BHAVISHYA – Online Pension Sanction and Payment Tracking System

BHAVISHYA – Online Pension Sanction and Payment Tracking System

An Initiative of Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare

BHAVISHYA

Department of P&PW has introduced an online Pension Sanction and Payment Tracking System called ‘BHAVISHYA’. Actions for timely payment of retirement dues and issue of Pension Payment Order (PPO) start one years before the date of retirement of the employee. There are a number of intervening stages and the system will pinpoint delays at each stage to enable timely interventions. The tracking can be done by the retiring employee as well as the administrative authorities.

In addition, forms required during the process are available in electronic format. The retiring employee can fill the forms online. It facilitates the administrative authorities by processing the claims and passing on the calculated amounts and other details to the Pay and Accounts Offices. The new system will also capture personal information, service data and contact details like mobile number and e-mail etc. The retiring employees will be kept informed of the progress of pension sanction process through SMS/E-mail.

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. 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 89 Ministries/ Departments except Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Defence, Department of Post, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Tele communication and some security related sensitive organizations.

There is no such proposal to revamp the payment of pension through Public Sector Banks. However, the data base for the existing pensioners is being updated by the Authorized Banks for pensions’ payment once in a year through master data reconciliation with Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) and from time to time based on the Special Seal Authority (SSA) issued by CPAO to Central Pension Processing Centers (CPPCs) of Banks.

The Authorized Banks submit the report of payment of pension through e-scrolls to CPAO after making the payment of pension. Life Certificate is submitted by the Central Civil Pensioners/ Family Pensioners in the month of November every year and excess payment of pension may happen if the pensioner dies before the coming November, i.e., the next due date of submission of Life Certificate. If excess/ wrong payment of pension is paid to the pensioner by Public Sector Banks then entire amount is recovered by the Banks from the pensioners/ family pensioners as per the guidelines of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in this regard. During the financial year 2016-17, an amount of about Rs. 73 crore was received/ recovered from the Authorized Banks by the Central Pension Accounting Office in respect of central civil pensioners/family pensioners.