a phased manner and the bank may complete its nation-wide rollout in five years.

"All the post offices in a district may be linked to the respective IPPB branch and may become the access point for the services of payments bank and will coordinate with the payments bank branches to which they are mapped," the Minister said.

He further said services available through the payments banks will be basic banking services like acceptance of demand deposits such as current and savings accounts up to a balance of Rs 1 lakh, various kinds of payments, including social security payments like DBT payments, person to person remittances (both domestic and cross-border).

"Apart from these, financial products like insurance, mutual funds, pensions, credit etc may be distributed through third party tie ups with banks and other financial service providers especially in rural areas and among the under banked segments of the society," he added.

Regarding International Finance Corporation, a member of World Bank, has shown interest in picking up stake in the business, Prasad said some preliminary discussions had taken place but no formal proposal to this effect has been received.

Income tax department to pay interest on TDS refund

The Income Tax department will now add interest amount to a delayed refund made on excess TDS deductions and will also not litigate with the deductor on this issue in the future, a latest directive has said.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes has issued a directive in this regard to the assessing officers of the IT department based on a 2014 Supreme Court order where the apex court had made it clear that the taxman is "bound" to pay interest on refund made under the tax deducted at source (TDS) category.

TDS is primarily deducted by the employer from the salary paid to an employee.

"In view of the judgement of the apex court it is settled that if a resident deductor is entitled for the refund of tax deposited under Section 195 (other sums) of the Act (Income Tax Act), then it has to be refunded with interest under section 244A (where refund of any amount a becomes due to the assessee they shall be entitled to receive simple interest), from the date of payment of such tax," the CBDT communication issued on Tuesday said.

The CBDT has further directed that "accordingly, it is advised that no appeals may henceforth be filed on this ground by the officers of the department and appeals already filed on this issue may not be pressed upon."

The clarificatory note has been issued by the policy-making body (CBDT) of the IT department as it has been a subject matter of "controversy and litigation."

"While the tax department duly gives interest in case an individual's refund is delayed, there was some grey area in the TDS category. This has been settled now. This is yet another area where the taxman is cutting don on litigation," a senior IT official said.

The basis of the latest communication is a Supreme Court order that had ruled in favour of the deductor of a company on February 26, 2014 stating that "refund due and payable to assessee is debt-owned and payable by the revenue.

"The government, there being no express statutory provisions for payment of interest on the refund of excess amount/tax collected by the revenue cannot shrug of its apparent obligation to reimburse the deductors lawful monies with the accrued interest for the period of undue retention of such monies.

"The state having received the money without right and having retained and used it, is bound to make the party good, just as an individual would be under like circumstances. The obligation to refund money received and retained without right implies and carried with it the right to interest," the apex court had said in the 2014 order. 

Source : The Times of India

7th Pay Commission 2016: New pay scales to put extra burden of whopping Rs 1.02 lakh cr in FY17

7th Pay Commission 2016: Implementation of new pay scales recommended by the Seventh Pay Commission is estimated to put an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh cr, or 0.7 per cent of GDP, on the exchequer in 2016-17, government said today.

The implementation of recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission report, however, would be after approval of the Cabinet on completion of screening of suggestions by a high-level panel of secretaries, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

The implementation of the new 7th Pay Commission pay scales is estimated to put an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore (or 0.7 per cent of GDP at current market prices) on the exchequer in 2016-17. Subject to acceptance by the government, they will take effect from January 1, 2016.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha also said that the announcement of Dearness Allowance has no impact on the recommendations of the Pay Commission.

Giving details of financial implications of the recommendations, Sinha said the burden on pay head would increase by Rs 39,100 crore to about Rs 2.83 lakh crore in the current fiscal. Without the 7th Pay Commission recommendations, the outgo would have been Rs 2.44 lakh crore.

The outgo towards HRA will increase by Rs 17,200 crore to Rs 29,600 crore. The outgo on pension front will be Rs 1.76 lakh crore (increase of Rs 33,700 crore) and on other allowance will be Rs 36,400 crore (up Rs 12,100 crore).

The Empowered Committee of Secretaries headed Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha to process the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission was set up in January.

The recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission report will have bearing on the remuneration of 47 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/

Government hikes minimum wage for contract workers to Rs 10,000

NEW DELHI: The minimum wage for contract workers has been increased to Rs 10,000 per month, Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya said on Monday.

The minister of state for labour and employment informed Lok Sabha that the wage hike has been implemented based on a Supreme Court verdict. 

Asserting that the government is committed towards the betterment of the working class, he said workers are being protected through all the rights. 

"Recently, we have increased minimum wage to Rs 10,000 at the national level taking into consideration the Consumer Price Index and Dearness Allowance. This was based on the verdict of the Supreme Court. We have linked this increase of minimum wage to pension and bonus," he said during Question Hour. 

On April 17, Dattatreya had said the government would bring out an executive order to ensure that contract workers get a minimum wage of Rs 10,000 per month. 

 "It is the endeavour of the central government to make reforms in labour laws and to proceed from minimum wage to universal wage. Because the Opposition is not cooperating in Parliament, we will do it through an executive order," he had said. 

"We have taken a decision to make changes to rule 25 of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Central Rules. Every contract worker will be entitled to get Rs 10,000 per month," Dattatreya had said.

Source :  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

7th Pay Commission – Two Critical Points Highlighted to Empowered Committee by Dorai, DD ESIC Model Hospital

New URL For IMO Web Site, India Post 

The web address for IMO, India Post has been changed. Click below link to Open IMO website for Booking / Make Payment. https://www.epostoffice.gov.in/imo/

Norms relaxed for Selvamagal 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.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/norms-relaxed-for-selvamagal-scheme/article8517925.ece

7th Pay Commission – Two Critical Points Highlighted to Empowered Committee by Dorai, DD ESIC Model Hospital

7th Pay Commission – Two Critical Points Highlighted – The financial benefit would be much lower than what a government servant would be getting under VI CPC recommendation on promotion.

Two Critical Points highlighted to Empowered Committee by Dorai on 7th pay commission.

Mr.M.Dorai, Deputy Director, ESIC Model Hospital, Bangalore (Ministry of Labour, Government of India, is the author of this article.

“In addition to the various genuine demands raised by the various Central Government Employees Federations/Associations about the 7th pay commission recommendations with the Empowered Committee of Secretaries, I would like them to bring these 2 important crucial issues before the Empowered Committee of Secretaries for implementation:

1. RETENTION OF 3% INCREMENT IN VII CPC RECOMMENDATIONS IN CASE OF PROMOTION LEADS TO LOWER FINANCIAL BENEFITS BY FEW THOUSANDS THAN THE EXISTING BENEFITS UNDER 6TH CPC RECOMMENDATIONS :

The financial benefit would be much lower than what a government servant would be getting under VI CPC recommendation on promotion, because the existing benefit on promotion carry change in grade pay apart from 3% increase in Pay+Grade Pay. The following illustration shall show the huge difference:

Suppose an employee whose Pay is Rs.10400/- and the Grade pay is Rs. 2800/- totalling to Rs.13200(in the Pay band of 5200-20200), gets his next promotion to the Grade Pay of Rs.4200/- he will be entitled to the following hike in total remuneration under the existing VI CPC recommendation as a result of promotion:

Rs.13200 x 3% increment =Rs.400
Difference in Grade Pay from Rs.2800 to Rs.4200= Rs.1400
Total increase of increment in basic pay and Grade Pay= Rs.1800
D.A. at 125% as on 1/1/2016 on Rs.1800 = Rs.2250
HRA at 30%(assuming X city) on Rs.1800 =Rs.540
Total monetary benefit = Rs.4590/-

Whereas the net monetary benefit under VII CPC recommendation, as a result of promotion in the above case will be much lower than the above illustration as shown under:

Equivalent Basic Pay for Rs.13200 come to Rs.33900 as per pay matrix
Rs.33900 x 3% increment =Rs.1017(placed at Rs.35,400 as per pay matrix in the next level)
Total difference Rs.35400 – Rs33900 =1500
D.A. at 0% as on 1/1/2016 on Rs.1500= 0
HRA at 24%(assuming X city) on Rs.1500 =Rs.360
Total monetary benefit = Rs.1860/-only as against the existing Rs.4590/- leading to shortage of Rs. 2730/-
This is a big blunder committed by the VII Pay commission.
Therefore the increment on promotion should be atleast 5 to 6% to bring the benefit of increment on promotion to the existing level.

Whether increase of percentage for annual increment is considered or not, but increment of percentage for promotions definitely need to be implemented to bring the level of monetary benefit to the existing level.

2. NON RECOMMENDATION OF VII CPC REGARDING MERGER OF 50% OF D.A. WITH BASIC PAY WHEN D.A. CROSSES 50% IS A GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT:

The long standing demand of the central government employees for merger of 50% D.A with basic was not implemented by the government on the excuse that the VI CPC had not made such a proposal. Even the 7th pay commission is totally silent about this aspect. It appears no one has demanded the same before the VII CPC for consideration.

It is quite surprising that such a vital issue of non-recommendation of merger of D.A with basic pay when D.A crosses 50% is not being opposed by any central government associations or pointed out by the media. Had it been recommended by the 7th pay commission, the government shall definitely implement the same and the benefit of hike in salary as a result of merger of D.A with basic when it cross 50%, would be so vast that no government servant would crave for timely setting up of next VIII Central Pay commission”.

Source: www.gconnect.in