Finance Minister: Government has no Intention to Privatise Either Railways or Coal India

FM: Government has no Intention to Privatise Either Railways or Coal India

Focus of his Government is to Create More Jobs and Employment Opportunities beside Safeguarding the Existing Jobs and Give Better Environment for Ease of Living for the Common Man

The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley assured the representatives of various Trade Unions that the Government has no intention to privatise either railways or Coal India. He said that focus of his Government is to create more jobs and employment opportunities beside safeguarding the existing jobs and give better environment for ease of living for the common man. The Finance Minister said that’s why we need more money for investment in infrastructure sector in order to create more job opportunities for our youth. He said that our approaches may be different but goal is same.The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley was making the Opening Remarks during his Pre Budget Consultative Meeting with the representatives of Trade Union Groups here today. He said that the Government wants to create better social security system for the labour force working both in organized and unorganized sector.

The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley said that more than 63 percentage of population in our country is in age group of 15-59 years which is defined as India’s “demographic dividend”. The challenge for the country now is in planning and acting towards converting its ‘potential’ into enhanced opportunities of growth by dovetailing the quality of manpower through skill development etc. The Finance Minister mentioned that according to an Indian Labour Report (2007), 300 million youth would enter the labour force by 2025. The main issue to address today is not just providing employment but of increasing the employability of labour force in India. He said that skill deficit among the labour force has been recognized as a major factor that drives a large number towards low income levels and perpetrates inequality. Consequently, the Finance Minister said that the thrust on skill development as well as on ‘Make in India’ are Government’s endeavors to improve employability and generate employment avenues.

The Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley informed the trade union representatives that a cause for concern is that the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of employment decelerated during 2004-05 to 2011-12 to 0.5 per cent, as compared to the 2.8 per cent growth during 1999-2000 to 2004-05. Highlighting the major initiatives of his Government in labour sector, the Finance Minister said that the Apprentice Act 1961 was amended on 18.12.2014 to make it more responsive to industry and youth. He said that the Government is also working affirmatively to bring a single uniform law for MSME sector to ensure their operational efficiency and improve productivity while ensuring job creation at a large scale. The Finance Minister further said that a unified Labour Portal Scheme called ‘Shram Suvidha Portal’ has been launched to for timely redressal of grievances and to create a conducive environment for industrial development. Its main features are : (1) Unique Labour Identification Number (LIN) allotted to around six lakhs units facilitating online registration. (2) Filing of self-certified, simplified single online return instead of 16 separate returns by industries. (3) Transparent Labour Inspection Scheme via computerized system as per risk based criteria and uploading of Inspection Reports within 72 hours by labour inspectors. He said that many States like Rajasthan have also introduced major reforms in three labour legislations viz. the Industrial Disputes Act, the Factories Act and the Contract Labour Act.

The meeting was attended among others by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, , Shri Shaktikanta Dass, Revenue Secretary, Shri Ratan P. Watal, Secretary (Expenditure), Dr Hasmukh Aadhia, Secretary (DFS), Ms. Ardhana Johri, Secretary (Disinvestment), Secretary, Labour, Dr. Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser, Ms. Anita Kapur, Chairperson, CBDT and Shri Kaushal Srivastava, Chairman, CBEC. Among the representatives of Trade Union Groups attended the meeting included Shri Vrijesh Upadhyay (BMS), Shri B.Surendran (BMS), Shri S.Q.Zama (INTUC), Shri K.K.Tiwari, (INTUC), Shri D.L.Sachdev (AITUC), Shri S.D.Tyagi (HMS), Shri Surendra Lal (HMS), Shri Tapan Sen (CITU), Shri R.K.Sharma (AIUTUC), Shri S.P.Tiwary (TUCC), Smt. Jyotiben Macwan (SEWA), Smt. Manali Shah (SEWA), Shri Santosh Roy (AICCTU), Shri M.Shanmugam (LPF), Shri Deepak Jaiswal (NFITU), Shri Shrikant Lachake (NFITU), Ms Panudda Boonpala (ILO) and Shri Ashok Ghosh (UTUC).

Various suggestions were made by representatives of representatives of Trade Union Groups. Major suggestions include more allocation for social security schemes for workers, same wages for contract labour as being paid to regular worker for the same job on the principle of ‘same pay for same work’, regularization of Contract Labour after certain time, to ensure strict compliance of labour laws by MNCs, prior consultation with trade unions before initiating any amendment of any laws affecting directly or indirectly the interests of labour force, and increase in minimum wages based on the decision of the Raptakos Judgement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court .

Other suggestions include to keep prices of food items and other essential items under check, increase in purchasing power of common man, make living easies for them, revival of viable sick industries, post budget interaction with representatives of trade unions, expansion of MGNREGA to all the districts and increase in number of working days to 200, more allocation of funds in budget for social sector including health and education sector and 10% cut in defence expenditure, no privatization of coal, railways and insurance sectors, PF Act be amended to cover every employee/worker under EPF Act, and role of labour market institutions be strengthened among others.

Other suggestions include raise in Corporate tax, impose tax on SEZ and FDIs and use this for enhanced social security expenditures, convergence of all medical schemes and benefits into one scheme for the benefit of unorganized sector workers, support price for tea, rubber, cardamom and other agriculture products , budgetary support for traditional industries like jute, textiles, handloom, silk and carpet, establish universal PDS, and special package to retrieve the closed and abandoned plantations etc. among others.

Source : www.7thpaycommissionnews.in

One Rank One Pension – RDOA will not participate in IESM agitation

OROP – RDOA will not participate in IESM agitation


One Rank One Pension – IESM announces Maha Rally on 1.2.2015 at Jantar Mantar

Message from RDOA is reproduced below:

AGITATION ON 01 FEB 2015

‘Retired Defence Officers’ Association is against the agitation proposed by IESM on 01 Feb 2015 and will not participate in it.

President/Secretary, RDOA
09871351203, 09818039172


Source : www.7thpaycommissionnews.in

Central Government employees should know these rules before PF withdrawal…

Government employees should know these rules before provident fund withdrawal

Government employees should know these rules before provident fund withdrawal, Please read this news paper report:-

Avoid Tax on Provident Fund Withdrawal…

Follow Income Tax Rules before GPF withdrawal…

Click the link to view the news paper report as image…

Source : www.7thpaycommissionnews.in

Venkaiah Naidu addresses CPWD employees through video-conferencing; first time in 160 years

Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu addresses 30,000 CPWD employees through 

video-conferencing; first time in 160 years

Minister urges employees to change image of CPWD through

 a four pronged approach

Stresses on timely completion of projection, 

zero tolerance to corruption, 

transparency and accountability

Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu today reached out to all the 30,000 employees of the public sector construction major Central Public Works Department (CPWD), sharing his concerns over the functioning of the organization and urging them for a change over in the public perception about it. For the first time in the history of the 160 year old CPWD, Shri Naidu addressed all its employees at 33 locations in the country through video-conferencing and live web streaming.

Shri Venkaiah Naidu insisted that CPWD needs to achieve a makeover in its working and public perception through timely completion of projects, zero tolerance to corruption, transparency and accountability. During the interaction that lasted over an hour, Shri Naidu directed top brass and all the employees of CPWD to ensure:

1.Payments are made from April, 2015 to contractors only after social and third party audit of works costing more than Rs.5.00 cr;

2.Only Online payments by all the 274 divisions from April, 2015 which is now being done by half of them;

3.Introduction of Bio-metric attendance markers in all the circle and field units by December,2015; 4.All project managers to reside at the site of work;

5.All cases of pending promotions to be cleared by February this year.

Shri Venkaiah Naidu noted that Prime Minister’s suggestion of enhancing ‘Skills, Speed and Scale’ is most suited to CPWD given its scale of operations, skills required and speedy delivery of services and should be adopted forthwith to survive the growing competition.

The Minister noted that as a part of ongoing efforts to streamline functioning of CPWD all relevant information about 7,000 projects costing over Rs.30,000 cr has been placed in public domain. He assured the employees that CPWD and the Ministry would do the needful to create better working conditions of its employees.

Informing them that he will interact with all of them once in three months, Shri Naidu urged them to rise to the occasion collectively and assured them there would not be any interference in their working.

Shri Venkaiah Naidu interacted with senior officers and others from 15 locations seeking their views on working conditions, areas of improvement required, progress of various works, changed brought about during the last eight months etc.

Shri Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary(UD), Shri B.B.Bhatia, DG, CPWD, Shri Praveen Prakash, Joint Secretary, Ministry of UD and other senior officials participated in the interaction session.

Source : www.7thpaycommissionnews.in

Foreign tours, Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG and Sukanya Samridhhi Account - Finmin Orders Jan 2015

Finmin Orders Jan 2015 – Foreign tours, Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG and Sukanya Samridhhi Account

The Finance Ministry has issued some important orders today on its portal, the same is reproduced and given below for your kind information…

1. Foreign tours/travels as part of Training Programmes — approval of Screening Committee of Secretaries (SCOS).

2. Direct Benefit Transfer / Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG (DBTL) — payment of Commission to Banks.

3. Launch of scheme for Girl Child named “Sukanya Samridhhi Account’ by Hon’ble Prime Minister

No. 7(1)IE.Coord/2014

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Expenditure

North Block, New Delhi

25th November 2014

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Foreign tours/travels as part of Training Programmes — approval of Screening Committee of Secretaries (SCOS).

Instructions have been issued by this Department from time to time on the need to curtail expenditure on foreign travel. In recent months it has been observed that Ministries/Departments have been proposing Foreign Study Tours (FSTs) of large delegations of officers as a part of training programmes. In keeping with the Government’s drive on economy and rationalization of expenditure and to have an objective assessment of such FSTs, it has been decided that prior approval of the Screening Committee of Secretaries would be required for all FSTs of delegations exceeding 5 members (irrespective of level/rank of officers), where Government of India is funding such tours and which are part of career training programme(s)

or stand alone tours or otherwise.

2. This has the approval of Cabinet Secretary.

sd/-

(N. Radhakrishnan)

Director(E.Coord)

Direct Benefit Transfer / Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG (DBTL) — payment of Commission to Banks

F.No.32 (07)/PF-II/2011(VoI.II)

Ministry of Finance

Department of Expenditure

(PF-II Division)

North Block, New Delhi

Dated: the 16th of January, 2015

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Direct Benefit Transfer / Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG (DBTL) — payment of Commission to Banks.

The issues relating to the payment of appropriate commission with respect to payments made under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)/Direct Benefit Transfer in LPG (DBTL) schemes of the Government have been under active consideration of the Government for some time. The matter has been examined in detail, and in supersession of earlier OMs issued in this regard, it has been decided that:

(i) For urban based DBT schemes like DBTL, the transaction cost may be paid at the NEFT rate as per the extant RBI circular or the APB rate as per the extant NPCI circular (as applicable). The ‘on us and “off-us distinction, wherever it exists, should be maintained on the basis of actuals.

(ii) For rural based DBT schemes like pensions, NREGA, pre-matric scholarship, maternity benefits etc. where a large number of transactions are likely to be through the Banking Correspondents, the transaction charges may be paid @ 1% subject to an upper limit of Rs.10 per transaction, in addition to what is required to be paid vide (I) above.

(iii) The transaction cost may be paid at the time of credit of benefit transfer into the accounts of beneficiaries from the same budget line from which the respective scheme funds / benefits are being transferred.

(iv) This OM will come into immediate effect and may be reviewed from time to time.

2. This issues with the approval of the Finance Minister.

sd/-

(Chittaranj Dash)

Director (PF. II)

Launch of scheme for Girl Child named “Sukanya Samridhhi Account’ by Hon’ble Prime Minister — rate of interest reg.

IMMEDIATE

F. No.2/3/2014.NS-II

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Departnìent of Economic Affairs

236, North Block, New Delhi-110001

Dated the 20th January, 2015

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Launch of scheme for Girl Child named “Sukanya Samridhhi Account’ by Hon’ble Prime Minister — rate of interest reg.

In compliance of announcement by Finance Minister in his Budget Speech 2014-15 the Government of India has introduced a new scheme named “Sukanya Samriddhi Account” vide Notification No.GSR No.863 (E) dated 2nd December, 2014. It has been decided to allow 9.1% rate of interest on investments in the scheme during the financial year 2014-15.

This has the approval of Union Finance Minister.

sd/-

Under Secretary to the Govt of India

Source : www.7thpaycommissionnews.in

Guidelines on prescribing Educational Qualifications and experience for recruitment of various post - DOPT Order

Guidelines on prescribing Educational Qualifications and requisite experience in respect of various posts, Pay Band & Grade Pay/ Pay Scale for appointment by Direct Recruitment

No.AB.14017/ 27/20 14-Estt.(RR)

Government of India

Ministry of Personnel P.G.& Pensions

Department of Personnel & Training

North Block, New Delhi

Dated: 20.1.2015

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: – Guidelines for Educational Qualifications and experience for framing/amendment of Recruitment Rules.

Department of Personnel & Training vide 0M. No. AB. 14017/48/2010- Estt (RR) dated 31st December, 2010 have issued Guidelines on framing/amendment/relaxation of Recruitment Rules and Service Rules.

2. In continuation to the above, the following Guidelines on prescribing Educational Qualifications and requisite experience in respect of various posts, Pay Band & Grade Pay/ Pay Scale for appointment by Direct Recruitment or deputation depending upon the nature of functions and duties are being issued. These Guidelines may be adopted by the Ministries/ Departments as guide while framing Recruitment Rules for various posts. A draft OM to this effect is annexed herewith.

3. Ministries/ Departments are, therefore, requested to offer their comments on the proposed O.M positively by 20.2.2015

Sd/-

(Mukta Goel)

Director (E-I)

Source: www.7thpaycommissionnews.in