Defence Ministry urges pensioners to complete annual identification by May 25

New Delhi [India], May 18 (ANI): Defence Ministry on Wednesday requested defence pensioners who are yet to complete their annual identification/life certification to complete the process by May 25, 2022, to ensure smooth processing of monthly pension, said the Ministry.
Upon verification of data received as of May 17, 2022, it has been noticed that 43,774 pensioners who have been migrated to System for Pension Administration - Rakshasa (SPARSH) have not completed their annual identification, neither online nor through their respective banks by November 2021, added the Ministry.
Earlier on May 4, the Defence Ministry had said that pensions to 58,275 defence pensioners were delayed this month as their banks could not confirm their identification by April 30.
Banks (the previous Pension Disbursing Agency) could not confirm identification for 58,275 pensioners and neither was their identification received directly on SPARSH by the time of monthly closing. Hence, these pensioners were not paid their April pension by April 30, 2022, read a Defence Ministry statement.
In order to avoid hardship for such pensioners, a one-time special waiver has been accorded to these 58,275 pensioners to get their identification done by May 25, 2022.
"During the processing of pensions for the month of April 2022, it came to light that the annual identification of around 3.3 lakh pensioners was not updated. A list was shared with all Pension Disbursing Banks to share updated identification data if any, and as a result identification status of more than 2.65 lakh pensioners was updated on SPARSH by April 25, 2022, leading to the successful processing of pension for all these pensioners", Defence Ministry statement had read.
"The pension for the month of April 2022 has now been processed and the pension is due to be credited by end-of-day on May 04, 2022. All such pensioners are being informed about pending annual identification through SMS and email", the Defence Ministry had said.
Banks have to annually conduct identification of defence pensioners by November. Due to the COVID situation, the Government had extended the window for annual identification due on November 30, 2021, up to March 31, 2022. Accordingly, SPARSH has been successfully disbursing monthly pensions to over five lakh pensioners, including 4.47 lakh pensioners who migrated from the legacy system to SPARSH (post 01.01.2016 retirees) up to March 31, 2022.
For performing identification pensioners are requested to approach the nearest CSC (https://findmycsc.nic.in/) and get their annual identification updated through Jeevan Pramaan using the SPARSH PPO number and selecting PDA as SPARSH PCDA (P).
The Ministry of Defence, including the Defence Accounts Department, is undergoing a major transformation with an aim to bring transparency and efficiency to various processes and procedures, stated the Ministry.
With the broader agenda of digitisation and modernisation of legacy systems, the System for Pension Administration (Raksha) (SPARSH) as an initiative of the Ministry of Defence was envisaged to provide a comprehensive solution to the administration of pension to the defence pensioners in line with the Government's vision of Digital India, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and Minimum Government, Maximum Governance, said Defence Ministry. (ANI)