Give asset details or lose promotions and foreign postings: Government to IAS officers

Give asset details or lose promotions and foreign postings: Government to IAS officers

All IAS officers have been asked to submit details of their assets by next month and warned that the failure to do so would lead to a denial of vigilance clearances needed for promotions and foreign postings.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has written to all Central government departments, states and union territories asking them to ensure submission of Immovable Property Returns (IPRs) by IAS officers working with them by January 31, 2018.

"In view of the DoPTs instructions dated April 4, 2011, it is reiterated that failure to ensure timely submission of IPR would result in denial of vigilance clearance," Establishment Officer and Additional Secretary P K Tripathi said in the recent missive.

According to the 2011 instructions, officers who did not submit their IPR as on January 1, 2018, on time would be denied vigilance clearances and will not be considered for promotions and empanelment for senior-level posts in the government of India.

"Those who do not submit property details on time will not be considered for any posts of the Central government including foreign postings," a senior DoPT official said.

An online module has been designed for the purpose of filing of the IPR. Officers have the option of uploading the hard copy of the IPR by January 31 in the online module, the December 22 letter said.

There are 5,004 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers working across the country, according to the DoPTs latest data.

PTI

7th Pay Commission: Challenging year for Central Government Employees

7th Pay Commission: Challenging year for Central Government Employees

The central government employees passed a challenging year for a number of factors including hike in pay, minimum pay hike, raising of fitment factor, pay anomalies and non-payment of arrears on allowances, employees unions said.


The delayed implementation of allowances have saved the government nearly Rs 40,000 crore. The non-payment of arrears on allowances caused tremendous irritation and frustration among the central government employees, said a unions leader.

The government gave higher basic pay in August 2016 with arrears, effective from January 1, 2016 to its employees on the recommendations of the 7th pay commission but the allowances notified on June 6 without arrears, which came into effect from July 1, 2017.

The recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission got the Cabinet nod on June 29, 2016 in respect of basic pay, the pay panel had recommended a 14.27 per cent hike in basic pay. The previous 6th Pay Commission had recommended a 20 per cent hike, which the government doubled while implementing it in 2008.

All pay commissions made up pay gap in respect of basic pay between lower paid employees and top bureaucrats from second Pay Commission 1:41 ratio to Sixth pay commission 1:12, while 7th Pay Commission made it higher about to 1:14.

The 7th pay panel recommended minimum pay from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000 per month while the maximum pay from Rs 80,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh with a fitment factor of 2.57 times uniformly of basic pay of 6th pay commission.

However, the Unions have been demanding minimum pay Rs 26,000 instead of Rs 18,000 with 3.68 fitment factor.

The unions had claimed that the recommended pay hike was the lowest in the last 70 years and the Pay Commission award was not discussed with them, hence they had threatened to go on an indefinite strike over proper pay hike on July 11, 2016.

The unions had called off their indefinite strike after the government announced that a High Level Committee would be formed to address their demands.

So, the government formed the 22-member National Anomaly Committee (NAC) headed by Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in September, 2016 instead of High Level Committee to look into pay anomalies arising out of the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations.

In the meantime, DoPT issued a letter on October 30 stating that the demand for increase in minimum Pay and fitment formula do not appear to be treated as anomaly, therefore, these do not come under the purview of NAC.

However, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said in Rajya Sabha on July 19, 2016, The minimum pay Rs 18,000 was made on recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. But government will consider hiking it after discussions with all stakeholders, once the proposal in this regard will be submitted to government.

The sources in DoPT said, "The NAC is ready with it’s interim report and which will be submitted soon but no minimum pay and fitment formula will be included in the interim report."

"I would be lying if I said the DoPT letter doesn’t bother me at all, but the truth is, it doesn't bother me much because of the way of government made decisions. A hike in minimum pay has been one of the long-standing our demands. The 14.27 per cent hike in basic pay for us under the 7th Pay Commission is the lowest in 70 years. The government had issued statement on July 6, 2016 to assure us that the pay scales matter raised by us would be considered," a top union leader said.

"Our unions members often ask us what we should do to respond to the DoPT letter," he said.

"If government doesn't hike our pay, we will have no choice but to proceed on an indefinite strike," he added.

He considers 2017 a challenging year for central government employees and many of those challenges won't be going away just because 2018 calendars are hanging. He also says he's confident the government will make the right decisions during the next year.

Is the House Rent Allowance paid to Central Government employees as per the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission sufficient?

Is the House Rent Allowance paid to Central Government employees as per the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission sufficient?

If the question is to be answered at a superficial level, the answer is yes. Let us analyze things from the angle of a lower rung employee.

An employee is paid HRA at the rate of 24%, 16% and 8% of his basic salary based on the city where he works. For HRA purpose, cities in India are divided into three groups, namely X, Y and Z, and HRA is paid respectively at the rate of 24%, 16% and 8% uniformly for all categories of employees.
A person employed in Delhi will get 24% of his basic salary as HRA and an employee employed in Kanyakumari will get 8% of his basic salary as HRA. The minimum basic salary of a Central Government employee is Rs.18000. Accordingly, a person working in Delhi should get Rs.18000 x 24% = Rs.4320, and a person employed in Kanyakumari should get Rs.18000 x 8% = Rs.1440. But the minimum HRA applicable to all the three group of cities, namely X,Y and Z, are Rs.5400, Rs.3600 and Rs.1800 respectively. Accordingly, an employee working in Delhi will get Rs.5400, while an employee employed in Kanyakumari will get Rs.1800 as House Rent Allowance.

The important point to be noted here is Sixth Pay Commission had recommended HRA at the rate of 10%, 20% and 30% for Central Government employees and they were paid accordingly from 2008 to 2015. But the recommendation of the Seventh Pay Commission to reduce the HRA rates has led to the dissatisfaction among Central Government employees.

Though Seventh Pay Commission salary is paid to Central Government employees from 1-1-2016, the revised HRA paid since 1-7-2017 has increased their dissatisfaction further.

Moreover there was a great expectation for arrear payment for the period January 2016 to June 2017.
Non-fulfillment of these two highly expected demands has made the Central Government employees unhappy with HRA.

Classificationof Cities / Towns	Rate of HRA	Rate of HRA(DA over 25%)	Rate of HRA(DA over 50%)
X	24 %	27%	30%
Y	16%	18%	20%
Z	8%	9%	10%

PCDA Circular 30 - Payment of enhanced Monetary Allowances attached to pre and post independence Gallantry Awards

PCDA Circular 30 - Payment of enhanced Monetary Allowances attached to pre and post independence Gallantry Awards

Office of the Pr.C.D.A.(Pensions),
Draupadighat, Allahabad - 211014

Circular No. 30

Date: 22.12.2017

To,
1. The Director of Treasuries
2. The Post Master, Kathua, Srinagar (J&K)
3. The Post Master, Campbell Bay (Andaman & Nicobar)
4. The Defence Pension Disbursing Officer ……..
5. The Pay and Accounts Officer ……..
6. The Assistant Military Attache(P) Embassy of India,Kathmandu,(Nepal)
7. The Director of Accounts, Panaji (Goa)
8. The Chief Accounts officer (PGTPF), Gangtok, Sikkim-737101
9. Director of Accounts, Moti Daman-396220
10. The Chief Manager, CPPC …..
11. The Manager, Link Bank (other than CPPC) ……..
12. Director of Accounts & Treasuries, Puducherry-605001

Subject : Payment of enhanced Monetary Allowances attached to pre and post independence Gallantry Awards.
Reference: This office Important Circular No. 9 dated 10.06.2011.

(Available on this office Website address www.pcdapension.nic.in)

Consequent upon issue of letters bearing No. 7(62)/20014-D (AG) dated 4th Dec, 2017 by Govt. of India, Ministry of Defence(reproduced as Annexure 'A' and 'B' respectively to this circular), the rates of Pre- Independence Gallantry Awards and Post-Independence Gallantry Awards have been revised w.e.f. 01st August, 2017.

2. The revised rate of monetary allowance attached with Gallantry Awards may please be paid to all recipients at revised rate, irrespective of rank and income.
3. The terms and condition for payment of monetary allowance on the authority of Pension Payment Order (PPO) notified by this office in above categories of cases is stated in brief in following Paras

i. The allowance will be admissible to the recipient of the award and on his death to his widow lawfully married by a valid ceremony. The widow will continue to receive the allowance until her death. Ordinarily, the widow who was first married shall receive the allowance, but with the special sanction of the Government, the allowance may be divided equally between the lawfully married widows of recipients.

ii. When the award has been made posthumously to a bachelor, the monetary allowance shall be paid to his father or mother, and in case the posthumous awardee was a widower, the allowance shall be paid to his son below 18 years or unmarried daughter as the case may be.

iii. Each bar to the decoration will carry the same amount of monetary allowance as admissible to the original award.

iv. The monthly monetary allowance will be paid in respect of all gallantry awards received by an individual.

v. The monetary allowance will not be taken into account for computing dearness relief.

For CMDs/Chief Managers of Link Bank/CPPCs/Director of Treasuries/ all other PDA's
It is requested that a copy of these orders / instructions may be provided to all Paying Branches/ Treasuries under your jurisdiction for making payment of the monetary allowance at the enhanced rate.

The order has also been uploaded on this office web site www.pcdapension.nic.in . The copy of same may be downloaded at your end for immediate implementation of the Government orders.

No. G-1/M/068/ICO's/Vol- V
Date: 22 .12.2017

(S.C. SAROJ)
Sr.Accounts officer (Pensions)