Enabling digitally signed PPO and seamless vouching of post-retirement benefits electronically to pensioners Developed by NIC Controller General of Accounts, the PFMS- Pension module comprises a provision of either obtaining a retiree’s/ pensioner’s data electronically from Bhavishya application of the Department of Pensions after the data verification from the Head of Office (via SSIS integration) or capturing the data manually by Pay and Accounts Office. PFMS-Pension is a web application developed by NIC Controller General of Accounts (CGA) for the generation of digitally signed Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) and vouching of post-retirement benefits to pensioners through electronic mode, incorporating Central Civil Services Pension Rules. The application is tightly integrated with Bhavishya application of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for obtaining validated data from the Head of Office (HoO) via SQL Server Integration Services as well as with Pension Authorization, Retrieval and Accounting System (PARAS) application of Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) for obtaining the PPO number via web service and providing digitally signed PPO (e-PPO) to CPAO via SFTP server and payment and other details to Bhavishya. Major stakeholders in the application are retiree/ beneficiary, HoO, Bhavishya (Department of Pensions), Pay and Accounts Office (PAO) and CPAO.
Objectives ••Automated exchange of data with Bhavishya application of DoPT ••Timely and accurate calculation of pension, with payment of post-retirement benefits and effective monitoring by all the stakeholders ••Generation of digitally signed PPO (e-PPO) ••Automated transmission of e-PPO, along with allied documents to CPAO ••Generation of various payment authorities ••Integration with PFMS-Sanction Module for payments ••Intimation to retiree/ beneficiary via SMS for PPO number and payment of post-retirement benefits. ••Reverse flow of information to respective stakeholders (e-PPO, payments details etc.) ••Manual data entry option for exceptional cases
Technologies Used ••The application is developed in ASP.Net with C# as the scripting language using framework 4.7.1. ••Backend database is SQL server 2017. ••The data from Bhavishya is obtained via SSIS package. ••The PPO number is obtained from PARAS application of CPAO via web service. ••The Digitally Signed Certificate (DSC), e-PPO and allied documents are transmitted to CPAO’s SFTP server using Window’s services.
Process Flow Lifecycle of the software starts by obtaining the data of a retiree/ pensioner either electronically from Bhavishya application via SSIS integration or capturing the data manually by PAO Office. The data is made available to PAO office for checking/ verifying at three levels, viz. Dealing Hand, Assistant Accounts Officer and PAO. A user can also view photo, signatures, undertaking and other documents of the retiree/ pensioner. Calculations performed by both applications, PFMS-Pension and Bhavishya, are displayed to users. After analyzing both calculations, a user can either pass the pension case for next level or simply return data to Bhavishya, along with necessary remarks. After the pension case is passed at all levels, the PPO number is obtained from PARAS application of CPAO via web service, and the e-PPO report, along with its XML content, is generated and digitally signed by PAO. The digitally signed e-PPO, XML file and the allied documents are sent to the SFTP server of CPAO. Sanctions of the post-retirement benefits are generated by PAO for making electronic payments to retirees/ pensioners. PPO and payment details are also shared with Bhavishya. Various reports, viz. calculation sheet, pension authority etc., can be generated by the user.
Benefits ••Processing of different PFMS-pension cases flawlessly as there is electronic exchange of data between Bhavishya, PFMS and CPAO ••Fast movement of data as PFMS obtains data from Bhavishya electronically without any manual intervention ••Bringing greater transparency in processing of pension cases ••Electronic disbursement of post-retirement benefits (retirement gratuity/ death gratuity/ commutation/ withheld gratuity) to retiree’s/ pensioner’s bank account ••Validation of bank details (via PFMS sanction module) to minimize payment failures ••Future retiree/ pensioner is informed regarding the generation of PPO number and DSC of e-PPO via SMS.
Following types of pension cases are being handled: ••Superannuation Case ••Retiring Pension Case ••Family Pension Case ••Compulsory Retirement Case ••Invalid Pension Case ••Compassionate Pension Case ••Revision of Pension Cases
The following types of cases are proposed to be implemented. ••Extraordinary pension cases ••Family pension cases of new pension scheme employees ••Provision of issue of corrigendum and amendments ••Family pension case with more than one family pension
Summary It is noteworthy that 6346 digitally signed e-PPOs have been generated and transferred to CPAO, and payment authorities of 308 revision cases have been successfully processed. Currently, 421 PAOs are onboarded, and it is proposed to be implemented at 511 PAOs across the country in the current financial year.