Facility for Submission of Life Certificate through Digital Mode

Government of West Bengal
Finance Department
Audit Branch

No. 5909-F(Y) Dated, 25th October, 2019

NOTIFICATION

Sub: Introduction of facility for submission of Life Certificate through Digital mode for the Pensioners/ Family Pensioners drawing Pension through the Treasuries of West Bengal

In terms of Sub-Rule-2 under Rule 4.171 of West Bengal Treasury Rule-2005 every Pensioner/ Family Pensioner drawing pension from the State Exchequer is required to submit Life Certificate mandatorily in the month of November each year as per format provided therein. The Life Certificate in the prescribed format duly verified by the authorities mentioned in the Rule is to be submitted to the Pension Disbursing Authority either directly or through the Bank. Under the existing provision Pensioners are required to visit the Treasury or the Bank-Branch in which they have their Pension account for submission of Life Certificates, which often causes great difficulties to the aged pensioners as well as to those Pensioners whose residences are far away from the Bank-Branch/ Treasury. Moreover, printing of physical copies of blank Life Certificates, their delivery to the disbursing bank-branches beforehand, verification and collection of Life Certificates, scrutiny and their entry in system, preserving the physical copies of life certificates etc. involve a great deal of man power and cost.

2. The Government was considering from sometime past to provide a facility for submission of Digital Life Certificate by the Pensioners/ Family Pensioners without physically appearing at the particular Treasury or Bank. Accordingly the Governor is pleased to introduce the facility for submission of Digital Life Certificate to leverage the benefit of digitization for the Pensioner/ Family Pensioner drawing pension from the State Treasuries in addition to existing facility of submission of physical Life Certificate at the Treasuries/ Banks. It has been decided that the Pensioners/Family Pensioners including those in receipt of pension through Money Order will have the option of submitting Digital Life Certificate. It may be pertinent to mention here that submission of Digital Life Certificate is fully optional. The pensioner may continue to submit physical Life Certificate at the Bank/ Treasury following the existing procedure. The Pensioners/ Family Pensioners have the flexibility and choice of selecting a method for submission of Life Certificate which is convenient to him/her.

3. The actions to be taken by the Pensioners/Family Pensioners, Pension Disbursing Treasuries and the method of submission of Digital Life Certificate including processing of the same at the Treasuries are detailed in the Annexure-A & Annexure-B.

4. Pensioner/ Family Pensioner may also visit any nearest Treasury or Bank-Branch having the facility of submission of Digital Life Certificate after ‘Onetime Registration’ is completed in the Pension Disbursing Treasury.

5. However, at present the facility for submission of Digital Life Certificate is not available for those Pensioners who are re-employed after retirement, employed Family Pensioners and Unmarried daughters in receipt of Family Pension. They shall continue to submit Life Certificate and re-employment/ employment declaration/ declaration of non-marriage as per existing process.

6. Submission of Life Certificate and Non-Remarriage/ Non-Employment declaration through Digital mode as stated above shall have the same legal implication as of physical mode. Any false declaration in this regard shall be treated as misconduct and misrepresentation of fact for taking legal action as per rule.

7. User Guidelines for submission of Digital Life Certificate through Jeevan Pramaan Portal is available under the ‘Guidelines’ of IFMS Portal.

8. This order shall take effect from 1st November, 2019. Necessary amendments in West Bengal Treasury Rule shall be made in due course.

Sd/- H.K. Dwivedi
Additional Chief Secretary to the
Government of West Bengal

Annexure-A
[Notification No. 5909-F(Y) dated- 25.10.2019]

A. Actions to be taken by the willing Pensioner/ Family Pensioner:

1. The willing Pensioner/ Family Pensioner has to submit self-attested copies of Aadhaar document and Pension Payment Order (PPO) as one-time activity for updating the Pension database at the concerned Treasury.
2. Once the Step. 1 as stated above is completed the willing Pensioner/ Family Pensioner may visit the nearest Treasury or Bank-Branch having the facility of submission of Digital Life Certificate as per his/her convenience with the copy of Aadhaar and PPO for submission of Digital Life Certificate.

B. Actions to be taken by the Pension Disbursing Treasuries:

1. Treasury Officer, on receipt of the copy of Aadhaar and PPO from the willing Pensioner/Family pensioner, shall record the 12 digit Aadhaar Number herein called Bio-metric Number in Treasury database against each individual Pensioner/Family Pensioner ID in CTS after proper verification and ensure that correct Aadhaar number of the Pensioner/ Family Pensioner is entered against the actual Pensioner/ Family Pensioner.
2. If the Pensioner/ Family Pensioner is in receipt of more than one pension from the Treasury, the 12 digit Aadhaar Number is required to be updated against all the PPOs at the Treasury after proper verification.

Annexure-B
[Notification No. 5909-F(Y) dated- 25.10.2019]

A. Process of submission of Digital Life Certificate (DLC) at the Treasury/ Bank:

1. Treasury or Bank shall download and install the Jeevan Pramaan Application (latest version) from the Jeevan Pramaan Portal (‘https://jeevanpramaan.gov.in/) in the PC/Laptop.
2. Whenever a Pensioner/ Family Pensioner appear for submission of Digital Life Certificate at the nearest Treasury or Bank-Branch, the Operator of the Treasury/ Bank shall enter the Pensioner’s/ Family Pensioner’s 12 digit Unique Aadhaar Number, One Mobile Number (Aadhaar linked mobile number not mandatory) in the Jeevan Pramaan Application. An OTP Shall be sent in the given mobile number of the Pensioner/ Family Pensioner.
3. ‘Sanctioning Authority ‘to be selected as ‘State Government West Bengal’ and Type of Pension’, ‘Disbursing Authority’, concerned Treasury name to be selected from the drop-down list. PPO ID and Bank Account Number of the Pensioner/ Family Pensioner need to be entered manually in the related fields. (In case where any person is in receipt of multiple pensions, submission of multiple DLC is not required provided Aadhaar number is updated against all the PPO IDs at the Treasury).
4. System shall prompt the Pensioner/ Family Pensioner to put his/her finger on the Bio-metric device attached with the PC/Laptop for scanning the finger print and after successful authentication, the Jeevan Pramaan ID will be generated and success message for submission of DLC will be delivered to the mobile number provided by the Pensioner/ Family Pensioner.

B. Processing of Digital Life Certificate at the Treasury after submission of DLC by the Pensioner/Family Pensioner:

1. The digital life certificates shall be processed in IFMS on the next day of submission of DLC in Jeevan Pramaan Portal and Pensioner/Family Pensioner will be notified through SMS in given mobile number about the successful acceptance or rejection of Digital Life Certificate at the Treasury.
2. In IFMS, Treasury Officer shall get the list of those Pensioners/ Family Pensioners who submitted Life Certificate in Digital mode and no manual entry for Life Certificate is required in IFMS for these pensioners. However, the Treasury Officer has to take necessary action for discontinuation of Pension/ Family Pension due to non-submission of Life Certificate either through manual mode or through digital mode as per existing rules.

No. 5909-F dated 25.10.2019, Source