NPS: finmin cracks whip, no pay arrears for errant staff

With the central record keeping agency for the New Pension Scheme (NPS) yet to get the entire contribution records of central government employees in the scheme, the finance ministry has cracked the whip on errant employees and departments. It has decided to withhold the Sixth Pay Commission arrears of all central government employees (in service after January 1, 2004) who have not submitted the individual application forms for registration to the NPS.

?Action in this regard will need to be completed before release of second instalment of arrears for which separate orders will be issued. It may be noted that release of the second instalment, for post January 1, 2004 entrants, will be subject to the above action being completed,? the department of expenditure in the finance ministry said in a recent missive to all government ministries and department. The Centre had provided 40% of the arrears under the Sixth Pay Commission last year, while the balance 60% are expected next month.

The finance ministry?s warning comes as despite a June 2008 deadline. The transfer of all data on account holders from the Comptroller General of Accounts , which was acting as the interim record-keeper for the NPS to the NSDL is still incomplete. According to an official with the pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, while the first tranche of records has been sent, the second is yet to begin.

The PFRDA is keen that the transfer should finish this year, so that the NSDL can begin providing details on individual returns. At present, the NPS corpus is invested as a lumpsum. ?We want the data organised by January 1,2010 so that there will be data on all individual accounts,? a PFRDA official said.

The finance ministry has also noted that Pay and Accounts Officers have not ?uploaded contribution files,? and regular monthly credits and in some instances there is also a ?mismatch of contribution.? In this regard it has directed them to verify all details and forward the correct data to the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL), which is the central record keeping agency for the NPS by September 30, 2009.

The move comes as much of the records provided by the PAO are incorrect. In fact, up till April 18, this year, the NSDL had received erroneous details on pension contributions amounting to Rs 77 crore, from 2,093 PAOs across the country.