Revised Guidelines for Revision of Pension under ROPA, 2019
Finance, 6th Pay Commission , Family Pension , Pension
GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL
FINANCE DEPARTMENT
PENSION BRANCH
No. 120-F(Pen) Dated, 3rd March, 2020
NOTIFICATION
Finance Department Vide Notification No. 55-F(Pen) Dated- 21/01/2020 had earlier issued the revised guidelines for Revision of Pension/ Family Pension/ Gratuity and Commutation of Post 01.01.2016 Pensioners w.e.f. 01/01/2020 in partial modification of the Notification No. 536-F(Pen) Dated- 01/10/2019. Thereafter some clarifications have been sought from the Accountant General (A&E) West Bengal, various Pension Sanctioning Authorities and Pension Disbursing Authorities.
Accordingly after due and careful consideration of the matter the undersigned in directed by order of the Governor to provide the following clarifications:-
| Sl No. | Points raised | Clarification |
| 1 | Whether the Service book of the employee is required to be sent to A.G(A&E) W.B along with the Annexure-I, II/III and IV. | Pension Sanctioning Authority shall fix the revised Pay as per WBS (ROPA) Rules, 2019 and authenticate the pay fixation particulars in the Service book. Duly updated Service book, IPF documents, attested photocopy of Annexure-I, Annexure-II/III and Annexure-IV shall be sent to A.G (A&E) W.B for issuance of authority for Revised Pensionery benefits as per ROPA-2019 w.e.f. 01/01/2020. |
| 2 | Whether AG (A&E) W.B shall issue any Admissibility report in cases where the balance amount of revised Gratuity/ Commuted Value of Pension has already been paid by the DDO of the PSA in terms of Para-D of the Memo No. 536-F(Pen) dated- 01 /10/2019. | All the documents as stated in Sl. No. 1 above i.e. updated and authenticated Service book, IPF documents, attested photo copy of Annexure-I, II/III shall require to be sent to AG (A&E) W.B with the information that the balance amount of Revised Retiring Gratuity/Death Gratuity and Commuted Value of Pension (as applicable) has already been paid in terms of Para-D of the Memo No. 536-F(Pen) dated- 01/10/2019. Accordingly AG (A&E) W.B shall issue the revised authority to the Pension Disbursing Authority (PDA) and Admissibility report to the Pension Sanctioning Authority on the basis of the documents stated above. PDA shall take necessary actions to disburse the balance of amount of Revised Gratuity, Commuted Value of Pension or recover the amount of excess payment already made on account of Revised Gratuity, Commuted Value of Pension, as the case may be. |
| 3 | Whether the Pensioner’s portion of PPO/FPPO shall need to be retained by PSA for sanctioning the Revised Pensionery benefits in terms of the Memo No.536-F(Pen) Dated-01/10/2019 | No. In no case the Pensioner’s portion of PPO/ FPPO shall be taken from the Pensioner/ Family Pensioner for sending the revised sanction as per ROPA, 2019 to AG(A&E), W.B. PSA shall only take an attested photocopy of the PPO/FPPO from the Pensioner/ Family Pensioner alongwith the Annexure-I i.e. Application for Revision of Pension/ Family Pension, Revised Gratuity and Commuted Value of Pension as per ROPA, 2019. |
| 4 | In case where an employee retired during 01/01/2016 to 31/12/2019 and wants to commute for the first time after coming into the revised pay structure as per WBS (ROPA) Rules, 2019 w.e.f. 01/01/2020, whether the pensioner shall require to submit application for Commutation in Form-C or Form- A (after medical examination) as mentioned in Sl. No.4 of the Memo No. 690-F(Pen) dated- 31/12/2019. | Yes. Pensioner shall require to submit application for Commutation in Form-C or Form-A (after medical examination), as the case may be, following the provisions of the existing rules for Commutation. |
| 5 | Whether Non-Practising Allowances (NPA) shall be considered along with the last Basic Pay in pay matrix as per WBS (ROPA) Rules, 2019 for the purpose of calculation of Pension/ Family Pension of the eligible categories of Employees retiring on or after 01/01/2020. | Yes. Non-Practising Allowances (NPA) shall be taken into account along with the pay in the pay matrix as per WBS(ROPA) Rules, 2019 for the purpose of calculation of Pension/ Family Pension for those employees who are drawing Non-Practising Allowances on the date of retirement/death on or after 01/01/2020. |
| 6 | Whether the provision contained in Point No.4.4 of the Memo No. 535-F(Pen) dated- 01/10/2019 read with Point No.5 of Memo No.681-F(Pen) dated- 23/12/2019 shall continue to exists or not after issuance of Memo No. 55-F(Pen) dated- 21/01/2020. | Yes. The benefits of payment of Revised Pension/ Family Pension provisionally in terms of Para-4.4 of the Memo No. 535-F(Pen) dated- 01/10/2019 followed by Point No. 5 of Memo No. 681-F(Pen) dated- 23/12/2019 has not been withdrawn by issuance of Memo No. 55-F(Pen) dated- 21/01/2020 (Point No. 16). Pension Sanctioning Authorities shall send only those stray cases falling under the purview of Para-4.4 of the Memo No. 535-F(Pen) dated- 01/10/2019 to AG(A&E) W.B. alongwith the Service book and other relevant documents as per Point No. 5 of Memo No. 681-F(Pen) dated- 23/12/2019 with copy to Pension Disbursing Authority. Accordingly, Pension Disbursing Authority shall start disbursing the Pension/ Family Pension provisionally w.e.f. 01/01/2020. The Pension/ Family Pension paid provisionally w.e.f. 01/01/2020 shall have to be adjusted finally upon receipt of final authority from AG (A&E) W.B. |
| 7 | How the Pension Sanctioning Authority shall sanction the Revised Pension, Revised Gratuity, Commuted Value of Pension in respect of the Post- 01.01.2016 Pensioner/ Family Pensioners residing in other States and drawing pension/family pension there from. | PSA shall mention the name of the Other State where the Pensioner/ Family Pensioner is residing at present along with the name of Pension Disbursing Authority of that particular State in an ‘Additional Information Sheet’ in addition to the documents stated in Sl. No. l above. Accordingly, A.G (A&E), W.B. shall issue authority to the Other States under Special Seal and Signature of authorized officer for making payment of Revised Pension/ Family Pension, Revised Gratuity and Commuted Value of Pension in terms of Sl. No.9 of the Memo No. 55-F(Pen) dated- 21/01/2020. |
| 8 | What actions to be taken at the Pension Disbursing Authorities end for making payment of Revised Pension/ Family Pension etc consequent upon the receipt of final authority from AG(A&E), W.B. in terms of Memo No. 55- F(Pen) dated- 21 /01/ 2020 | Pension Disbursing Treasuries/ Public Sector Banks in Kolkata shall upon receipt of the final authority for AG(A&E),W.B shall make entry of the same in the register of Revised PPO. After proper scrutiny of the final authority received from AG (A&E) W.B, Pension Disbursing Authority shall commence the payment of revised pension/ family pension w.e.f. 01/01/2020 after making proper adjustment of the revised pension/family pension already paid provisionally as per the sanction of PSA in Annexure-II/III. Excess/short payment, if any already made shall have to be adjusted accordingly. Extra precautions shall be taken at the time of making payment of balance amount of revised Retiring/ Death Gratuity and additional commuted value of pension. Amount of Gratuity and Commuted Value of Pension already paid at the time of retirement/death in terms of ROPA, 2009 shall have to be adjusted with the amount of revised Gratuity and Commuted Value of Pension as per ROPA, 2019. In case where the payment of balance amount of revised Gratuity and Commuted value of pension has already been made by the DDO of PSA in terms of Para-D of the Memo No. 536-F(Pen) dated- 01/10/2019, all such cases have to be checked thoroughly from the ‘Admissibility report’ and over-payment, if any is detected, shall be recovered. Similarly short payment, if any, detected such cases to be paid by the Pension Disbursing Authority immediately. It is to be ensured by the Pension Disbursing Authority that payment of Revised Pension/ Family Pension, Revised Gratuity and Commuted Value of Pension is made only after adjustment of the amount of the pension/family pension, Gratuity and Commuted Value of Pension. In no case the Pensioners/ Family Pensioners should be asked to appear before the Pension Disbursing Authority end for commencement of revised pension/family pension purposes. |
| 9 | If after receipt of revised authority from AG(A&E), W.B. at the Treasury it is found that the Pensioner/ Family Pensioner has already transferred the pension/family pension to another Treasury under the Government of West Bengal or in Public Sector Banks in KMC Area or in Other States then what action shall be taken by the Pension Disbursing Treasury. | Recipient Treasury after proper scrutiny of the records of the PPO transferred shall put a ‘Non-Payment Certificate’ on the ‘Revised Authority’ received from AG(A&E), W.B. along with the details of the Memo No/date etc by which the PPO was transferred. The Revised Authority in ‘Original’ shall be sent to the Treasury from where the Pensioner/ Family Pensioner is drawing pension/ family pension at present with intimation to the AG(A&E), W.B, concerned PSA and the pensioner/ family pensioner. In cases where the PPO has been transferred to the Public Sector Banks in KMC Area or Pensioner has shifted to Other States, in that case ‘Revised Authority’ with the ‘Non-Payment Certificate’ shall be sent to AG (A&E), W.B with intimation to the PSA and the pensioner/family pensioner. A note in this regard shall have to be made in the ‘Revised PPO register’ also. |
This order shall take immediate effect. Necessary modifications in the relevant Rules shall be made in due courses.
Sd/- S.K. Ghosh
O.S.D & Ex-Officio Joint Secretary
to the Govt. of West Bengal