No plan to re-introduce Rs. 1,000 note: Shaktikanta Das

Complaints of cash shortages at ATMs are being addressed, says the Economic Affairs Secretary

There is no plan to re-introduce the Rs. 1,000 note and the focus is on increasing the production and supply of Rs. 500 and lower denomination currency, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das tweeted on Wednesday.

“Complaints of cash out in ATMs being addressed. Request everyone to draw the cash they actually require. Overdrawal by some deprives others,” he said in another tweet.

Last week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the remonetisation situation with regard to replenishing the scrapped currency was “almost normal” now and the Reserve Bank of India was monitoring the supply on a daily basis.

The government announced the withdrawal of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes on November 8, 2016, with the aim to check black money, counterfeit notes and terror financing.

PTI News

PS Gr. B Examination : High Court Madras case

WP No. 44421/16 filed at High Court Madras will come up for hearing on 21/2/2017. Department has already filed counter reply. Declaration of result is stayed till 22/2/2017.

100th Birth Anniversary of John F. Kannedy

US Postal Service will issue a commemorative postage stamp making the 100th Anniversary of John F. Kannedy. 

John F. Kennedy was a known fan of writing letters, whether it be to his father Joseph Kennedy or Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. And now, in honor of his 100th birthday, the U.S. Postal Service is unveiling a new postage stamp commemorating the 35th president.

The stamp, which will be displayed during a ceremony at Boston's John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on Monday, showcases a 1960 photo of the president campaigning in Seattle taken by photojournalist Ted Spiegel. Alongside the stamp is an illustration of Kennedy from a 1970 oil painting by artist Aaron Shikler — an American artist known for his portraits of politicians.

John F. Kennedy commemorated on U.S. Postal Service Forever stamp. USPS

USPS announced the stamp in early January, adding that it will be available for purchase at post offices across the country on Feb. 21. On Jan. 22, the price of stamps increased from 47 cents to 49 cents.

John F. Kennedy's grandson Jack Schlossberg said in a release that he is honored that a new postal stamp commemorates his grandfather, whose presidency was cut short when he was assassinated in 1963 at the age of 46.

"As we mark the centennial of his birth, we hope that the stamp will be an enduring symbol of President Kennedy's call for service, innovation, and inclusion, and his belief that we each have the power to make this world a better place," Schlossberg said.

Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy shakes hands with a crowd in Seattle following his speech on the first day of his presidential campaign. Ted Spiegel / Corbis via Getty Images

As president, Kennedy created the Peace Corps, navigated the Cuban Missile Crisis and is famously remembered for telling Americans during his inauguration speech, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." He was the youngest person and first Catholic to be elected president.

The USPS "forever stamps" also made headlines Thursday when a new Oscar De la Renta edition was unveiled at a ceremony that former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton attended, along with NYC Mayor Michael Boomberg and Vogue editor Anna Wintour. The Dominican-American designer was praised by Clinton, who said that the deceased De la Renta represented a loving America "every single day." 

Special Cover on 30th All India Postal Basketball Tournament 2016-17 – 10th February 2017.

The Gujarat Circle Postal Sports Board hosted the 30th All India Postal Basketball Tournament 2016-17 from 7 to 10th February at the Postal Training Centre Basketball ground in Vadodara. Total six teams consisting of 85 players and officials from different parts of the country participated in the tournament. After a gap of nearly 13 years Vadodara hosted the Basketball Tournament. Basketball teams from Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Tamilnadu, West Bengal and Odisha participated in the Basketball championship tournament. Last year 29th All India Postal Basketball Tournament was held in Kolkata where West Bengal team was the champion. Basketball team of Odisha stood runner up and team of Gujarat came third.

A Special Cover was released by Gujarat Postal Circle on 10th February 2017 to commemorate 30th All India Postal Basketball Tournament 2016-17 at Postal Training Centre, Vadodara by Chief Postmaster General, Gujarat Circle, Shri S. R. Meena, Postmaster General, Vadodara Region, Shri Vineet Mathur, Director, Postal Training Centre, Mrs. Suchita A. Joshi and Secretary, Baroda Philatelic Society, Timir R. Shah. Special Cover and Cancellation are designed by Shri Prashant Pandya.

Circle Conference : Uttarakhand Circle

Circle Conference of Uttarakhand Circle was held at Dehradun on 19th February 2017 and following office bearers are elected unanimously for the term 2017-19. Shri V. K. Singh, DPS, Dehradun attended as Chief Guest. 

1) President              : Shri Lalit Joshi, ADPS-I o/o the CPMG, Dehradun.

2) Circle Secretary     : Shri Deepak Sharma, ASP East Sub Division, Dehradun.

3) Treasurer              : Shri Rajeev Kumar, IP (Trg) o/o the CPMG, Dehrarun.

CHQ congratulate the above officer bearers and their entire team. 

Recruitment Rules of Indian Postal Service, Group 'A'

To view Gazette Notification dated 20th June 2016, please CLICK HERE. 

Cash withdrawal weekly limit increased to 50,000

From:

FSI(CBS)Team,CEPT<cbs-cept@indiapost.gov.incbs-cept@indiapost.gov.in

>

Date: 20 February 2017 at 09:55

Subject: Important : Cash withdrawal weekly limit increased to 50,000/-.

Dear SPOC,

Weekly cash withdrawal limit is increased to 50,000/-

This is for favour of information

Thanks & regards,

CEPT - FSI Team

India, Canada to issue joint postage stamp

This September, the postal departments of India and Canada will issue their first-ever joint postage stamps. An announcement to this effect was made after a meeting between department of posts Secretary B V Sudhakar and Canada Post President Deepak Chopra, who is a Canadian of Indian descent.

These stamps will be in celebration of Diwali and of Canada’s 150th anniversary, according to a statement released by Canada Post. Chopra said that “not only will it represent our country’s proud diversity, it will celebrate the close bond between both countries.”

“Issuing a joint stamp celebrating Diwali is a meaningful way to recognise the importance of this relationship to both countries,” Sudhakar added.

Both India and Canada will design a stamp each, and both stamps will be released simultaneously. Canada Post director of stamp services Jim Phillips said both versions of the stamps will be available in both nations. Phillips said they plan to release the stamps around a month ahead of Diwali so that it allows people enough “time to hear about them, buy them and use them”.

These stamps will be for general circulation and will be valid for a decade.

 While the idea of releasing a permanent Diwali stamp in Canada had been “percolating for some time”, Phillips said Canada Post was thrilled to “invite India Post into it in terms of cooperation.”

This is not Canada’s first Diwali stamp — in 2011, two such stamps were issued but those were not for mass circulation and are now no longer available. The stamps out in September, though, “will be, like any other stamp” and will become a permanent fixture on Canadian mail.

Source : http://m.hindustantimes.com

GS visit to Directorate

GS and CHQ Treasurer visited Directorate on 16-2-2017 and 17-2-2017 and met with senior officers and discussed the following cases with them.

1.   Issue of final combined seniority list of Inspector Posts cadre for the year 2001 and 2002 and remaining years.

Directorate vide memo No. 7-1/2015-SPB-II dated 17/5/2016 has circulated draft All India combined seniority list of Inspector Posts for the year 2001 and 2002 and requested to intimate discrepancies noticed therein. Thereafter Directorate vide Memo No. 7-1/2015-SPB-II dated 09th June 2016 has again circulated revised seniority list to all HOCs with a direction to circulate among all the candidates for inviting comments/grievances. In response to above letters huge number of representations are said to have been received at Directorate and most of them are examined at SPB Division in the light of DoPT OM No. 28011/6/76-Estt (D) dated 24.6.1978 and 20011/8/2012-Estt (D) dated 04-03-2014. Now, file is under preparation for seeking clarification from DoPT. After receipt of clarification from DoPT, final seniority list will be circulated and thereafter on the same line, remaining years seniority lists will be prepared.

2.   Holding of supplementary DPC for promotion to the cadre of PS Gr. B for the year 2016-17.

Directorate vide Memo No. 9-14/2016-SPG dated 09-12-2016 has appointed 105 Inspector Line Officers on regular basis in PS Gr. B cadre, but few circles have yet not implemented orders. Further few circles have not submitted the report on joining as well declination by the promote officers to SPG section of Directorate. Till date only 5 declinations are said to be received from officers. Directorate is going to remind all HoCs soon to submit clear report on joining / declination of officers and thereafter supplementary DPC will be convened.

3.   Issue of revised Recruitment Rules for the post of Assistant Manager in MMS and filling up of vacant post of Dy. Manager MMS.

RRs are said to finalised. Two posts of Dy. Manager MMS are vacant and it will be filed up soon.

4.   Inter Circle Rule 38 transfer cases of Inspector Posts cadre.

Most of the cases settled. Due to non availability of vacancies in few circles, the requests of the candidates are pending and these will be considered when vacancy occurs.  The individual candidate/s may take up issue through proper channel to Directorate. Their cases will be considered on availability of vacancies in the circle.

5.   Holding of periodical meeting with Hon’ble Secretary (Posts).

Agenda already submitted by Association. Reports from DDG (P) and Sr. DDG (Vig) awaited. Asked to write reminder.

6.   Clerical Assistance to Sub Divisional Head.

SPG Division has called for report from Establishment Division. The matter is under examination at Establishment Division.

7.   Declaration of result of Inspector Posts examination for the vacancy year 2015-16.

LDCE for promotion to the cadre of Inspector Posts (66.66%) departmental quota for the year 2015-16 was held on 22 and 23-10-2016 for 189 vacancies (OC-155, SC-26 and ST-8). The provisional key of the question papers was already published by the Department on India Post website and representation thereon if any was called for from candidates till 6-1-2017. Huge quantity of representations are said to be received from candidates. Department have already formed committee to examine all the representations received from candidates. The report from committee is yet to receive at Directorate. FINAL KEY will be expected thereafter. To clear all these exercise, minimum one month’s time is required.

8.   Declaration of result of PS Gr. ‘B’ examination for the vacancy year 2012-13 to 2015-16.

Many representations are received thereon and all these are under examination. To examine the representations received from candidates, department is going to form a committee who will examine the representations and give final report to Department. Thereafter FINAL KEY will be published on department’s website. It is told that there are many CAT cases registered at various benches and they stayed declaration of results till outcome. In one case stay is said to be granted till April 2017.

9.   DPC for holding of JTS Gr. A promotion for the year 2016-17 and repatriation thereof.

UPSC has raised query and same is being replied soon by the department. Earlier it was told that there were 11 vacancies but now there is chance to increase. The officers who have completed two years of service will only get repatriation to his/her parent circle. Spouse category cases are also said to be considered this time.

Many other pending cases related to cadre are discussed with the concerned officers. The case of cadre restructuring is also discussed at length and the officers have shown positive to our proposed proposal. The proposal is being submitted soon.

Contempt Petition regarding upgradation of Grade Pay of Inspector Posts w.e.f 01.01.2006 ..... Updates

All our members are well aware that Association has filed Contempt Petition bearing No. C.P/180/00137/2016 before Hon'ble CAT Ernakulam Bench in OA No.  180/00289/2013 regarding up-gradation of Grade Pay of Inspector Posts w.e.f 01.01.2006.

The copy of Affidavit filed by Mr  Abhay N Sahay (the representative of respondent) Under Secretary in the Implementation Cell,  Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance in reply to our Associations Contempt Petition and thereafter copy of Affidavit filed by Association (Petitioners/Applicants) are placed herewith for kind information of members.  In this contempt petition the petitioners are Shri Vilas Ingale GS, Shri Permanand Kumar ASP PMU Postal Directorate and Shri Niranjan Kumarof, IP CEPT Mysore. On behalf all petitioners, Shri Niranjan Kumar who is 3rd petitioner has permitted to file contempt petition. CHQ has to continue fight till to achieve the desired goal and therefore Association need money. 

It is fact that all IP/ASPs and Offg. PS 'B' officers took good amount of arrears of 7CPC and many assured that they will willingly donate the amount to CHQ, but response is very very poor. 

Now-a-days, everyone is asking about the progress of cadre restructuring. Except few, no one is helping CHQ. Many IPs/ASPs has not enrolled them self as member of Association and not paid monthly subscriptions years together and therefore they have not right to ask any question to CHQ and to its members.

The Association has already appealed to all members to donate some money (not less than Rs.1000/-) to CHQ to strengthen the fund but response was very poor. It is therefore requested to all members to credit the amount voluntarily in the following account and send photocopy of pay-in-slip on whatsApp to GS on his No. 09869417961 with name, designation and office address to enable him to publish on the CHQ blog. There is no completion to any body. 

         

Name of the account holder  : Vilas S. Ingale and Yadagiri G. Nyalapelli

SB Account No.                         : 3049419758 

Name of PO                               : Dadar HO, Mumbai 400014

SOL No.                                     : 40001400

I hope this time good response will receive to this appeal.

Payment of Incentive for seeding of Aadhaar Number in POSB accounts held by beneficiaries of MGNREGA/Other Social Security Schemes.

Difference between Tier 1 and Tier 2 Account in New Pension Scheme (NPS)

What is the difference between Tier 1 and Tier 2 Account in NPS? Many Government employees or others subscribed to NPS. However, the majority of them do not know what is the meaning and difference of Tier 1 and Tier 2 Accounts of NPS.

Let us first brief about NPS.

NPS or New Pension Scheme is a retirement product launched by Government of India. It is managed by PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority). This product helps you to create retirement corpus.

Any citizen of India (whether resident or NRI) can invest in this scheme. The age of the subscriber must be within 18-60 years of age. However, an individual of unsound mind or existing members of NPS are not allowed to open new account.

Therefore, an individual can open only ONE NPS account.

How to open NPS Account?

You have to fill the application form and provide the relevant KYC documents at your nearest POP-PS (You will find the list in PFRDA portal).

However, if you want to open new Tier 2 account, then the process is different. You have to approach POP-PS with copy of PRAN (Permanent Retirement Account Number) and Tier 2 activation form.

The subscriber has to make the first contribution while opening the account. Minimum contribution for Tier 1 is Rs.500 and Rs.1, 000 for Tier 2.

Note-Now you can open NPS account online and also contribution can be made it online through eNPS portal. Refer my latest post on the same “eNPS – How open and invest in NPS account online?“.

What are the investment choices?

Asset Class E-Invests predominantly in the equity market. You may say high return and high risk.

Asset Class C-Invests in fixed income instruments other than Government Securities. Risk is medium in this category.

Asset Class G-Invests in Government Securities. So lower risk and lower return.

Along with that, you have two different options to choose regarding allocation.

Active Choice-You have the option to choose your investment among E, C or G asset classes. However, if you opted for E asset class, then the maximum equity exposure is 50% only.

Auto Choice-If you don’t want to take active part in switching asset class, then PFRDA will do it according to your age. It is predefined.

You can change both scheme preference and investment choices at any point of time. But it is allowed only once in a year.

Please remember that there is no ASSURED RETURN from NPS.

Your retirement fund will be managed by fund managers appointed by PFRDA. Currently there are six fund managers. They are as below.

ICICI Prudential Pension Funds Management Company Limited, Kotak Mahindra Pension Fund Limited, Reliance Capital Pension Fund Limited, SBI Pension Funds Limited, UTI Retirement Solutions Limited, and Annuity Service Provider (ASP).

You can change your fund manager at any point of time. This change is allowed only one time in a year.

Along with that, PFRDA tied with IRDA approved Life Insurance companies to pay the pension once the subscriber reaches 60 years of age. They are as below.

Life Insurance Corporation of India, SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd., ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Reliance Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

Following conditions apply:

Subscriber is not covered under employer assisted retirement benefit scheme and also not covered by social security schemes under any of the following laws:

Employee Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provision Act, 1952

The Coal Mines Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provision Act, 1948

The Seamen’s Provident Fund Act, 1966

The Assam Tea Plantation Provident Fund and Pension Fund Scheme Act, 1955

The Jammu & Kashmir Employee Provident Fund Act, 1961

Subscriber contribution in NPS is minimum Rs. 1000 and maximum Rs.12000 per annum, for both Tier1 and Tier II taken together, provided subscriber makes minimum contribution of Rs.1000 per annum to his Tier 1 account

Based on the limitations mentioned above, I think most people reading this blog will be ineligible.

How to exit from NPS?

Once you attain the age of 60 years, you can withdraw up to 60% of accumulation as lump sum and rest 40% will be converted into pension.

If you want to exit from NPS before 60 years of age, then you are allowed to withdraw only 20% accumulated amount. You have to buy a pension product with that 80% fund.

However, in case the death of the subscriber, a nominee is allowed to withdraw 100% of NPS.

I wrote a post on recent changes about new withdrawal of exit rules of NPS. Refer below post.

National Pension System (NPS)-New Partial Withdrawal and Exit Rules

This is the brief about NPS.

Let us come back to the main purpose of this post. I tried to put it the difference in below image.

Note-

-As per recent PFRDA circular dated 8th August, 2016, the minimum contribution in Tier 1 Account is now reduced to Rs.1,000 a year. There will be no minimum investment limit for Tier 2 account (Earlier, it was Rs.250). Also you no need to maintain the minimum balance in Tier 2 account (Earlier, it was Rs.2,ooo).

-From Budget 2016, the 40% withdrawal at the time of your retirement from NPS will be tax-free. Rest 60% of the corpus will be treated taxable income as per old rules. Hope this above table cleared your doubts. 

Conclusion-You notice that when it comes to taxation, NPS is one of the worst products. Everybody concentrating on the tax benefits of NPS while investing. However, they forget the tax issues at retirement or at withdrawal. Along with that, liquidity is an issue with NPS. For Government employees and corporate employees, no option but to invest.

Cabinet okays merger of SBI, 5 associate banks

New Delhi, Feb 15 (PTI) Seeking to create a global-sized bank, the Cabinet on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the merger plan of SBI and its five associates, a step aimed at strengthening the banking sector through consolidation of public banks.

However, no decision was taken on the proposal to also merge the Bharatiya Mahila Bank with SBI.

The merger is likely to result in recurring savings, estimated at more than Rs 1,000 crore in the first year, through a combination of enhanced operational efficiency and reduced cost of funds, read an official statement.

"The Cabinet had earlier in-principle cleared the (merger) proposal. It had gone to the boards of various banks which have granted the approvals. The recommendations of the boards were considered today and the Cabinet cleared the proposal," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in a post-Cabinet briefing.

The associate banks which will be merged with SBI are State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH).

"With this merger, the SBI, with all these five subsidiaries merging in it, will also become a very large bank, not merely from a domestic point of view but actually a global player in its very size," the minister said after the Cabinet meeting.

It will, Jaitley added, "certainly lead to far greater efficiency. It will lead to synergy of operations within these banks... it will cut down the cost of operations. The cost of funds itself will come down".

The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also approved the introduction of a Bill in Parliament to repeal the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959, and the State Bank of Hyderabad Act, 1956.

The acquisition of subsidiary banks of SBI is "an important step towards strengthening the banking sector through consolidation of public sector banks. It is in pursuance of the Indradhanush action plan of the government and is expected to strengthen the banking sector and improve its efficiency and profitability", the release added.

With the merger of all the five associates, SBI is expected to become a lender of global proportions with an asset base of Rs 37 trillion (Rs 37 lakh crore) or over USD 555 billion, 22,500 branches and 58,000 ATMs. It will have over 50 crore customers.

Cash withdrawal limit week from 17.02.2017 to 23.02.2017, is configured

Cash withdrawal limit week from 17.02.2017 to 23.02.2017, is configured

From 20.02.2017 onwards, withdrawal limit for cash (including ATM withdrawals) will be increased from 24,000 to 50,000 

If customers withdraw 24, 000 before 20th Feb, remaining 26,000 can be withdrawn from 20th Feb to 23rd Feb 2017.

CEPT - FSI Team

Inspection Quarters inaugurated in Race Course Post Office, Vadodara

Commemorative Postage Stamps on “Headgears of India" released on 10.02.2017.

Notification under Section 7 of Aadhaar Act, 2016 for identified schemes of DoPT

To view Gazette notification dated 15-2-2017, please CLICK HERE. 

Continuance in ad-hoc promotion in Junior Administrative Grade of IPOS Group 'A'

To view Directorate memo No. 2-8/2015-SPG dated 16-02-2017, please CLICK HERE. 

Final Seniority List of Stenographer Grade-I as on 01.01.2011

To view Directorate Memo No. 05-04/2016-SPB-I dated 15.02.2017, please CLICK HERE. 

Pending issues reminded to Secretary (Posts)