7th Pay Commission: Government took this big decision for central employees and pensioners, will get full benefit

Retired central government employees will now be able to place their Pension Payment Order (PPO) in ‘DigiLocker’. The Central Government has validated the e-copy of the pensioners if they do not have the original copy of the PPO. Retiring employees get pension only when this number is issued by the government.

The Pension and Pensioners Welfare Department observed that many pensioners have lost the original copy of their PPO over time, after which they face difficulties in doing pension related tasks. Employees retiring in the Corona crisis also had trouble and delay in getting the original copy of the PPO. Keeping all these things in mind, this decision of the government is going to bring huge benefits to the retiring employees and pensioners.

The Ministry of Public Grievances and Pensions has said in a statement that it will no longer be mandatory to give physical copies of PPOs to pensioners. It has been decided to integrate Electronic Pension Payment Order (e-PPO) with DigiLocker.

Earlier, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has issued operational guidelines for the National Pension Scheme (NPS) Tier-II Saver Scheme. The guidelines state that any central government employee who contributes to NPS can open an additional pension account under the scheme.

Through this, he can avail more pension after retirement. In this way, the central employees can now operate three accounts under this scheme simultaneously. The first Tier-I account which is mandatory is the pension account, the second Tier-II which has no restrictions on withdrawals and no tax benefit.