Govt fulfilled promise on OROP to a large extent: Parrikar

Govt fulfilled promise on OROP to a large extent: Parrikar

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said the government has fulfilled its promise of ”One Rank, One Pension” to ex-servicemen to a large extent and it would refer “minor issues”, if any, to a one-man commission for redressal.

As promised by BJP, the government has already issued tables of various pensions as per the One Rank-One Pension (OROP) Scheme, which involves an annual fund requirement of approximately Rs 7,500 crore and Rs 10,980 crore of arrears which would be paid in four instalments, he said.

“This is one promise which is to a large extent — minus minor issues raised by a few people — has been fulfilled and we have made provision to also hear any other small, small issues…For retired community from defence forces is huge and a common formula cannot solve all the issues,” Parrikar told reporters on the sidelines of an international maritime conference here.

“So, if there are some issues left, they can be raised with the government, we will refer it to the one-man commission and then we can come out with a redressal of those mechanisms,” the minister added.

The government had last year announced that it will implement OROP under which a uniform pension would be given to armed forces personnel retiring at the same rank with the same length of service.

PTI

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Redress taxpayers’ grievance in max two months: CBDT to IT dept

Redress taxpayers’ grievance in max two months: CBDT to IT dept

New Delhi: Terming as “unsatisfactory” the current pace of taxpayers’ grievance redressal process, the CBDT has asked the Income Tax department to resolve these complaints within a maximum period of two months.

In a urgent missive to all regional heads of department, Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairperson Atulesh Jindal has sought a quick resolution of these complaints as it is a key area being monitored by the government, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi pulling up the department on this front during a meeting last year.

Recently, similar directives were issued to the Customs and Central Excise departments working under the Central Board of Excise and Customs.

The CBDT boss has asked the tax department officials to take up this job “on priority” and report back on its compliance.

While the total number of complaints pending in the IT department are about 7,800, 81 are pending for more than one year and 1,696 are pending for more than six months.

“Considering the fact that our Citizens’ Charter clearly lays down that all grievances should be disposed of within a period of two months, it is obvious that the overall progress on disposal of grievances is unsatisfactory….

“In spite of repeated instructions from the Board from time to time, a large number of grievances have not been disposed of withing the prescribed timeline of 60 days from the date of their receipt,” Jindal wrote in a recent communication to the Principal Chief Commissioners of the department across the country.

He said that in view of this situation, it was necessary for the regional heads to “personally” monitor these cases and direct their officers to attend to these grievances “on priority”.

“The grievances are required to be redressed within a maximum period of two months of their receipt. Further, if the finalisation of a decision on a particular grievance is expected to take longer than two months, an interim reply is required to be given for delay in redressal of the grievance,” the newly appointed CBDT chief told his officers.

In order to ensure compliance, Jindal has asked that a report in this regard should be sent to his office by the end of the first fortnight of this month by each of the regional IT heads.

The CBDT, the administrative body of the IT department, gets about 1,600 complaints every month in its grievance database maintained centrally and taxpayers complaints largely pertain to issues related to non-issuance of refunds, dispute in tax demands and PAN related hassles.

PTI

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