05 DEC 2019

As per the information/ data uploaded by the different Ministries /Departments/ Cadre Controlling Authorities (CCAs) on Probity Portal followed by the rectification requests made by some Ministries/ Departments/ CCAs, during the period from July, 2014 to October, 2019 (as on 25.11.2019), provisions of FR 56(j) have been invoked against a total number of 96 Group ‘A’ officers and 126 Group ‘B’ officers of different Ministries/ Departments.

Presently, there is no proposal in the Government to reduce age of retirement of Government employees below 60 years.

Re-employment of the Government servant has no bearing on the pension fixed at the time of his retirement on attaining the age of superannuation.

Also check: No proposal in the Government to fix the retirement age of Central Government employees as 60 years or 33 years of service

Department of Personnel & Training has been impressing upon all the Ministries/ Departments to convene the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meetings at prescribed interval (by laying down a time schedule for the purpose) to draw panels which could be utilized for making promotion against the vacancies occurring during the course of a year. The Ministries/Departments have been further advised to initiate action to fill up the existing as well as anticipated vacancies well in advance of the expiry of the previous panel by collecting relevant documents like seniority list, Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR) etc. for placing before the DPCs so as to obviate the problem of delays in promotion.

The provisions under FR 56(j) also ensure to improve efficiency in Government.

This information was provided by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh in written reply to a question in RajyaSabha today.

PIB

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Chandigarh: Punjab government today issued fresh set of guidelines for two-year extension in service to employees after the age of superannuation.

According to norm, the date of superannuation of a Punjab government employee other than a Class IV government employee, is the date on which he attains the age of 58 years.

These new instructions have been issued superseding the earlier guidelines issued in October 2014 and January 2015, an official spokesperson of the Finance Department said.

According to the new guidelines, extension in the service would be denied to those employees who have been either chargesheeted or a decision has been taken to chargesheet them under rule 8 of Punjab Civil Services (Punishment & Appeal) Act, 1970.

Employees, who may have been awarded major penalty that still hold impact on the day of their retirement or awarded major penalty three years before their retirement or against whom competent authority has given permission to prosecute them in criminal case, would also be denied extension, the spokesperson said.

He said all such officers would be ineligible for extension after the age of 58 years.

As per the new guidelines such officers/officials who have already got extension and serving in the first or second year of extension and who are under the above mentioned disqualifications, the cases of such employees would be reconsidered and if found guilty, the grant of extension in service would be nullified.

It has also been clarified that if the request of the officers/officials has been rejected for extension on the ground of administrative and criminal case pending against them at the time of retirement, if such employees have been exonerated at later stage, their extension in service cases would not be reconsidered, he said.

The spokesperson further said if any officer/official committed grave misconduct during extension or received notice for the misconduct committed by him in past, the benefit of extension in service to such employees could be denied without serving any notice, he added.

Inputs with PTI

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The Indian population is greying. According to the latest UNFPA report, the percentage of Indians above 60 years is projected to rise to 55% by 2050. The demographics also indicate an increasing longevity owing to betterment in medical facilities. While this is good news, it also means that tomorrow’s retirees will have a longer retirement and must, therefore, accumulate a bigger corpus.

Retirement planning involves disciplined saving, vigilant investment to build a sufficient retirement corpus and its judicious drawdown in the postretirement phase. The National Pension System (NPS), launched by the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority, takes all these concerns into account. It is a sophisticated innovation based on the world’s best practices in the pension sector.

While saving for a long-term goal such as retirement, the cost matters a lot. Over 35-40 years, the charges can shave off a significant amount from the corpus. The NPS charges fund management fees of 0.0102% for the government employees and there’s a ceiling of 0.25% for the private sector. This is perhaps the lowest in the world. Other charges are also low, making the cost-adjusted returns of the NPS quite attractive. It is estimated that the total cost of the NPS, including the fund management fee, will not exceed 0.5% per year, making it the cheapest financial product in India.

The NPS is a well-regulated, transparent and flexible scheme. It has laid down prudent investing norms for fund managers, and their performance and portfolios are regularly monitored by the NPS Trust under the overall supervision of the PFRDA. The scheme offers complete flexibility. The investor decides the percentage of the corpus that goes into equity, corporate bonds and government securities. There is only a 50% cap on exposure to equity.

One of the most outstanding features of the NPS is the ‘lifecycle fund. It is meant for those who are not financially aware. It is also the default option for someone who has not indicated his desired allocation. Under this option, the investor’s age decides the equity exposure. The 50% allocation to equity is reduced every year by 2% after the investor turns 35, till it comes down to 10%. This is in keeping with the strategy to opt for a higher-risk , higher-return portfolio mix earlier in life. As the investor approaches retirement , he shifts to a more stable, low-risk portfolio.

This automatic rejigging of the allocation is a unique feature of the NPS. No other pension plan or mutual fund offers such a facility to investors. There are a few funds based on age, but they are one-size-fits-all solutions, not customised to the individual’s age.

Another unique feature of the NPS is the tax benefit it offers under the newly added Section 80 CCD(2). Under this section, if an employer contributes 10% of the salary (basic salary plus dearness allowance) to the NPS account of the employee, this amount gets tax exemption. This is over and above the 1 lakh tax deduction under Section 80C. It’s a win-win situation for both because the employer also gets tax benefit under Section 36 I (IV) A for his contribution. By putting in money in the NPS, the employer can provide an additional tax benefit to the employee by simply restructuring the salary at no extra cost.
The NPS allows one to accumulate the corpus from the age of 18 for 40-odd years. There is minimal leakage in the form of withdrawals for competing consumption expenses. This allows the investor to reap the benefits of compounding till he turns 60.

The NPS also offers the flexibility to draw up to 60% of the retirement corpus as a lump sum to meet financial life goals like children’s marriages, housing, or draw down the lump sum in a staggered manner till one is 70 years old. The rest can be used to buy an annuity from any of the seven Irdaregulated annuity service providers.

The author is the Chairman of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.

Source: Times of india

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