This blog is meant for use by members of the Association for news and views. Send comments / suggestions / views to e-mail Id: aiaipasp.ors@gmail.com

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Orders in respect of maternity leave, child care leave, leave travel concession, deputation allowance issued after the recommendation of Sixth Central Pay Commission.

Enhancement of the quantum of Maternity Leave
Maternity Leave admissible to female Government servants has been enhanced from 135 days to 180 days with effect from the 1st September, 2008. This would enable female Government employees in nursing of their children till the age of 6  months. Further, the period of leave which can be availed of in continuation of maternity leave has also been increased to 2 years .

Introduction of Child Care Leave
In order to facilitate women employees to take care of their children at the time of need, Government has introduced Child Care leave with effect from 1st September,2008. Women employees having minor children may now be granted Child Care leave for a maximum period of two years (i.e. 730 days) during their entire career for taking care of upto two children whether for rearing or to look after any of their needs like examination, sickness etc. This leave can be availed of in more than one spell and will be admissible when the Government servant has no earned leave at her credit.

Benefits of Maternity Leave, Child Care leave extended to members of All India Service
In pursuance of the acceptance of recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission, for the central civil employees, some provisions like enhancement of Maternity Leave from 135 to 180 days and Child Care leave upto two years during their entire Service to women employees have been extended to the members of All India Services.

Encashment of Earned Leave along with LTC
Encashment of earned leave up to ten days at a time and to the extent of sixty days during entire career has been permitted while availing Leave Travel Concession (LTC) by Central Government servants. Previously, the earned leave so encashed alongwith LTC was to be deducted from the maximum amount of earned leave encashable at the time of retirement. With effect from 1 September, 2008, the earned leave encashed at the time of availing LTC will not be deducted from the maximum amount of earned leave encashable at the time of retirement. The specialconcessions/benefits granted to central government employees working in Kashmir Valley and relief to Kashmiri migrant employees of Central Government and PSUs have extended for a further period upto 31 December, 2009.

Special Casual Leave to Differently-Abled Persons
The following orders in respect of casual leave to differently-abled persons have been issued:-
(i) Orders were issued for grant of Special Casual Leave upto 10 days in a calendar year to enable differently-abled persons in the Government to attend Conferences/Workshops held in connection with welfare of such category of persons.
(ii) Orders were also issued for grant of Special Casual Leave for 4 days in a calendar year for differently-abled persons in connection with their absence from duty in view of their special requirements.

Children Education Allowance Scheme

Children Education Allowance and Reimbursement of Tuition Fee which were hither to payable separately have now been merged and known as ‘Children Education Allowance Scheme”. Under the Scheme, Government servants can claim Children Education Allowance of Rs.12,000/- per child per annum for two school going children till the twelfth class. Hostel subsidy up to a maximum of Rs.3000/- per month per child can also be reimbursed under the scheme. However, both Hostel subsidy and Children Education Allowance cannot be availed concurrently. The above limits would be automatically raised by 25 per cent every time the Dearness Allowance on the pay goes up by 50 per cent.

Allowance for disabled Children
Women Government employees with disabilities are being paid Rs. 1000/- per month as Special Allowance for child care from the time of the child’s birth till the child is two years old. Reimbursement of Children Education Allowance for disabled children of Government employees are being paid at double the normal rates prescribed for normal children, i.e. Rs. 24,000/- per child per annum.

Deputation (Duty) Allowance
Subsequent to implementation of the recommendation of 6th CPC the rates of Deputation (Duty) Allowance has been revised w.e.f. 1.9.2008 to 5 per cent of basic pay subject to a maximum of Rs. 2000/- p.m. within same station and at the rate of 10 per cent of basic pay subject to Rs. 4000/- p.m. in other case.

Leave Travel Concession (LTC)
In relaxation of CCS(LTC) Rules, 1988, the Government have decided to permit Government servants to travel by air to North Eastern Region (NER) on LTC for a period of two years w.e.f. 2 May, 2008 as indicated below:-
(i) Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ Central Government employees will be entitled to travel by Air from their place of posting or nearest airport to a city in the NER or nearest airport.
(ii) Other categories of employees will be entitled to travel by air to a city in the NER from Guwahati or Kolkata.
(iii) All Central Government employees will be allowed conversion of one block of Home Town LTC into LTC for destinations in NER
Consequent upon the acceptance of the recommendations of Sixth Central Pay Commission following decisions have been taken regarding LTC which are effective from 1st September, 2008.
Definition of Family
The parents and /or step parents (stepmother and stepfather)who are wholly dependent on the Government employees shall be included in the definition of family for the purpose of LTC, irrespective of whether they are residing with the Government employee or not.
The definition of dependency will be linked to the minimum family pension prescribed in Central Government and dearness relief thereon. The extant conditions in respect of other relations included in the family including married/divorced/abandoned/separated/widowed daughters shall continue without any change.
Increase in the number of Home-Town LTC for fresh recruits
Fresh recruits to central government are allowed to travel to their home town along with their families on three occasions in a block of four years and to any place in India on the fourth occasion. This facility shall be available to the Government officers only for the first two blocks of four years applicable after joining the Government for the first time. The blocks of 4 years shall apply with reference to the initial date of joining the Government even though the employee changes the job within Government subsequently. The existing blocks will remain the same but the entitlements of the new recruit will be different in the first eight years of service. All other provisions concerning frequency of travel under LTC are retained.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Earning up to Rs 5-L salary? No need to file returns

Individuals with annual income up to Rs 5 lakh are now exempted from filing personal income tax return for the current financial year. This relief was proposed in the Union Budget last year. However, a circular from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) last week indicates that this relief has been extended for this financial year.

An individual can now file tax returns for this financial year by July 31, 2012. However, the exemption comes with some terms and conditions, which determine the eligibility of an individual to seek the exemption from filing returns.

Who can seek this exemption

As per the Notification, only individuals who satisfy the following conditions are eligible for exemption from furnishing the tax return for the tax year 2011-12:

a) Total income does not exceed Rs 5,00,000.

b) Total income consists only of income under the following heads:

Salaries

'Income from other sources' by way of interest, not exceeding Rs 10,000, from a savings bank account

Avail an exemption

Apart from the above conditions, an individual should also fulfill the following conditions to avail an exemption from furnishing tax return with the authorities:

Report his Permanent Account Number (PAN) to his/her employer

Report savings bank account interest income to employer and the employer should withhold tax on such interest income

Employer provides tax withholding certificate (Form 16) to employee which mentions the PAN, details of income and taxes withheld

There should be no further tax payable by the employee by way of advance tax or self-assessment tax

No refund claim for the relevant tax year

The employee should receive salary from only one employer for the tax year

 
  Who are not eligible for this exemption

An individual cannot claim an exemption to file the tax return under this notification in the following cases:

The individual has total income under any head other than 'Salaries' and 'Income from other sources'

The individual has total income exceeding Rs 5,00,000 for tax year 2011-12

The individual has not submitted his PAN to his employer

The individual has interest income other than savings bank account interest income

The individual has not reported interest income from savings bank account to his employer and discharged his tax liability by way of advance tax or self assessment tax

The individual has refund claim in the return of income

The individual has received salary income from more than one employer 

Source:-The Economic Times

Monday, February 27, 2012

Enhancement of Various Allowances by 25% from 01.01.2011

To veiw the Office Memorandum Click here

House panel agrees on Rs 3L tax exemption

There is now consensus among members of the parliamentary committee on finance which is scrutinising the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill to raise the tax exemption limit to Rs. 3 lakh per annum and the tax-saving investments limit to Rs. 2.5 lakh.
The committee, headed by BJP leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, on Friday met to discuss the bill and there was an agreement to raise tax exemption to give relief to the middle class, which is facing high inflation. Earlier, some members had wanted the tax exemption level raised to Rs. 5 lakh. The standing committee on finance has decided to finalise its report on the DTC by March 2.
Even some Congress members who met Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday for pre-Budget consultations asked for a substantial increase in the tax exemption limit to provide relief to the middle class.
Currently the tax exemption limit is Rs. 1.80 lakh for men and Rs. 1.90 lakh for women. The DTC Bill, which was introduced in Parliament, had proposed that the tax exemption limit be set at Rs. 2 lakh.
The current tax-saving investment limit — which includes investments in provident fund, life insurance, children’s education and infrastructure bonds — is Rs. 1.2 lakh. The committee wants it raised to Rs. 2.5 lakh.
The DTC Bill introduced by the government had raised the tax-saving deduction limit to Rs. 3 lakh. The bill proposed that people could invest up to Rs. 1 lakh in long-term saving instruments like provident funds, superannuation funds, gratuity funds and pension funds, and withdrawals from these funds will not be taxed. People can claim tax deduction up to Rs. 50,000 on expenses like tuition fees of children, pure life insurance premiums and health insurance payments. The bill had also proposed that Rs. 1.5 lakh interest paid on construction or acquisition of property for self-use could be claimed for tax deduction.
The government had proposed in the bill that there would be a separate deduction for interest on education loans and for payments of expenses of disabled persons.
Five-year bank FDs and ELSS schemes of mutual funds had been removed as tax-saving instruments by the DTC Bill. Profits earned on equity mutual funds held for one year will not be taxed. The government has retained zero long-term capital gains tax on stocks; this means shares held for more than a year will not be taxed.

Sorce:-The Asian Age

Postmen to now collect data for calculation of rural Consumer Price Index (CPI)

NEW DELHI: The postman in rural areas across the country has his hands full. Apart from his regular job, he now has to go out three to four times a week to collect data from retail outlets which is then used to calculate the rural consumer price inflation.

Faced with an acute manpower shortage, the ministry of statistics and programme implementation tied up with the department of posts to get over the problem of collecting such massive amount of data from rural areas across the country.

"When we were discussing about the comprehensive CPI data we were looking for a department which had reach across the country. We zeroed in on the postal network," said Pronob Sen, adviser in the Planning Commission and former chief statistician of the country.

 It was a perfect opportunity for the postal department, which readily accepted the offer. Rising competition and new technology has posed serious challenges for the department of posts. It is working on several ideas to maximize revenues and use its vast network to help other government departments.

"We were looking at new avenues for raising our revenue and we entered into a memorandum of agreement with the ministry of statistics and progamme implementation," said Sachin Pilot, minister of state for communications and information technology.

He said the rural CPI data is being collected by 1,181 rural post offices. About 1,800 employees undertake the exercise for 3 to 4 hours a week. The statistics ministry paid the department of posts Rs 6.32 crore in 2010-11 and is to pay Rs 7.66 crore in 2011-12. "We just collect the data, the CPI is calculated by the statistics ministry on department of posts and National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) inputs," Pilot said.

Price data is collected from selected towns by the Field Operations Division of NSSO and from selected villages by the department of posts. This data is then fed into web portals being maintained by the National Informatics Centre.

Postal employees identified for the mission were put through intensive training sessions. "They were taught how to collect the data, the questions to be asked and how to put the data in the portal," Sen said, adding most employees had education up to Class 8.

"There were initial hiccups for about 3-4 months but then it settled down. They collect data and then feed it into the computers available in the post office. The data is carefully examined before it is used," said Sen, adding that the department of posts compensates the employees for collecting data.

Data collection in the country faces several hurdles and often international agencies and analysts question the quality of Indian data. Government officials say lack of competitive salaries forces students with economics and statistics background to explore opportunities in the private sector. They say even now the NSSO has vacancies for nearly 800 analysts and statisticians.

The Central Statistics Office on Monday unveiled the first comprehensive annual inflation rates based on the consumer price indices series. Provisional annual inflation rate based on all India general CPI (combined) for January stood at 7.65% while the inflation rates for rural and urban areas were 7.38% and 8.25% respectively, the CSO data showed.

Source:-The Economic Times

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Friday, February 24, 2012

Transfer and Posting in PS Group. B on adhoc basis

1.Shri Ajit Kumar Dash, Sr. Postmaster, Cuttack GPO is transferred and allotted to Berhampur Region vide CO Memo No.ST/2-4(3)/2011/Ch.II dated 23.02.2012. Posting order of Shri Dash will  be issued by the PMG, Berhampur Region.

2.Shri Ramakanta Mishra, ASP(BD/Mail), RO, Berhampur is promoted to PS Gr. B Cadre on adhoc basis and posted as Sr. Postmaster, Cuttack GPO vide CO Memo No.ST/2-4(3)/2011/Ch.II dated 23.02.2012.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Upgradation of GP to IP : GS writes to Member (P)

No. CHQ/IPASP/1/2012 Dated : 22/2/2012. 

To, 
Ms Yesodhara Menon, 
Member (P),
Department of Posts,
Dak Bhavan, Sansad Marg, 
New Delhi 110 001. 

Subject : Minutes of the meeting taken by Secretary (Posts) with All India Association of Inspectors and Assistant Superintendents Posts on 3/11/2011. 

Ref. : Directorate Letter No. 01/01/2011-SR dated 14/11/2011. 

Respected Madam,

The 37th All India Biennial Conference of this Association was held at Bangaluru on 28th and 29th January, 2012. In the Conference, the matter related to merger of the posts IP and ASP was deliberated in depth and the house passed a resolution unanimously as under:

“This Association is against the merger of Inspector Posts and Assistant Superintendents Posts Cadre. Inspector Posts should be granted Grade Pay of Rs. 4600/- with effect from 01/01/2006 at par with Inspectors of CBDT / CBEC in tune with directions of the Hon’ble CAT, Ernakulam Bench”.

In view of the above resolution, it is requested that action may please be taken to implement the orders of Hon’ble CAT, Ernakulam Bench to upgrade the grade pay of Inspector Posts from Rs. 4200/- to Rs. 4600/- with effect from 1.1.2006.

Yours sincerely,

(Vilas Ingale)
General Secretary

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Clarification of CS, Odisha Circle Branch on some comments in the posting titled "Letter of CS, Odisha Circle Branch to GS on GP issue and removal of inter-Circle anomaly on promotion to ASPs"

The stand of Odisha Circle which remains consistent throughout is that any condition to get GP of Rs.4600/- for IPs is acceptable. As some ASPs (not from Odisha Circle) are greedy for surrendering Gazetted status, some say that Directorate can even consider retaining Gazetted status for existing ASPs. That way Odisha Circle Branch has nothing to object because at least we can move for resolving the deadlock. Let me mention it once again that Odisha Circle is even agreeable to acceptance of nomenclature as IPs for the merged cadre, provided GP of IPs is immediately upgraded to Rs.4600/- with all consequential benefit w.e.f 01.01.2006. Odisha Circle only pleads that Chief PMG should be made the appointing authority for the merged cadre as in the case of ASPs at present. To get correct information about the stand of Odisha Circle it is once again requested to go through the related previous postings in this blog, particularly the posting titled: "A complete U turn marks the Begaluru Conference".  It is worthwhile to mention that the obsession of Gazetted status which is false by all practical measurement is the main obstacle on the way of getting the GP upgraded. The cadre members in Odisha Circle will have no regret in shedding this falsehood if it helps getting GP of IPs upgraded to Rs.4600/-. 
CS, AIAIASP, Odisha Circle

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Clarification on Children Educational Allowance

.Click here to view clarification-1

Click here to view clarification-2

Letter of CS, Odisha circle Branch to GS on GP Issue and removal of inter- Circle anomaly on promotion to ASP


No.AIAIASP/Odisha-Corr-1/2012
Dated 20.02.2012

To

          Shri V.S. Ingale   
          General Secretary, CHQ
          All India Association of Inspectors and Asst Supts of Posts


Dear Shri Ingale Ji,

          On behalf of all the members of this Association of Odisha Circle Branch, I take the pleasure in congratulating you on your election as the new General Secretary of the Association. You are aware that up-gradation of   Grade Pay of Inspector of Posts from Rs.4200/- to Rs.4600/- is the main issue of our cadre members. You are also aware that majority decision was taken at AIC, Bengaluru in adopting a resolution to the effect that we are against the merger of Inspector of Posts and Assistant Superintendents of Posts cadres, and Inspector of Posts should be granted grade pay of Rs.4600/- w.e.f. 01.01.2006 at par with the Inspectors CBDT/CBEC in tune with the direction of the Hon’ble CAT, Ernakulam Branch. Though Odisha Circle Branch has a view of accepting merger with retention of Gazetted status to the existing ASPs which was not accepted by majority opinion,  Odisha Circle believes in greater flexibility to get the Grade Pay of Rs.4600/- for Inspector of Posts at any cost. Anyway, it is now the time to translate the resolution taken at AIC, Bengaluru into action. Odisha Circle is committed to extending all possible co-operation to the CHQ to get Grade Pay of Rs.4600/- for Inspector of Posts.

          After the decision taken against the merger of Inspector of Posts and Assistant Superintendents of Posts cadre, I take this opportunity to bring to your notice regarding inter- Circle anomaly in promotion of IPs to the post of ASPs. In Circles like Delhi, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu and West Bengal, Inspector of Posts are getting their promotion to ASP cadre in 5 to 7 years of service in IP cadre. On the other hand, in Circles like Assam, Bihar, Chhatisgarh, HP, MP, NE, Odisha and Uttarakhand, Inspector of Posts are getting their promotion to ASP cadre in 10 to 14 years of service in IP cadre. At the AIC this particular aspect was not discussed.

          I write to emphasise the need for the CHQ to consider this issue seriously to help remove the above mentioned inter- Circle anomaly so that the time taken by an IP to get promotion to ASP cadre becomes uniform throughout the country. In this connection, I would like to request you to take up this issue at appropriate level, preferably in Cadre Restructuring Committee for up-gradation of  Inspector of Posts to Asst Supdts of Posts in Circles like Assam, Bihar, Chhatisgarh,HP, MP, NE, Odisha and Uttarakhand  at least to get more number of ASP posts  than the posts of IPs existing in these Circles so that the IPs in these Circle  are saved from unfair treatment in getting the promotion to ASPs unlike their counterparts in other Circles.


          With best regards.                           

Sincerely yours,

Enc:-Circle wise sanctioned strength of IPs & ASPs

(Pitabasa Jena)
Circle Secretary, AIAIASP
Odisha Circle Branch



Circle wise sanctioned strength of IPs & ASPs

Sl.  No.
Circle
Sanctioned Strength
Percentage of ASP Posts
IP
ASP
1
A.P
201
176
46.7%
2
Assam
60
41
40.6%
3
Bihar
128
86
40.2%
4
Chhatisgarh
40
22
35.5%
5
Delhi
35
64
64.6%
6
Gujrat
119
122
50.6%
7
Haryana
48
39
44.8%
8
H.P
39
22
36.1%
9
J & K
20
20
50.0%
10
Jharkhand
39
31
44.3%
11
Karnatak
134
139
50.9%
12
Keral
91
109
54.5%
13
M.P
120
80
40.0%
14
Maharastra
169
235
58.2%
15
N.E.
35
15
30.0%
16
Orissa
105
71
40.3%
17
Punjab
53
55
50.9%
18
Rajsthan
114
94
45.2%
19
Tamil Nadu
166
229
58.0%
20
Uttarakhand
36
24
40.0%
21
U.P
228
198
46.5%
22
W.B
137
164
54.5%
Total
2117
2036
49.0%