Coming soon, Post Bank of India

The postal department plans to enter the banking business with the Reserve Bank of India deciding to grant new bank licences to entities with credible track-record.

Consultant appointed : 
Sources said the Department of Posts, which has a strong foot print in rural areas, has appointed Ernst and Young (E&Y) as the consultant for the proposed ‘Post Bank’

“Ernst and Young is expected to submit a detailed project report by April, after which all the necessary measures will be taken up to apply for banking licence,” a source at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology told PTI.

The sources added that the Department of Post (DoP) might need Cabinet approval for setting up Post Bank of India.

Of the 1.55 lakh post offices in the country, around 24,000 district offices may be ready to offer banking services in the next two years.

The DoP is in process of setting up 1,000 ATMs.

“Post Bank shall not only take care of the banking needs of the rural poor but shall also converge with micro-insurance and micro-remittance services of the DoP,” the source said.

TWO DAYS STRIKE EXHIBITED THE TOTAL UNITY AND PROTEST OF POSTAL & RMS EMPLOYEES

Entire Postal and RMS services came to a standstill

We (NFPE & FNPO) once again extend our warm greetings and congratulations to all Postal and RMS employees who made the two days nationwide strike a thundering success. About 1,50,000 Postal and RMS offices including Branch Post offices remained closed for two days. About more than five lakhs employees including GDS struck work. Though the strike will be over tonight, the struggle against the anti-worker policies will continue. Let us keep this unity and fighting spirit intact.

Unity for Struggle, and struggle for unity.

                  Thank you, Thank you all.

M. Krishnan                                                                                                          D. Theagarajan

Secretary General                                                                                             Secretary General

NFPE                                                                                                                       FNPO

7th CPC News : 7th Pay Commission Projected Pay Scale

People may think that the babus again started to make voice over pay revision and next pay commission or 7th Pay commission. There is a saying that “The crying baby gets the milk”. The need makes the man to act.

One should try to understand the fact that being a government servant one can witness a considerable pay hike at least twice or thrice of his/her entire service period. Because, other than promotion, only the pay commission recommendation will give them considerable pay hike. But it takes place once in ten years. Now a days a government employee can render service 20 or 30 years only due to non availability of employment opportunity in government service below the age of 25. So there is no need to be get annoyed by hearing the voice for seventh pay commission from central government employees. Because constituting next pay commission is for nothing but to review the salary of the govt. servants with the current economical condition of the country.

How the pay of a govt. employee had been fixed at the beginning of the Independence India.

Till now there are six pay commission had been constituted to review and recommend pay structure of central government employees.

All the six pay commissions have taken many aspects into consideration to prescribe the pay structure for government servants.

In the first pay commission the concept of ‘living wage’ was adopted.

In second pay commission it had been reiterated that the pay structure and working condition to be crafted in a way so as to ensure the effective functioning of government mechanism.

The third pay commission adopted the concept of ‘need based wage’

The Fourth CPC had recommended the government to constitute permanent machinery to undertake periodical review of pay and allowances of Central Government employees, but which got never implemented.

In Fifth pay commission all federations demanded that the pay scale should be at par with the public sector. But the pay commission didn’t accept this and told that the demand for parity with the Public Sector was however difficult to concede as it felt that the Job content and condition of service in the government and pulic sector not necessarily the same. There were essential differences between the two sectors.

The Sixth Central Pay Commission, claimed that it had not only tried to evolve a proper pay package for the Government employees but also to make recommendations rationalizing the governmental structure with a view to improve the delivery mechanisms for providing better services to the common man

What about seventh pay commission?

Generally every pay commission, before recommending a pay structure, it used to analyze all the aspects including the economic situation of the country, financial resources of the government, comparison with the public sector, private sector and state government pay structure etc. So it is very much clear that Pay Determination is very complicated and sensitive task. Without any doubt every one accepts that this is very challenging task too. In order to determine the new pay structure the pay commission has to go through voluminous data consisting current economic condition, strength of the work force and working condition etc. In the meantime, if one tries to suggest or comment about 7thy pay commission pay scale or about what the seventh pay commission pay scale would be, it will not get much importance.

But when we come across all the recommendations of six pay commissions, we observed an interesting factor which is common to all the pay commission recommendations, particularly in the matter of percentage of increase in the pay. Average 3 times increase in the pay was recommended by each pay commission and it was accepted by government and implemented. We have posted three articles about six pay commissions before this post.

Click the link given below to see those articles and average increase was worked out in the table.

First CPC to Third CPC Pay Scales

Fourth CPC pay scale and Fifth Pay commission

Short Description about Sixth Pay Commission

Obviously it is simple thing, we can say it a mathematical coincidence that we have in common in all previous pay commission, but we cannot neglect this. Because it was there, every time it is noticed that the revised pay was approximately three times higher than its pre revised pay. Apart from all the factors which has been used to determine the pay revision, we can use this simple formula ‘common multiplying factor’ to know the 7th pay commission pay scale . If next pay commission prefer to continue the same running pay band and grade pay system for seventh pay commission also, the pay structure may be like the following projected figures given below, using common multiplying factor ‘3’. The Following is only the projected figure using common multiplying factor ‘3’

SIXTH CPC PAY STRUCTURE				PROJECTED  PAY STRUCTURE  FOR NEXT  (VII)  PAY COMMISSION
Name of Pay Band/ Scale	Corresponding Pay Bands	Corresponding Grade Pay	Entry Grade +band pay	Projected entry level pay using uniform multiplying factor` 3’
				Band Pay	Grade Pay	Entry Pay
PB-1	5200-20200	1800	7000	15600-60600	5400	21000
PB-1	5200-20200	1900	7730	15600-60600	5700	23190
PB-1	5200-20200	2000	8460	15600-60600	6000	25380
PB-1	5200-20200	2400	9910	15600-60600	7200	29730
PB-1	5200-20200	2800	11360	15600-60600	8400	34080
PB-2	9300-34800	4200	13500	29900-104400	12600	40500
PB-2	9300-34800	4600	17140	29900-104400	13800	51420
PB-2	9300-34800	4800	18150	29900-104400	14400	54450
PB-3	15600-39100	5400	21000	29900-104400	16200	63000
PB-3	15600-39100	6600	25530	46800-117300	19800	76590
PB-3	15600-39100	7600	29500	46800-117300	22800	88500
PB-4	37400-67000	8700	46100	112200-20100	26100	138300
PB-4	37400-67000	8900	49100	112200-20100	26700	147300
PB-4	37400-67000	10000	53000	112200-20100	30000	159000
HAG	67000- (ann increment @ 3%) -79000	Nil				201000
HAG+ Scale	75500- (ann increment @ 3%) -80000	Nil				226500
Apex Scale	80000 (Fixed)	Nil				240000
Cab. Sec.	90000 (Fixed)	Nil				270000

Proposed Income Tax exemption Limit for the financial year 2013-14 (Assessment Year 2014-15).

Congress Leaders requested Finance Minister to raise Income tax exemption Limit to Rs.4 lakhs in the budget 2013-14

In a pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram here on Thursday, Congress leaders have asked the UPA government to increase the taxable income exemption limit to Rs 4 lakh from the current Rs 2 lakh, while suggesting a pro-people budget with sops for the middle class and farmers keeping  the upcoming elections in mind.

The meeting was held at the Congress party headquarters. With the rise in fuel prices impacting the ‘aam aadmi’, the meeting saw suggestions for varied pricing of petrol, diesel and cooking gas for people living below poverty line and low income group.

Senior party leader Oscar Fernandes suggested there was a need to bring down the dependence on petroleum import and more focus on having alternative sources of energy like ethanol, sources said. Fernandes also wanted the government to reduce tax on bidis, noting that employment levels were coming down in the labour-intensive sector due to current tax slab.

Congress leader Jagdish Tytler suggested that the budget should be formulated in a way that helps the party to connect with people as elections were ahead, sources said.

AICC Secretary P Sudhakar Reddy mooted raising the tax exemption limit of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh, which was endorsed by many other office bearers.

He also advised linking Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme with agriculture to help meet the shortage of farm labour in the sector, besides offering three-year interest-free loans to small farmers for their children’s education.

Suggestions were also made by party leaders for gender budgeting. Reddy advised the Finance Minister that female assessees could be given higher tax exemption limit.

There were also demands by many leaders for bringing more clarity on the service tax as it was being interpreted differently in various states.

Minority Department Chairman Imran Kidwai demanded increase in outlay of the Minority Affairs Ministry and allocation of more funds to minority institutions. He also advised formulation of special scheme for Most Backward Classes for their financial inclusion.

HOUSE BUILDING ADVANCE RATES OF INTEREST FOR CENTRAL GOVT EMPLOYEES TO PURCHASE OR CONSTRUCT HOUSES

No.1-17011/2(6)/2013-H.III

Ministry of Urban Development

(Housing-III Section)

*******

 Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi.

 Dated:- the 17th January, 2013

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

 Subject:- Rates of interest on advances and loans to Govt. employees, for construction/purchase of houses/flats.

 The undersigned is directed to enclose herewith a copy of Ministry of Finance, Deptt. of Expenditure's O.M. No. 5(3)-B(PD)/2012 dated the 3rd January 2013 intimating the rates of interest on advances and loans given to Government employees for construction/purchase of houses/flats during 2012-13 i.e. 1st April, 2012 to 31St March, 2013 and until further orders, for information and compliance.

 Sd/-

 (S.K.Ram)

 Dy. Financial Adviser

No.5(3)-B(PD)/2012

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Economic Affairs

(Budget Division)

 Room No. 263-B, North Block,

 New Delhi dated the 3rd January, 2013.

Office Memorandum

        The undersigned is directed to state that the rates of interest on advances and loans given to Government employees for construction/purchase of houses/flats during 2012-13 i.e. 1st April, 2012 to 31st March, 2013 and until further orders will be as under:-

Slab                                       Interest Rate  percent per annum

 Advance upto Rs. 50,000/-        6.00

 Advance uto Rs. 1,50,000/-       7.50

 Advance upto  Rs. 500,000/-      9.00

 Advance upto  Rs. 7,50,000/-     9.50

Department of Post requested both the federations and its affiliated Unions to call off the strike

NOTICE OF TWO DAYS STRIKE ON 20^th & 21^st FEBRUARY, 2013.

LETTER FROM THE DEPARTMENT

No.8-4/2013/SR

Government of India

Ministry of Communications & IT

Department of Posts

Dak Bhawan , Sansad Marg ,

New Delhi-110001

Dated 13.02.2013

To

            Sh. M. Krishnan,

            Secretary General, NFPE

            Sh. D. Theagarajan,

            Secretary General, FNPO

Subject:        Notice of two days strike on 20^th & 21^st February, 2013.

Sir,

            With reference to letter No. JCA 2013 dated 22^nd January, 2013 from Postal Joint Council of Action stating that all the Postal/RMS/MMS/Administrative and Postal Accounts Employees and all the Gramin Dak Sevaks will go on two days strike on 20^th & 21^st Feb, 2013 in support of Charter of Demands enclosed with the letter referred to above. Part-I of The Charter of Demands relates to the entire Government of India and perhaps will be examined by Department of Personnel and Training. Part-II of the Charter of Demands relating to the Department of Posts is being examined by us. The progress in respect of these demands will be intimated to you shortly.

2.         As you are aware the Department of Posts has a well established system to resolve the demands of the employees through discussions across the table. In the recent past, periodical meetings granted by Secretary (Posts),JCM Standing Committee Meeting and JCM Departmental Council Meetings were held where a number of issues have  been discussed  in detail and the minutes has been issued to all concerned for solving staff matters. It is felt that no fruitful purpose is served by agitation especially when the problems can be mutually discussed and resolved. Such disruptions also hamper our business and goodwill.

3.         In view of the above, it is requested that both the federations and its affiliated Unions may call off the strike so that the Postal Services are not hampered and public is not put to any avoidable inconvenience.

Yours faithfully,

                                                                                                                Sd/- 

                                                                                                                        (ANIL KUMAR)

                                                                                                             DDG(Establishment)

STRIKE DISCUSSION FAILED

Cabinet Minister for Labour Shri Mallikarjun Kharge and Minister of States for Labour Shri Kodikkunnil Suresh held discussion with Central leaders of various trade unions on 13-02-2013 on the charter of demands. Discussion failed as Central Government is not ready to concede the demands. All the Trade Union Leaders unanimously decided to go ahead with the two days strike on 20 & 21 February 2013.
         Hence as decided earlier  FNPO will also participate in the proposed 2 days Nationwide strike on 20th and 21st February 2013- Sri.D.Theagarajan,Secretary General,FNPO.

"Mail Network Optimization Project (MNOP)" selected for National E-Governance Award 2012-13

Mail Network Optimization Project (MNOP)" has been selected for National E-Governance Award 2012-13 under the category "Outstanding performance in citizen-centric service delivery" by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievance, Government of India.

 

National E-Governance Awards are given every year to "recognize and promote excellence in implementation of e-governance initiatives" by Government of India. The Department of Posts had applied for the awards sometime back, and after several rounds of scrutiny, MNOP has been selected for this prestigious award.

 

The awards would be given on 11th February, 2013 during 16th National E-Governance Conference at Jaipur (Rajasthan). Details of projects selected for awards may be seen in the attached file.

Stamp Issue Calendar of INDIA POST - 2013.

To view please Click Here.

Transfer and posting of Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) officer of the Indian Postal Service, Group A

To view Departmental Order please Click Here.