A complete reference blog for Indian Government Employees

Friday 8 January 2016

Changes in the Payment of Bonus Act will benefit thousands of CG employees

Changes in the Payment of Bonus Act will benefit thousands of CG employees

The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Bill, 2015 notified:Increase in the Eligibility Limit under clause (13) of Section 2 and Calculation Ceiling under Section 12 of the Payment of Bonus Act, 2015

The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Bill, 2015 was passed by the Parliament in the just concluded Winter Session of the Parliament. The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015 has been published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary on 1st January, 2016 as Act No. 6 of 2016. The provisions of the Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015 shall be deemed to have come into force on the 1st day of April, 2014.

The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015 envisages enhancement of eligibility limit under section 2(13) from Rs.10,000/- per month to Rs.21,000/- per month and Calculation Ceiling under section 12 from Rs. 3500 to Rs.7000 or the minimum wage for the scheduled employment, as fixed by the appropriate Government, whichever is higher. The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015 also mandates previous publication of draft subordinate legislations, framed under the enabling provisions under the said Act, in the Official Gazette for inviting objections and suggestions before their final notification.

The Government has been receiving representations from trade unions for removal of all ceilings under the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965. It is also one of the demands made by them during the country-wide General Strike held in February, 2013 and September, 2015. As the last revision in these two ceilings were made in the year 2007 and was made effective from the 1st April, 2006, it was decided by the Government to make appropriate amendments to the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965.

These changes in the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 will benefit thousands of work force.

PIB
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Latest official details of Defence Pensioners – PCDA released

Latest official details of Defence Pensioners – PCDA released

Profile of Defence Pensioners as on April 2015

As on 01.04.2015 the Defence Accounts Department is servicing 24.61 lakhs pensioners, spread across the country.

The category wise details of pensioners is as under:

Sl.No. Category Number of Pensioners
1. Commissioned Officers 58,754
2. P.B.O.R. 18,40,809
3. Defence Civilians 5,62,088
Total 24,61,651

The details of pensioners drawing pension from various PDAs is summarized as under:

Sl.No. Name of PDA Number of Pensioners Percentage
1. Public/ Private Sector Banks 18,42,092 74.83
2. DPDOs 4,60,336 18.70
3. Distt. Treasuries 60,752 2.47
4. IE Nepal 92,876 3.77
5. Post Office 4,496 0.18
6. PAOs 1,099 0.05

Total 24,61,651 100

On an average 45,000 Defence Forces personnel and Defence civilians retire every year and become part of pensioners’ strength. While working out the data‐base of pensioners as on a given date, average wastages out of the pensioners’ data base are worked out to arrive at the number of Defence pensioners on a particular date.

The Defence pensioners are spread over the length and breadth of the country. The major pockets having concentration of Defence pensioners are states of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala among others.

The Zone/State wise details of pensioners is enclosed in the accompanying Annexure – ‘A’.
Further, around 4.60 lakhs pensioners drawing pension from 63 Defence Pension Disbursement offices, which are also mapped in the accompanying Annexure – ‘B’.

pcda-statistics-of-defence-pensioners

pcda-statistics-of-defence-pensioners-DPDP

Authority: www.cgda.nic.in
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Pay Commission award to be implemented in April, no separate DA to be announced

Pay Commission award to be implemented in April, no separate DA to be announced

The recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission award to review salaries of central government employees, will be implemented in April and no separate DA will be announced, Finance Ministry sources said.

“The cabinet will give its nod to implement the 7th Pay Commission award in April after some modification and it will be effective from January 1, 2016,” the sources added.

After receiving the 7th Pay Commission report on November 19, the government had formed the implementation cell of the pay commission headed by ar Joint Secretary in Finance Ministry on November 20 last year.

With an eye on implementation of Pay Commission award, the government will not hike the dearness allowance (DA) to 1119% from existing 125%. The DA hike will be merged with the new pay as the Pay Commission made report, assuming that the rate of Dearness Allowance would be 125 percent at the time of implementation of the pay commission recommendation, i.e. on January 1.

Hence, the government has bound to implement the 7th Pay Commission award in April, they confirmed.

The notification to put into effect the Seventh pay commission recommendation will be issued in April before the announcement of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu states assemblies’ election in May 2016, which will benefit 50 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners including dependents, sources of Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

“The BJP led central government decided execution time of the pay commission’s award in April, which will also be possible pre-election “special packages” for West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu to win sufficient seats of states Assemblies polls, sources told our reporters.

The 7th Pay Commission was set up by the UPA government in February 2014, The Commission headed by Justice A K Mathur submitted its 900-page final report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 19, recommending 23.55 per cent hike in salaries and allowances of Central government employees and pensioners.

The panel recommended a 14.27 per cent increase in basic pay, the lowest in 70 years. The previous 6th Pay Commission had recommended a 20 per cent hike, which the government doubled while implementing it in 2008.

The 7th pay commission recommended fixing the highest basic salary at Rs 250,000 and the lowest at Rs 18,000and its increased the pay gap between the minimum and maximum from existing 1:12 to 1: 13.8

The government constitutes the Pay Commission almost every 10 years to revise the pay scale of its employees and pensioners, often these are adopted by states after some modifications. However, the 7th Pay Commission suggested to discontinue the practice of appointing pay commissions in future.
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Financial obligations due to implementation of OROP and 7th CPC Recommendations in the coming financial year – Finance Minister

Financial obligations due to implementation of OROP and 7th CPC Recommendations in the coming financial year – Finance Minister

Finance Minister: Due to various policy measures undertaken by the present Government, Indian Economy has achieved robust growth rate despite volatility and uncertainty in global economy; asks Captains of Indian Trade and Industry to come forward and make increased Private Investment especially in Infrastructure Sector .

The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley said that in the first half of the Current Financial Year 2015-16, the Indian Economy has achieved robust growth rate despite volatility and uncertainty in global economy. He said that this was made possible by a slew of policy measures undertaken by the present Government including enhanced public investment, kick starting stalled projects, improving the status of financial inclusion significantly, improving governance through systematic changes like open auction of natural resources like coal and spectrum in a transparent manner, and greater fiscal federalism and improving business environment through reforms in policies and regulation among others. Shri Jaitley said that the current level of growth rate of our economy and sound fiscal fundamentals present better growth prospects for the next Financial Year 2016-17 as well. The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley was making the Opening Remarks during his third Pre-Budget Consultative Meeting with the representatives of Industry and Trade Groups here today.

The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley said that the Government will continue to expand public spending even during the next financial year despite the major financial implications of the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission which reduced the share of the Central Government by 10% and its forthcoming financial obligations due to implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP) and 7th Pay Commission Recommendations in the coming financial year. He asked the representatives of Business and Trade Sector to increase the private sector spending especially in infrastructure sector.

Various suggestions were received during the aforesaid Consultative Meeting. Major recommendations include higher investment in irrigation and rural infrastructure sector as this will increase the spending capacity of the rural people which in turn will create demand for various items and increased economic activity. Other suggestions included focus on disinvestment of public sector undertakings by the Government to raise additional revenue and to reduce Government borrowings which, in turn, will make more money available for the private sector to borrow. Other suggestions included reduction in subsidy outflows and direct payment of fertilizer subsidy to farmers.

Suggestions were made that 7th Pay Commission recommendations be implemented in staggered manner and tax collections be increased by expanding the base. It was suggested that Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) by withdrawn in calibrated manner, tax exemptions and allowances be withdrawn while tax rate may be rationalised in order to bring transparency, certainty and less discretion to make the tax administration more transparent and efficient. Tax incentives be given for use of debit and credit card, payment of utilities be made mandatory by cheques or through e-payment, clarity of policies by CBEC & CBDT to its field offices to avoid any discrepancies and discretions in tax administration and implementation of GST at the earliest.
Other suggestions include measures be taken to revive private sector investment especially in infrastructure sector through NIIF, use of Infrastructure Finance Companies like IIFCL to rebuilt the capacity of the private infrastructure sector by making it easier for them to raise funds. Bank guarantees be replaced by ‘bid bonds’ or ‘surety bonds’ for companies which, in turn, will help them getting credit at reduced cost and removal of cess and surcharges etc.

Other suggestions include measures to attract youth to agriculture sector by making farming highly mechanized and improving productivity. For this ‘Agriculture Equipment Banks’ may be set-up, segments of land be made in three categories, viz, barren land, single crop land and multi-crop land and separate rules for dealing with each category may be made.

Start-up parks for attracting young entrepreneurs be set-up on the line of IT parks. Suggestions were made that in order to ‘Make in India’ and ‘Ease of doing Business’ successful, measures may be taken to reduce the cost of doing business for which we need to improve infrastructure and reduce credit cost. To deal with the problem of NPA, recapitalization of banks be done through offering of shares to public. As regards tax matters, it was suggested that no appeal should be made where the two consecutive orders are in favour of the assesse except in rare situation and assesses may not be asked to deposit in case of first appeal and be asked to deposit only in case of second appeal.

It was suggested that measures be taken to generate demand in real estate sector which will in turn boost the steel and cement sectors which are major sectors for employment generation. Other suggestions include raise in exemption limit in case of income tax be raised from Rs. 2.00 lakh to Rs. 5.00 lakh, corporate tax be reduced to 25%, nominal rate of interest be charged on delayed payments, rationalization of exemptions and allowances and reduction in tax rates, reduction in corporate tax be extended to partnership firms etc.

It was suggested that measures be taken to uplift the power sector which is facing a challenging time, credit to MSME sector be boosted, Mid Day Meal Scheme may be scrapped due to large scale seepages and non-transparency in the implementation of the same. Suggestions were made to boost the exports, especially the MSME exports. It was suggested to boost e-commerce in mobile payment to achieve the goal of cashless economy, guidelines be issued for removal of anomalies in case of taxes being imposed by different States on e-payment and e-commerce. It was suggested to reduce customs duty on set-top boxes from 10% to 5%,and media entities be included for carry forward of losses in case of merger among others.

Along with the Finance Minister Shri Jaitley, the Pre-Budget Consultative Meeting with the representatives of Industry and Trade Groups was also attended among others by Shri R.N. Watal, Finance Secretary, Shri Shaktikanta Das, Secretary, DEA, Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, Revenue Secretary, Ms. Anjuly Chib Duggal, Secretary, Financial Services, Shri Amitabh Kant, Secretary, DIPP and Dr. Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA). The representatives of the Industry and Trade Groups present during the meeting included Shri Sumit Mazumdar, President, CII, Shri Sunil Kanoria, President, ASSOCHAM, Shri Harshavardhan Neotia, President, FICCI, Shri R. Chandrasekhar, Chief Economist, NASSCOM, Shri Ajay Piraman, Piramal Enterprises Ltd, Shri S.C. Ralhan, President, FIEO, Shri R Seshasayee, Vice Chairman, Ashoik Leyland, Shri Ashish Gupta, Consulting CEO, Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH), Shri P.K. Shah, Chairman, EEPC India, Shri G. Venkatesh Babu, LANCO Anpara Power Ltd, Shri Sangam Kurade, President, Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), Shri Abhishek Tiwar, Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs (FIWE), and Shri Girish Srivastava, Secretary General IBF among others.

Source: PIB News
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Sanction of Leave/ Ex-India leave / NOC for proceeding abroad IDAS Officers – CGDA Orders

Sanction of Leave/ Ex-India leave / NOC for proceeding abroad IDAS Officers – CGDA Orders

Controller General of Defence Accounts
Ulan Batar Road, Palam, Delhi Cantt
File :-No.AN-I/1351/4/ XXVI/NOC
Dated 05.01.2016
To
All Principal Controllers of Defence Accounts
P C of A (Fys), Kolkata
Controllers of Defence Accounts
(through CGDA Website)

Subject: Sanction of Leave/ Ex-India leave / NOC for proceeding abroad IDAS Officers

The undersigned is directed to state that off late it has been observed that the leave applications for grant of Leave/Ex-India leave/No Objection Certificate for proceeding abroad are being received in this HQrs office on the eleventh hour for obtaining sanction of the Competent Authority, which has been viewed with concern by the Competent Authority.

2. In this regard, I have been directed to request that applications of IDAS Officers for any kind of leave including Ex-India leave/ permission to leave the station, should reach this HQrs office well in advance and the officer(s) should ensure that the leave has been sanctioned before leaving the station/proceeding abroad.

(S.C.Bansal)
Asstt.CGDA(Admin)
Authority: www.cgda.nic.in
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