POSTAL JOINT COUNCIL OF ACTION

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF POSTAL EMPLOYEES

FEDERATION OF NATIONAL POSTAL ORGANISATIONS

ALL INDIA POSTAL EMPLOYEES UNION-GDS (NFPE)

NATIONAL UNION GRAMIN DAK SEWAKS

NFPE-FNPO (PJCA) unanimously decided to hold Protest demonstration wearing black badges in front of all divisional offices on 3^rd March 2015 against the Anti labour, Anti people budget 2015.

D. Theagarajan                                                                   R. N. Parashar

Secretary General                                                               Secretary General

FNPO                                                                                   NFPE

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All General Secretaries of both Federations. They are requested to mobilize the Circle, Divisional, Branch Secretaries to ensure mass participation and grand success of the above programme.

REPLY FROM DIRECTORATE IN CONNECTION WITH STRIKE NOTICE OF AIGDSU FROM 10th MARCH 2015

The Department is in favour of GDS to include in 7th CPC. But the recognized Union is demanding for a separate committee (judiciary) claiming that the govt & department already denied the demand of NFPE and Confederation.

This shows the reality of the nature of the recognized GDS union is playing game with poor GDS.

Let us wait and see...... who's correct and stand for GDS.

26th Meeting of SCOVA Held in New Delhi on 03rd February 2015

26th Meeting of SCOVA Held in New Delhi on 03rd February 2015

SCOVA MET ON 03-02-2015

Honourable Minister of State for Pension & Pensioners Welfare

As already informed the 26^th meeting of SCOVA was held on 03-02-2015. The gist of Action Taken Report circulated by the Pension & Pensioners Welfare Ministry was placed in our website. 

Now the new issues as discussed in the SCOVA meeting on 03^rd February, 2015 can be seen in the full minutes of the above meeting. The opinion of AIPRPA CHQ on the issues discussed in the SCOVA meeting will be placed shortly in our website but those who want to download the full minutes of the meeting can click on the Link Below:

http://ccis.nic.in/WriteReadData/CircularPortal/D3/D03ppw/SCOVA_26-FEB-2015.pdf

Core Banking Services of POSB hit by substandard software

POSB BRANCHES FACE FREQUENT BREAK-DOWNS

TECHNICAL PROBLEMS IN FINACLE SOFTWARE OF INFOSYS

PENSIONERS PUT INTO DIFFICULTIES IN WITHDRAWAL OF PENSION FROM SB ACCOUNTS IN POST OFFICES

Once again it is the Pensioners who draw pension from POSB are put into unnecessary trouble and strain as they could not withdraw their pension from the savings bank accounts of Post Offices. Earlier it was the POSB Pensioners who were inordinately denied payment of enhanced amount of FMA in contrast to Banks. Now it is the POSB Pensioners whose SB Accounts could not be operated due to break down of 'Finacle Software' of POSB Computer network on the Pension Day of 28th February, 2015. 

Many Pensioners in different divisions like Salem, where the system failed, returned empty handed without drawing their monthly pension! Ofcourse some divisional heads ordered urgently to resort to manual payment of  pension but not everywhere in time. This caused many senior citizens return their homes empty handed without their pension. This is deplorable. 

The occurrence of break down of Finacle software which is being used by the Postal Savings Bank Counters is frequent. Recently for three days from 19th to 21st February, the entire network numbering 2200 Post Offices in 11 Postal Circles including 94 HPOs + 850 Post Offices under CBS in Tamilnadu Postal Circle collapsed and caused unbearable strain on lakhs of customers. Again on 27th February, the system collapsed causing break down on important day viz., on 28th February. 

The Infosys offered finacle software as well as the internet service provided by Sifi have been reportedly rejected by many banking services due to bad reputation earned by these companies. Still, the Postal Department had opted to tie up with them! The Infosys reportedly behave in a uncared for manner whenever the Postal Officials report their problems. There appears that no high officer is with necessary guts to question the Infosys despite repeated problems are caused by the company's ill-reputed software!

The AIPRPA CHQ issued a call for protest demonstrations on 28th February wherever the pensioners faced problems in withdrawing their pension and to hold press brief exposing the conditions prevailing in the POSB as above. 

We got the feed back that in many divisions the SSPOs ordered manual payment of pension but in some places pensioners returned home without drawing their monthly pension. 

The AIPRPA CHQ is studying the situation and in consultation with the Postal Employees Federations and Unions appropriate measures will be undertaken to draw the attention of the Postal Administration for total remedy. All are requested to send feed back to CHQ about the conditions prevailing in their respective States / Districts either by e-mail or by post. 

K.Ragavendran

General Secretary 

 Press Statement of CITU on Annual Budget 2015-16

CENTRE OF INDIAN TRADE UNIONS

28th February, 2015

Press Statement

ANNUAL BUDGET 2015·16 : DECEPTION AND LOOT ON COMMON PEOPLE

The Annual Budget presented today by Modi Govt is an articulation of anti-people and pro-corporate bias camouflaged by so called pro-people rhetoric. May be it is now the time for them to reciprocate for the total patronage, both in materials and otherwise, from the big-business lobby, both domestic and foreign at the time of last General Elections. But the Irony is that after assuming power at the centre, the NDA combine got more concemed about the donors not for those who voted them to power.

The blatant deception behind the high decibel sound-bite of “Daridranarayana” by the Finance Minister stands exposed by the fact that the Govt sacrificed Rs 8,325 crore on direct tax account by abolishing wealth Tax and reducing the corporate tax for their big-business/corporate bosses while imposing a burden of almost three times on the common people by hiking indirect tax to gain Rs.23,383 crore. Added to this is the huge concessions flowed to the big business lobby including the foreign speculators by absolving them from minimum altemative tax. In fact the total tax concessions given to the rich and big-business (around Rs 51akh crore plus), if not given, could fully wipe out the fiscal deficit of the Govt.

Moreover, the first full-fledged budget of the Modi Govt presented an exercise reflecting a visible contraction in expenditure almost in all fronts authoring a decline of Rs 17145 crore compared to 2014-15. And such decline is reflected in either drastic decline or stagnation of expenditure/allocation of central plan outlay in the sectors like Agriculture, Rural Development, social services, Health & family welfare, women & child development, education, minority affairs etc. And notable is that compared to last full-fledged UPA-II budget in 2013-14 (2014-15 budget was a product of both UPA and NDA) decline in budgetary allocation in all fronts, particularly involving welfare of common people is so drastic that the size of the entire budget gets pruned by around Rs 3 lakh crore. Can such contractionary budget create any momentum for growth?

The allocation for various central govt schemes like ICDS, Mid-day-meal, ASHA etc has been either reduced or kept at the same level. The allocation of only Rs 607 crore for the National Social Security Fund for the 90 crore unorganized sector workers is nothing but a mockery. On the other hand launching of so called Atal Pension Yojana is nothing but the deceptive repackaging of the swabalamban scheme already launched during the UPA regime.

That is why the budget speech remains reckless in painting a picture of growth and prosperity for all in future just to confuse and mislead the common people. Simultaneously fast-track reforms for the big coprorates are being pushed at the cost of common people. In the name of targeting on the needy and avoiding leakages, subsidies on food, fertilizers, fuel and social sector are being drastically cut putting mass of the people in more distress.

Budget speech was eloquent on pushing disinvestment of shares of public sector and this time the Finance Minister also mentioned about “strategic disinvestment” meaning total sell-out. As such target for disinvestment is kept at Rs 69,500 crores. The Minister also announced the decision to corporatize the major ports with the ulterior motive to put them in the track of disinvestment and privatization. Same bent of mind made the Minister to speak about setting up so called autonomous bureau to find professional heads of the public sector banks and also for raising funds through differentiated strategies-a clear blue-print for decontrol and privatization.

The Finance Minister, going beyond his brief has proposed to divert Rs 6000 crore from EPF fund for so called senior citizens’ welfare fund. EPF corpus including the unclaimed amount belongs to subscriber-workers and the Central Board of Trustees of EPF is the custodian of that fund which cannot be appropriated by the Govt for whatever purpose it may be. Similarly proposition to make EPFcontribution optional and aligning the ESI with IRDA schemes are totally retrograde much to the detriment of the interest of the working people and must be opposed and resisted by the working class movement.

A primary glance of voluminous budget papers clearly reveals the total deception being engineered on the people by Modi Govt, which actually initiated an exercise of transferring bonanzas to big-business corporate lobby sucking the common people and the working people in particular. This can no way bring either equitable growth in the economy nor even any relief, not to speak of benefit to the people who actually creates growth and generate flows to national exchequer. Such anti-people and deceptive exercise must be exposed before the common people and fought back resotutety by the united trade union movement.

Press Statement by Confederation on BUDGET 2015-16

CONFEDERATION OF CENTRAL GOVT. EMPLOYEES & WORKERS

1st Floor, North Avenue PO Building, New Delhi – 110001

Dated: 28th Feb. 2015.

PRESS STATEMENT – Budget 2015-16.

The Budget of Modi Government for the year 2015-16 presented today to the Parliament by the Finance Minister, Shri. Arun Jaitley belied all expectations of the poor people who placed their faith in the BJP in the last general elections. It is without doubt an anti-poor and pro-rich Budget. The Corporate Tax has been slashed to please the giant multinational Corporate houses, who really are the rulers in most of the Countries of the world, including ours. The Government has foregone about 8300 crores of direct tax revenue. The burden has been put on to the shoulders of the common working people in the form of indirect taxes to the extent of more than 23000 crores mostly coming from the increased service tax kitty.

Except raising the transport allowance exemption from Rs. 800 to Rs. 1600 p.m which only benefits the higher segment of tax payers among the salaried class, no concession or tax reduction has been given to the wage earners.

By not raising the non-taxable maximum which was needed in view of the high level of inflation, Modi Government has not only squeezed the middle class but also amassed more tax revenue from those class of wage earners, who get dearness compensation. In the process Government continue to ignore several judgements to exempt DA from taxation as DA is considered as a receipt, compensatory in nature. The salaried class of tax payers was constantly demanding the re- introduction of deduction under section 16(1) of the I.T. Act which was in vogue years back. While retaining such concessession and deduction to all other segment of tax payers, the Government continue to penalise wage earners who are really the honest tax payers.

Allocation for every social welfare schemes which targets the deprived section of the society has been reduced in percentage terms, the largest reduction being in the ICDS programme. The tax concessions to the rich and corporate houses are of the order of 5.89 lakh crores. This apart, the wealth tax has been fully abolished.

The Budget 2015-16 has unambiguously declared the intention of the Modi Government to pursue the neo- liberal economic policies vigorously.

K.K.N.Kutty

President

Validity of Self Attested Documents

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

26-February-2015 13:49 IST

Validity of Self Attested Documents

It is a constant endeavour of the Government to simplify procedures by introduction of self certification. For this, all Central Ministries / Departments as well as State Government / UTs have been requested to review the existing requirement in this regard and make provision for self certification, wherever possible. Response from 25 States / UTs has been received indicating action taken by them. Different organizations prescribe different criteria for attestation, subject to statutory and legal provisions. As per its mandate, Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances has been requesting them to adopt self-certification, wherever possible, as a measure of administrative reform. This was stated by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in Prime Minister’s office Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Shri Narendra Kumar Kashyap in the Rajya Sabha today.                                                                                       ***** KSD/PK/BK/RS (Release ID :115958)

Addendum to SB Order No. 2/2015 on Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA)

Addendum to SB Order No. 2/2015 on Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA)

Highlights of the Union Budget 2015 - 16

Highlights of the Union Budget 2015 - 16

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today (28 February 2015) presented the Union Budget 2015-16 in Parliament. Questions related to this budget will surely be asked in upcoming competitive Exams and mainly in Bank Exams. So in this post, we are sharing with you the highlights of the Union Budget 2015-16.

Download as PDF: Click Here

--> No change in personal Income Tax * Health Insurance Premium deduction hiked from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 25,000; for senior citizens to Rs. 30,000

--> Transport allowance exemption hiked to Rs. 1,600, from Rs. 800 per month

--> Additional 2% surcharge on people earning over Rs. 1 cr; to fetch Rs. 9,000 cr

--> Wealth tax abolished

--> Direct Taxes Code (DTC) dropped

--> Rs. 50,000 deduction for contribution to New Pension Scheme

--> To lower Corporate Tax to 25% over next four years

--> GAAR implementation deferred by 2 years to April 2017

--> Service Tax rate hiked to 14%, from 12.36%

--> Tax free bonds for roads, railways, irrigation projects

--> 2015—16 growth between 8—8.5%, double digit growth feasible

--> Retail inflation close to 5% by March, room for monetary policy easing

--> To achieve fiscal deficit of 3% of GDP by 2017—18

--> Fiscal Deficit target 3.9% in 2015—16, 3.5% in 2016—17

--> Revenue Deficit to be 2.8% in 2015—16

--> Current Account Deficit for 2014—15 to be below 1.3% of GDP

--> To introduce comprehensive law to deal with black money

--> Benami property transaction bill to tackle black money transaction in real estate soon

--> 100% deduction for contribution to Swachh Bharat, Clean Ganga projects

--> GST to be put in place by April 1, 2016

--> Internationally competitive direct tax regime to be put in place to incentivise saving

--> Incentivise use of credit, debit cards; disincentivise cash transaction to curb black money.

Here are sector-wise highlights:

TAXATION

* Abolition of Wealth Tax.

* Additional 2% surcharge for the super rich with income of over Rs. 1 crore.

* Rate of corporate tax to be reduced to 25% over next four years.

* No change in tax slabs.

* Total exemption of up to Rs. 4,44,200 can be achieved.

* 100% exemption for contribution to Swachch Bharat, apart from CSR.

* Service tax increased to14 per cent.

AGRICULTURE

* Rs. 25,000 crore for Rural Infrastructure Development Bank.

* Rs. 5,300 crore to support Micro Irrigation Programme.

* Farmers credit - target of 8.5 lakh crore.

INFRASTRUCTURE

* Rs. 70,000 crores to Infrastructure sector.

* Tax-free bonds for projects in rail road and irrigation

* PPP model for infrastructure development to be revitalised and govt. to bear majority of the risk.

* Atal Innovation Mission to be established to draw on expertise of entrepreneurs, and researchers to foster scientific innovations; allocation of Rs. 150 crore.

* Govt. proposes to set up 5 ultra mega power projects, each of 4000MW.

EDUCATION

* AIIMS in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Assam.

* IIT in Karnataka; Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad to be upgraded to IIT.

* PG institute of Horticulture in Amritsar.

* Kerala to have University of Disability Studies

* Centre of film production, animation and gaming to come up in Arunachal Pradesh.

* IIM for Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh.

DEFENCE

* Allocation of Rs. 2,46,726 crore; an increase of 9.87 per cent over last year.

* Focus on Make in India for quick manufacturing of Defence equipment.

WELFARE SCHEMES

* GST and JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile) to improve quality of life and to pass benefits to common man.

* Six crore toilets across the country under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

* MUDRA bank will refinance micro finance orgs. to encourage first generation SC/ST entrepreneurs.

* Housing for all by 2020.

* Upgradation 80,000 secondary schools.

* DBT will be further be expanded from 1 crore to 10.3 crore.

* For the Atal Pension Yojana, govt. will contribute 50% of the premium limited to Rs. 1,000 a year.

* New scheme for physical aids and assisted living devices for people aged over 80 .

* Govt. to use Rs. 9,000 crore unclaimed funds in PPF/EPF for Senior Citizens Fund.

* Rs. 5,000 crore additional allocation for MGNREGA.

* Govt. to create universal social security system for all Indians.

RENEWABLE ENERGY

* Rs. 75 crore for electric cars production.

* Renewable energy target for 2022: 100K MW in solar; 60K MW in wind; 10K MW in biomass and 5K MW in small hydro.

TOURISM

* Develpoment schemes for churches and convents in old Goa; Hampi, Elephanta caves, Forests of Rajasthan, Leh palace, Varanasi , Jallianwala Bagh, Qutb Shahi tombs at Hyderabad to be under the new toursim scheme.

* Visa on Arrival for 150 countries.

FINANCIAL SECTOR

* Forward Markets Commission to be merged with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

* NBFCs registered with the RBI and having asset size of Rs 500 crore and above to be considered as ‘financial institution’ under Sarfaesi Act, 2002, enabling them to fund SME and mid-corporate businesses

* Permanent Establishment norms to be modified to that mere presence of offshore fund managers in the country does not lead to “adverse tax consequences.”

Courtesy in preparing this article: The Hindu

Official Budget Speech: English and Hindi

Benefits to Middle Class Tax Payers in the Budget 2015-16

Benefits to Middle Class Tax Payers in the Budget 2015-16

Payments to the Beneficiaries Including Interest Payment on Deposit in Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme to be Fully Exempt

The Union Minister of Finance Shri Arun Jaitley in his Budget Speech in Lok Sabha today proposed rationalization of various tax exemptions and incentives to reduce tax disputes and improve tax administration. He said, with a view to encourage savings and to promote health care among individual tax payers, it is proposed to increase the limit of reduction of health insurance premium from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 and for senior citizen this limit is increase from Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000. For senior citizen above the age of 80 years, not eligible to take health insurance, deduction is allowed for Rs 30,000 toward medical expenditure.  Deduction limit of Rs 60,000 on expenditure on account of specified diseases is enhanced to Rs 80,000 in the case of senior citizens. Additional deduction of Rs 25,000 is allowed for differently-abled persons, increasing the limit from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000. It is also proposed to increase the limit of deduction from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.25 lakh in case of severe disability.             The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley also proposed to provide that investment in Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme will be eligible for deduction under section 80C of the income-tax and any payment from the scheme shall not be liable to tax. Limit on deduction on account of contribution to a pension fund and the new pension scheme is proposed to be increased from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh.             Additional deduction of Rs 50,000 will be allowed for contribution to the new pension scheme u/s 80 CCD increasing from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh. Details of tax deductions proposed are as follows: ·          Deduction u/s 80C  Rs 1,50,000 ·          Deduction u/s 80CCD Rs    50,000 ·          Deduction on account of interest on house property loan (Self occupied property) Rs 2,00,000 ·          Deduction u/s 80D on health insurance premium Rs    25,000 ·          Exemption of transport allowance Rs    19,200 Total Rs 4,44,200 *** DSM/YSK/SK (Release ID :116169)

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