New pension plan for 30 lakh ex-servicemen

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 2

Some 30 lakh retired soldiers will now be moved to a new pension payment system which promises a seamless ‘end-to end online facilitation’ — from the initiation of pension to its disbursement.

Called the ‘System for Pension Administration-Raskha (SPARSH)’, it will be implemented in phases with the first one from August 1, says the instructions issued by the office of the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions), under the Ministry of Defence.

The project envisages ‘right payment to the right pensioner at the right time’.

The existing system to sanction and disburse pensions process has several drawbacks. The three armed forces services don’t even have a common form needed for paperwork to initiate pension for a retiring personnel. There is manual intervention in processing the pension and the lacks centralised information for addressing queries of the pensioners.

SPARSH intends to include all processes and functionalities needed for processing the pension. It will be used to initiate and sanction pensions; it will do computation and revision, identify a pensioner and disburse the money into bank accounts.

The MoD hopes it will provide an accurate and real-time status of pension budget. The new system will be accessible from a web portal, mobile app, existing service centres and also a call centre.

Importantly, the platform will ensure real-time availability of expenditure on pension. The allocation for pension under the MoD budget for the ongoing fiscal is Rs 1,15,850 crore