New Year bonanza for LPG consumers- Get DISCOUNT on online booking

New Delhi: Providing a New Year bonanza for Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) customers, all Public Sector Unit (PSU), namely Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL have decided to offer an upfront discount of Rs. 5 on every LPG refill booked and paid via online.

Providing a New Year bonanza for LPG customers all PSU have decided to offer an upfront discount of Rs. 5 on every LPG refill booked and paid via online.

The customers can make online payment through net banking, credit and debit cards.

The discounted amount will be displayed on the gadgets of the customers, which will be calculated by the retail selling price of LPG refill minus the incentive amount of Rs. 5.

The net discounted amount will also be shown on the cash memo accompanying the home-delivery of the LPG cylinder.

All Oil Marketing Companies have endeavoured this initiative to encourage the consumers to shift from cash mode to digital platform to achieve the objective of cashless transactions.

The incentive will encourage more and more LPG consumers to go for cashless mode transactions.

ANI

Govt limits charges on electronic fund transfer

New Delhi, Dec 21 (PTI) In order to encourage digital transactions, the Finance Ministry today asked PSU banks to restrict fees on payments through IMPS and UPI to the extent that is applicable for NEFT fund transfer of over Rs 1,000.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

As per RBI norms, NEFT transfers of up to Rs 10,000 attract Rs 2.5 fee. From Rs 10,000-1 lakh the fee is Rs 5; on Rs 1-2 lakh it is Rs 15, and beyond Rs 2 lakh it is Rs 25.

Service tax is charged in addition to this.

For Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) transactions above Rs 1,000, the ministry said a further discount of 50 paise on these rates shall apply. USSD is mobile short code message and used mainly for banking services on feature phone.

The USSD fee is Rs 1.50, which has been waived till December 30, 2016.

In order to further promote digital and card payments, the ministry has issued a direction in public interest to all Public Sector Banks, said an official statement.

In accordance with this "these banks shall not charge fees for transactions settled on Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in excess of rates charged for National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) for transactions above Rs 1000, with service tax being charged at actuals", it said.

IMPS is an interbank electronic instant mobile money transfer service through mobile phones. The UPI app enables customers to make online as well as offline payment to merchants from their bank accounts, without typing card or net banking/wallet details and IFSC code.

This direction will apply for all transactions up to March 31, 2017.

"For USSD transactions above Rs 1,000, a further discount of fifty paise on these rates shall apply," it added.

In order to promote digital transaction, Niti Aayog has announced two schemes - Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana', to be launched on December 25. The schemes will cover small transactions between Rs 50 and Rs 3,000.

Transactions using RuPay, USSD, UPI and Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) will be covered under this scheme; payments made through credit cards and e-wallets would not be covered.

In line with the central government's objective of promotion of payments through cards and digital means over payments in cash, the Reserve Bank has recently rationalised customer charges for transactions up to Rs 1,000 settled on IMPS, UPI and USSD from January 1-March 31, 2017.

RBI has also rationalised the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) for debit card transactions up to Rs 2,000 for the 3-month period.

PTI

Digital Payment : 0.75% discount on petrol, diesel

New Delhi: A discount of 0.75 per cent on petrol and diesel will kick-in from midnight tonight on fuel purchases made using digital payment.

You will get 0.75 per cent discount from midnight today on payments made using either credit/debit cards, e-wallets or mobile wallets.

The discount will start from midnight tonight and would be by way of cash back which will be credited to the buyer's account in three days from the transaction, said Indian oil Corp, the nation's largest fuel retailer.

The 0.75 per cent discount on payments made using either credit/debit cards, e-wallets or mobile wallets will translate into a rebate of 49 paisa a litre on petrol and 41 paisa on diesel.

Petrol is currently sold at Rs 66.10 per litre in Delhi while a litre of diesel costs Rs 54.57.

The "discount will be credited to customer's account by way of cash back within maximum three working days of the transaction," IOC said in a statement here.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had last week announced a raft of measures including discounts on online payments for insurance policies, rail tickets and highway toll charges as the government looked to promote digital cash post demonetisation.

"As a part of these initiatives, to promote cashless transactions Government of India has announced to incentivise petrol/diesel customers transacting at PSU petrol pumps by way of 0.75 per cent discount when a customer uses Debit/Credit Cards, Mobile Wallets and Prepaid Loyalty Cards," the statement said.

PTI

Digital payments get a boost; cheaper fuel, train tickets: Jaitley

New Delhi: One month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of high-value currency notes of 500 and 1,000 which accounted for 86 percent of the cash in circulation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday announced various discounts on digital payments for fuel and train tickets.

"Fuel and train tickets will get cheaper for those who choose digital modes of transactions," said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday.

To promote cashless transactions as well as in-built cost in a democratic set-up, the finance minister said the government is promoting payment by credit, debit cards and e-wallets.

"Dealing with cash has its own economic costs, which is why the government is promoting payments by credit cards, debit cards and e-wallets," said the Finance Minister.

"Petrol and Diesel will get cheaper for those who choose digital modes of transactions. They will get a discount of 0.75 percent on every transaction they make at various petrol pumps," said the Finance Minister stating digital payments have witnessed an upward trigger from 20 percent to 40 percent at petrol pumps.

"4.5 crore consumers buy petrol and diesel worth Rs. 1,800 crore daily; in one month, digital payments have doubled to 40 percent," he added.

"People buying monthly seasonal tickets in the suburban railway networks through digital payment mode, to get 0.75 percent discount," added Jaitley specifying that it will be effective from Jan 1, 2017, starting from the Mumbai suburban railways.

"The government will provide two POS or Point of Sale machines for free to each village that has a population of over 8,000. Around 75 crore people will get access to these machines," he said.

Adding to this he said that passengers purchasing tickets online will also get a five percent discount on accommodation, catering and retiring room at railway stations across India.

No service tax will be charged on transactions of up to Rs. 2,000 if a card is used.

"People paying general insurance premiums will get a 10 percent discount and eight percent discount for life insurance if the payment is made online," added the minister.

ANI

Special Aadhaar Enrolment drive for Pensioners, from May 30 to June 10, 2016

Pensioners will also get opportunity to seed data for digital life certificate The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched a special enrolment drive for pensioners who are yet to enroll for Aadhaar. The drive is being conducted to enable Pensioners avail the convenience of Jeevan Pramaan, an initiative of Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare, Government of India. Every year, pensioners need to provide a life certificate to an authorized pension disbursing agency such as a Bank, Post office etc., for receipt of pension. To get a life certificate the pensioner is required to either personally present oneself before the Pension Disbursing Agency or have the Life Certificate issued by the department/authority where they served earlier and have it delivered to the disbursing agency. This entails considerable hardship to the senior Citizens. Jeevan Pramaan, a digital life certificate which utilises the Aadhaar identity platform, addresses this very problem by digitizing the whole process of securing a life certificate. A pensioner just needs to biometrically authenticate at the nearest centre. After successful authentication, the digital life certificate is stored in a Life Certificate Repository, which can be accessed by the Pension Disbursing Authority. To facilitate pensioners to avail the facility of Jeevan Pramaan, which is based on Aadhaar Identity platform, UIDAI and Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare have taken initiative to carry out special enrolment drive for Pensioners through banks which are Registrars for enrolment for Aadhaar as well as Pension Disbursing Authorities. The banks which include names like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, have also been asked to conduct special Aadhaar seeding camps where Pensioners will be requested to provide their Aadhaar details to their respective banks from which they draw pension so that they can get a digital life certificate – Jeevan Pramaan. The enrolment drive and the Aadhaar seeding camp is being run from May 30 to June 10, 2016. “We hold special enrolment drives to help people who are yet to enrol for Aadhaar. This particular exercise has been initiated to make sure pensioners get an Aadhaar number if they still don’t have one and seed the Aadhaar details of pensioners so that they can get a Jeevan Pramaan,” said Director General & Mission Director of UIDAI, Dr. Ajay Bhushan Pandey. So far over 15.41 Lakh pensioners have already registered for the Aadhaar-enabled Jeevan Pramaan service. PIB

No surcharge, service charge on card, digital payments – PTI

New Delhi: With an aim to discourage cash transactions, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved withdrawal of surcharge, service charge and convenience fee on card and digital payments. The digital payments move aims at reducing cash transactions. The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also approved mandating payments beyond a prescribed threshold only through a card or digital mode. "The essential features of the proposals for promotion of payments through cards and digital means include steps for withdrawal of surcharge, service charge and convenience fee on card and digital payments currently imposed by various government departments, organisations...," according to an official statement. "The promotion of payments through cards and digital means will be instrumental in reducing tax avoidance, migration of government payments and collections to cashless mode," it added. The move primarily discourages transactions in cash by providing access to financial payment services to citizens to pay through cards and digital means and shifting payment ecosystem from cash dominated to non-cash or less cash payments, the statement said. Among other measures aimed at reducing cash transactions include rationalization of Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on card transactions and a differentiated MDR framework for some key segments. Other features include introduction of formula-linked acceptance infrastructure by the stakeholders of certain card products, rationalization of telecom service charges for digital financial transactions and promotion of mobile banking. Creation of necessary assurance mechanisms for quick resolution of fraudulent transactions and reviewing the payments ecosystem in the country have also been approved. Several short-term (to be implemented within one year) and medium-term measures (two years) for implementation by the government ministries, departments and organizations were approved, the statement added.

PTI

No proposal to do away with the existing procedure of Submitting annual life certificate

No proposal to do away with the existing procedure of Submitting annual life certificate Delay in giving pension benefits There is no such proposal to do away with the existing procedure of Submitting annual life certificate by the pensioner to renew their pension payment. Yes Madam. Department of Pension & Pensioners Welfare has implemented an online system called ‘BHAVISHYA’ for retiring Central Government Civil employees. The system provides for on-line tracking of pension sanction and payment process. Tracking can be done by the individual as well as the administrative authorities for all actions preparatory to grant of pension and other retirement benefits. Facility also exists for tracking payment of subsequent monthly pension. This is in line with the priorities of Government to ensure transparency and accountability in systems and processes.  At present, Bhavishya is implemented in main Secretariat of 83 Ministries/Departments & 23 attached offices involving 794 DDOs. This Department has also given on-site training to all the Drawing Disbursing Officers/Head of Offices/Pay & Accounts Offices and the dealing hands of main Secretariat of all the Ministries/Department. This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Shri Satav Rajeev & others in the Lok Sabha today

Irregular Payment of Defence Pension:Failure in Annual identification/Life Certificates.

Irregular Payment of Defence Pension:Failure in Annual identification/Life Certificates.

Office of the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pension),
Draupadi Ghat, Allahabad-211014.

 

Circular No.182

No. AT/Tech/256-V
Dated: 26.11.2015

 

Sub: Irregular Payment of Defence Pension:Failure in Annual identification/Life Certificates.

 

Guidelines/instructions for Annual identification of pensioner and payment on the basis of life certificates are provided in “Defence Pension Payment Instructions (DPPI)-2013” and “Scheme for Payment of Pensions of Defence Pensioners by Public Sector Banks”. Pension Disbursing Authorities (PDAs) including Banks are required to comply with these instructions strictly.

 

However, various cases have come to notice of this office where PDAs have made payment of defence pension without carrying out annual identification of pensioner or without obtaining life certificate from the pensioner. In some cases, PDAs have continued the payment for long period even after demise of pensioner or/and disappearance of pensioner. A few cases of irregular payments made by PDAs resulting in loss to exchequer due to overpayment are elaborated below:-

 

(i) In a particular case, after the death of pensioner on 10.12.2001 which was intimated to the pension paying bank by the son of pensioner. However, the bank continuously credited the pension in pensioner’s account till 2007.The account of pensioner was having a balance of Rs 6, 17,628 as on 15.04.2015

 

(ii) In another case, one bank has made payment to pensioner up to June 2015, where as he was missing since December 2011. FIR of missing of pensioner was lodged with police Station by her spouse on 25.02.2014.

 

(iii) In one more case, one pensioner, who has been residing abroad since 30.06.2001 and not reverted to submit his life certificate for 13 years but bank has made payment of defence pension continuously for 13 years on the basis of attested copy of life certificate.

 

In all these cases PDA has violated the existing provisions of above mentioned Instructions/Schemes, causing heavy loss to exchequer. Such incorrect payments have been viewed seriously by the Ministry of Defence and directed to establish the mechanism to stop the payment of such nature.

 

To overcome ineffectiveness of existing system, introduced in the manual era, of submission of change statement including Annexure D-II (in case PDA is bank) and Form I (if PDA is other than bank) by PDAs showing names of pensioners struck off from the Index Register of Defence Pension Payment, owing to transfer, death, expiry ceasation of pension etc, and also to obtain digital data of life certification from PDAs for carrying out e-audit, development of automation of audit is under process.

 

It is, therefore, requested that e-data of life certificates, submitted by the pensioners/family pensioners in the month of November each year, may now be forwarded/provided to this office by l5th of December of that year positively.

 

As regard, change statement including Annexure D-II / Form I as the case may be, digital data of changed items may also be forwarded to this office.

 

Further, for providing information or help to pensioners/family pensioners on pensionary matter, this office has initialized a TOLL FREE NUMBER 1800-180-5325. However, pensioners/family pensioners are required to provide some information viz PPO No. Service/Account No, date of discharge of pensioner or date of death of pensioner/in case of family pensioner, Records Office/Head Office etc to avoid any delay in his/her help.

 

Therefore, it is also requested that this TOLL FREE NUMBER may be given publicity among the pensioners/family pensioner through your notice board.

 

Sd
(Abhishek Singh)
Asst.CDA (P)

 

Signed copy

Railway Ministry Helps Paralysed Passenger Alight Train After Son Tweets His Request For Help

Ok, we may be part of a huge population the majority of which spends days lamenting the government and it's departments.

Granted that many of the government agencies are spending more time devising new ways to waste public money and make life easier for babus but there are some government companies which want to make a real difference and the Indian Railways surely seem like one of them.


Pankaj Jain and his father who were latest recipients of some love from Railway Min Twitter handle. Image: Twitter

The largest public sector enterprise in the country has in recent times shown a great affinity for modernization and love for its passengers.
In recent times we have heard much about the new catering systems coming into force and combined with the new age coaches the zest to travel in a train is surely increasing.
Add to this one of the best customer relation management team in the world and you  and have an unstoppable force.

Recently Railways twitter handle was in news for helping a woman who felt unsafe while travelling on a train and now the batman-esque Twitter handle has struck again.
Pankaj Jain, a businessman and a JDS youth wing member from Karnataka, was travelling on train with his father, who is paralysed due to an ailment, to Butati Dham for some treatment. Butati Dham is a famous place near Pushkar where people suffering from paralysis often visit for cure at the Chatur Das ji Maharaj Temple.

The train he was travelling in has a 3 minute stop at Merta station which will not be enough for his father to alight. Needless to say, the stressed Pankaj was looking for some help when a friend suggested he tweet to the Railway Ministry Twitter handle.


And he did:

https://twitter.com/pankajjain86/status/670599362620358659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

In the next tweet, he explained the situation:

And then 'they' replied:

Next day, the train didn't just stop at the station for 10 long minutes but the entire station staff was waiting at the platform with a wheelchair to escort Pankaj's father.
Pankaj could not hide his happiness and tweeted his thanks to everyone!!!

Well, we have to hand it to you Super Twitter Handle aka @GMNWRailway, you are making believers out of us!!! Acche Din on tracks may be?

By Deepu Madhavan,
[India Times]
 

Digital life certificates for ex-servicemen

All ex-servicemen and those drawing family pension have to get Aadhaar based biometric verification system – Jeevan Pramaan Digital Life Certificates – to enable them give their annual life certificate without having to physically go to pension disbursing bank/ agency.

 

More details  http://jeevanpramaan.gov.in 

Implementation of “Digital Life Certificate Programme” in respect of Defence civilians and Defence civilian pensioners

 

SPEED POST

Office of the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Central Command)
Cariappa Road, Cantt., Lucknow, Pin Code – 226002
Office Phone No. 0522-2451547
Office Fax No. 0522-2451993

No. PT/3088/DLCP/Vol-I

Date: 26/10/2015

To,
1) The Area Accounts (CC)
Allahabad
2) The Area Accounts Office (CC)
Kanpur
3) All AO GE
4) AAO/SO(A)
Pay I,II,III (Local)

Sub:- Implementation of “Digital Life Certificate Programme” – regarding.
Ref:- HQrs Office letter AT/II/2666/NDA-X dated 24/04/2015.

To implement the Digital Life Certificate Programme in respect of Defence civilians and Defence civilian pensioners, it is necessary to get all the pensioners enrolled for Aadhar Card.

 

It is therefore requested to obtain confirmation from the formations/ units whether Defence civilians under their juridictions have been enrolled for Aadhar Card. Please get the data from the units under you jurisdiction and a weakly report may be submitted showing total number of employee enrolled with UIDAI for Aadhal Similar procedure may be adopted for pensioners under their jurisdiction.

Desired information may please be forwarded to this office by speed-post/ return fax immediately, to enable this office to submit the information to CDA (IDS) who is a Nodal Office to act as a registrar with UIDAI.

Sr. Accounts Officer (PT)

Modification in Life Certificate of Pensioners – Acknowledgement to be issued

CPAO instructs banks that Pensioner Life Certificate submitted to Banks has to be acknowledged by the Banks in the prescribed form as it receives complaints frequently to the effect that Life Certificates are misplaced by bank staf  

Finance Ministry advises Banks to issue duly signed acknowledgement to the pensioners while submitting Life Certificate

Department of Expenditure has advised Banks to issue the acknowledgement at the time of submission of Life Certificates by the Pensioners in the prescribed format given below.

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF FINANCE

DEPARTMENT OF EXPENDITURE

CENTRAL PENSION ACCOUNTING OFFICE

TAIKOOT-II, BHIKAJI CAMA PLACE,

NEW DELHl-110066

PHONES: 26174596, 26174456, 26174438

CPAO/IT &Tech/Scheme Booklet/2015-16/1666

16.10.2015

Office Memorandum

Subject:-Modification in the format of Life Certificate -Issue of Acknowledgement to pensioners.

Attention is invited to this office OM No.CPAO/Tech/Simplification/2012-13/325 dated-18.02.2013 directing the banks to allow pensioners/family pensioners to submit the life certificates as well as other certificates to any branch of the bank through which their pension are being disbursed. In this context, several instances of stoppage of payment of pensions have been reported citing non-receipt of life certificate even though the pensioners had submitted their life certificates to the bank, due to misplacement of the life certificate at the bank branches concerned. Instances of some pension paying banks not accepting life certificates given to them by pensioners and directing pensioners to submit the life certificate to CPPC have also been reported causing great inconvenience to pensioners, which results in either stoppage of payment of pension or delay in payment of pension.

In this context, to alleviate the hardship faced by the pensioners, RBI has also instructed all the Agency Banks handling government pension payment, vide Notification No. RBT/2014-15/ 587 DGBA. GAD No. H-5013/ 45.01.001/2014-15 dated-07.05.2015 that on receipt of life certificate submitted in physical form, banks to issue duly signed acknowledgement to the pensioners and to enter the same in their CBS immediately and issue a system generated receipt to serve the twin purpose of acknowledgement to the pensioners as well as real- time updation of records.

To facilitate the bank authorities, CPAO has prescribed a modified format of life certificate providing therewith acknowledgement of the receipt of the life certificate vide Correction Slip No.24 to the Scheme for Payment of Pensions to Central Government Civil Pensioners by Authorized Banks. The acknowledgement is a part of the format of Life Certificate, which can be detached and given to the pensioner by the receiving bank. The format (Annexure) has been circulated to all concerned and the same has been made available on CPAO’s website ‘www.cpao.nic.in’ at the link
“For Banks”–> Guidelines for Master data.

The Chairmen/Chief Executive Directors of Authorised Banks are requested to ensure that their paying branches follow the above instructions scrupulously without fail.

This issues with the approval of Competent Authority

(Vijay Singh)

Sr. Accounts Officer (IT & Tech)

ANNEXURE-XVIl

(See para 15.1page11 of

CPAO’s Scheme Booklet)

Part-A (Every year)

LIFE CERTIFICATE

(To be submitted by Pensioner once a year in November)

Certified that I have seen the pensioner Shri/Smt./Ms._______(Name of Pensioner)
holder of Pension Payment Order No.________ and that he/she is alive on this date.
1. Present address of the pensioner/family pensioner.
2. Telephone/Mobile number (if any).
3. E-mail Address (if any).
Name
Place:
Date:

Designation of Authorised Officer

Seal

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Life Certificate of Pensioner /Family Pensioner of Shri/Smt/Ms.__ (Name of Pensioner) holder of Pension Payment Order No.____ has been
received.

Date :-

Signature .

Name·····················

Stamp of the receiving Bank branch

 

Download Finance Ministry letter No.CPAO/IT &Tech/Scheme Booklet/2015-16/1666 dated 16.10.2015