Thursday, August 8, 2013

EPFO DISAGREES WITH FINANCE MINISTRY’S PROPOSAL TO SHIFT EPFO SUBSCRIBERS TO NPS


            The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) says it disagrees with finance ministry’s proposal to encourage its subscribers to shift to New Pension System saying it does not provide better returns than its Employees Pension Scheme-1995.
            The retirement fund body has said this in response to a letter written by Financial Services Secretary to Labour Secretary.
            “If we take return of EPS as indicative return on the fund managed under EPS then the annualised return for the period May 2009 to May 2013 will be 10.47 per cent, which on the face of it, is higher than the return declared by NPS in its scheme for central government”, EPFO said.
            Finance Ministry has written to the Labour Ministry saying: “The subscribers (of EPS) may be given an option to either remain with EPS or join NPS with the same contribution.”
            The ministry argued that NPS, which is a self sustaining pension system, could be a good substitute for EPS and would be beneficial for subscribers as they would get decent returns and adequate pension wealth.
            Moreover, the Finance Ministry said, “The government would be free from any open ended and financially unsustainable liability of EPS.”
            Disagreeing with the contention of the Finance Ministry, EPFO said that EPS scheme provides social security for lower income group people in their old age. In addition, it also provides pension to widow, children and dependents in case of death of the subscriber.
            Under the EPS scheme, many interim benefits are provided.
            Subscribers can withdraw their contribution towards pension while withdrawing his or her EPF money. There is a lock in period of 15 years in NPS.
            Moreover EPS subscribers get bonus of two years on completion of 20 years of service and there is provision of commutation or part withdrawal also. That is not available in NPS.
            EPS’s corpus size stood at Rs 1.83 lakh crore as on March 31, 2013. Under the NPS, total corpus was at Rs 29,852 crore as on March 31, 2013 with a subscribers’ base of 47,70,507 members.
            EPFO has a subscriber base of over 5 crore and manages PF corpus of Rs 3.7 lakh crore excluding the pension fund of Rs 1.83 lakh crore. Source : The Hindu

POSTAL/SORTING ASSISTANT EXAMINATION (PA/SA) RESULTS 2013 UPDATE Postal Department today published the list of candidates short listed from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Uttrakhand Postal Circles for Paper-II based on their performance in Paper-I. Update available in India Post website is as follows: I. The List of shortlisted candidates for the Computer Typing / Data Entry (PAPER-II) for Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Uttrakhand Postal Circles is added in the given link below. II. PAPER-II for Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, North East, Odisha and West Bengal Postal Circles is scheduled on 24th and 25th August 2013. The Admit cards for the same have been dispatched. If not received by 13 August, 2013 then it can be downloaded from this website from August 14, 2013.

Soon, post offices to be like banks


K. LAKSHMI
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The Anna Road head post office is one of four in the city that have been selected for the project — File Photo
The HinduThe Anna Road head post office is one of four in the city that have been selected for the project — File Phot


Under new project, select head post offices will have ATMs, offer internet and mobile banking

Postal customers may soon be able to access their savings bank account in any post office in the city.
The department of posts is putting in place core banking solutions (CBS) at four of its head post offices in Chennai, and the process is expected to be completed by September. This means these post offices will become like banks and offer a range of services.
The head post offices on Anna Road and in T. Nagar, Mylapore and Tambaram will soon be networked via CBS, which is one of the postal department’s flagship projects.'
At present, customers who have postal savings accounts have to go to the post office where their account is, to carry out any transaction. They also have to wait in long queues to withdraw cash or to get their monthly pensions.
But once CBS is implemented, customers can go to any post office covered under the system and carry out transactions. The project also envisages installing ATMs at these four post offices by October, so that their 2.5 lakh account-holders will be able to access their accounts at the swipe of a card.Customers who have invested in savings 
 certificates too, can encash them using CBS.
Officials of the postal department said they had tied up with Infosys to eventually implement CBS in 110 post offices across the city and its suburbs. Currently, software testing for the project is in progress.
Welcoming the move, 70-year-old D. Sriraman, a resident of Villivakkam, said this would benefit several people who now spend at least half an hour just to withdraw cash.  
The CBS project will be rolled out in all post offices over the next two years in a phased manner. Services offered will include internet banking, mobile banking and mobile transfer of money. The department also is mulling over a proposal to integrate other postal services with CBS.
Postmaster general, Chennai city region, Mervin Alexander said there are nearly 3.3 crore savings account-holders in the region. All postal employees are now being given extensive training in CBS, he added.                                      
Keywords: post officessavings bank accounts at post offices