Review the Improvement of National Pension System (NPS)

Review the Improvement of National Pension System (NPS)

Railway Board conducted a meeting to Review the Improvement of National Pension System (NPS)

A meeting of Dy. CAOs and Dy. CPOs of all Zonal Railways and Production Units was held on 04.09.2019 and 05.09.2019 in Railway Board to review the progress of National Pension System (NPS).

Check also: GConnect has published an article titled, ‘NPS is far beneficial than Government Pension’

Important discussions and decisions

NPS contribution being deducted from salary without PRAN:

As per information obtained from IPAS, there were 1024 employees without PRAN from whom NPS deductions were made from salary in the month of July, 2019. Of these, 415 cases were in SCR, 404 cases in SWR and 119 cases in CR.

This implies that the NPS recoveries in these cases would lie in the suspense and will lead to loss of interest to subscribers, which will have to be borne by the Railways. This position is available to the Railways

Read also: NPS to OPS: New Pension Scheme Demand To Scrap it

Action:

• PED/A desired that IPAS exception reports should be viewed and acted upon by all Railways
• All these cases may be reviewed, PRAN generated at the earliest, subscription remitted to the Trustee Bank forthwith.

Number of PRANs without Nomination and Mobile details

There are 35025 PRANs with nomination details and 44553 PRANS without Mobile No. Non-availability of Nomination details will delay settlement in case of Death of a Subscriber.

Action:

• Mobile number has been made mandatory in CSR Form. For old cases, DDO/PAO should insist on providing the same with the help of WLI. Subscribers should be educated about importance of having nomination and mobile no. in their PRANs.
• Nomination and Mobile no. should be collected from every subscriber and
  updated immediately.
• As a onetime effort, the Mobile numbers and email ids of these subscribers can be forwarded to NSDL for back end updation.

Subscriber Coverage:

There is substantial gap in no. of registered subscribers and those receiving credits viz. ECR – 83.06%, NR – 87.56% and NER and SCR 89%.

Action:

• DDOs/PAOs should ensure all the registered subscribers are receiving regular contribution credits
• SCFs uploaded should get matched and booked in the CRA system. Cancelled SCFs need to be re-uploaded on time.
• The regular monthly contributions should be uploaded as “regular” and arrear contributions as “arrear”

STATUS OF PENDING PENSION/FAMILY PENSION under NPS

Also read: An Overview of New Contributory Pension System (NPS) – Confederation

Railway Board had directed Railways to send information on pending cases of pension and family pension in MCDO to FC. The information in not forthcoming from all the Railways. Submission of this information may kindly be ensured.

Further, it is noticed that several requests for family pension by family members of deceased NPS subscribers are pending on Railways mainly for want of documents from beneficiaries. This issue is being raised by Union/Federations and also by the beneficiaries in various forums.

Complaints are also received regarding non-revision of NPS pension as per
recommendation of 7th CPC

Railways may review the pending position and ensure clearance thereof in a time bound manner.

Also check: New Pension System – Features released recently for NPS Subscribers

Conclusion:

All Railways will ensure necessary action on the deficiencies discussed above and send an action taken report by 15th Oct., 2019 under signature of FA&CAO in charge of NPS.

NPS Order pdf download

NPS to OPS