Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO)

Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) was set up as an administrative unit of the Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure and started functioning w.e.f. 1st January, 1990 under the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) for payment of pensions to Central Government Civil Pensioners and other Pensioner’s Viz; pension of Ex. President of India, Ex-Vice President of India, Ex-Members of Parliaments etc. . Secretary (Expenditure) is the Chief Accounting Authority of the Department of Expenditure in the Ministry of Finance. CPAO is an attached office of the Department of Expenditure in the Ministry of Finance. Secretary (Expenditure) discharges his functions with the assistance of Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser and Chief Controller (Pensions). The Chief Controller (Pensions) reports to Controller General of Accounts through Additional Controller General of Accounts. Functions of CPAO

• Administering the ‘Scheme for payment of Pension to Central Government Civil Pensioners by Authorized Banks (both Public Sector and some Private Sector Banks)’
• Issue of Special Seal Authorities (SSAs) authorizing payment of pension in fresh as well as revision of pension cases to the CPPCs (Centralized Pension Processing Centres) of pension disbursing banks
• Management of pension grant and its budgeting and accounting thereof.
• Internal Audit of CPPCs of Pension Disbursing Banks
• Maintaining Data Bank of Central Civil Pensioners & other pensioners’
• Handling the grievances of Central Civil Pensioners and other pensioners’
• Enabling payment of provisional pension to the Pensioners/Family Pensioners covered under National Pension System (NPS) (as an interim arrangement)
• Coordinating with Ministries/Departments/ Ministry of Finance and DP&PW on all matters related to pension payments, accounting & budgeting Processing of Pension Authorization

The Process of Pension authorization and payment involves a five-stage flow of pension papers:

• Pensioners
• Head of Office/Pension Sanctioning Authority
• PAOs of Ministries/Departments concerned
• Central Pension Accounting Office
• Centralized Pension Processing Centre/Banks

• The process starts with the pensioner filling up the pension forms online on Bhavishya Portal (developed and maintained by Department of Pensions and Pensioners Welfare) and sends it to the Head of Office for necessary action.
• The head of office checks the pension forms and calculates pension and pensionary benefits of the pensioner and sends it to the PAO (Pension Module of PFMS. The PAO can view all these information on PFMS.
• PAO examines the pension and pensionary benefits calculation carried out by the Head of Office and prepares Pension Payment Order (PPO) both in physical as well electronic form (e-PPO). PAO sends the PPO (physical as well as e-PPO) along with other necessary documents like letter of undertaking by the pensioner etc. to CPAO (PARAS) for further necessary action. CPAO examines the PPO along with the pension papers sent by the PAO and thereafter processes the pension case in PARAS. CPAO issues Special Seal Authority in physical as well as electronic form (e-SSA) and sends it along with all the documents to Banks/CPPCs for making pension payments.
• Banks/CPPCs using their own pension software’s start making payment of pension (through) their Core Banking System) into pensioners account after incorporating all the details received from CPAO.
• If any discrepancy is found by the PAO/CPAO/Banks which requires rectification, the papers are sent back for necessary correction to Head of Office/PAO/CPAO as the case may be.

Online Pensioners’ Grievance Redressal Mechanism and Helpdesk:

Web Responsive Pensioners’ Service (WRPS):-

• WRPS provides various services including Pension & Payment Information, Online Pension Process Tracking, online Grievance Registration & Tracking to the pensioners and also provides dashboards for Ministries/Departments and Banks to strengthen their pension processing and grievance redressal monitoring system.
• Pensioners/Family Pensioners can register on the CPAO website by providing PPO number, Date of Birth & Date of Retirement/Date of Death etc.
• Pensioners’ can view last 24 Months pension Payments Details and Item wise breakup of Pension Payments made by the Banks. Pensioners can also lodge their grievances online and track status through this portal.
• CPAO handles the grievances received through WRPS. If the grievance is related to CPAO, necessary action is taken and the pensioner is informed accordingly. In case, the grievance requires action to be taken by Banks or by the PAO/HOO of the respective Ministry/Department, it is transferred to them. CPAO closely monitors and follows up with the Banks and respective Ministries/Departments for speedy resolution of the pensioners’ grievances. After getting the required information of action taken by the Banks or respective Ministries/Departments, the pensioners’ grievance is disposed of on WRPS.
• WRPS also provides facility to download SSAs/ Revision orders issued by CPAO to the pensioners. All the Revision and amendment Special Seal Authorities can be downloaded through this facility.
• SMS is sent to the pensioners’ mobile phone when the pensioner requests for information or lodges a grievance to CPAO through WRPS and also when the same is disposed of.

IT & other important initiatives:-

• CPAO has a fully functional Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) and a pensioner can lodge grievance through telephone on Toll Free No. 1800-11-77-88 & 1800-11-77-89 (for NPS-AR), website www.cpao.nic.in, e-mail [email protected] , letters or through personal visit.As an interim arrangement, CPAO is making pension payments for deceased and disabled employees covered under National Pension System-Additional Relief Scheme. The Provisional Pension is being electronically remitted by CPAO directly into the pensioners account in respect of about 6,000 National Pension System subscribers each month after completion of the first time identification formalities by the pension account holding Bank branch. Under Digital India initiative, CPAO has developed online e-revision utility to take care of 7th CPC Pension Revision with the facility of sending digitally signed Revision Authority under the digital signatures of PAOs to CPAO.
• As a step towards making pensioner better informed and empowered, a facility of informing pensioner through SMS of receipt of fresh Pension Payment Order/Revision Cases from the PAO at CPAO and sending Pension Payment Order (Special Seal Authority) to banks for arranging payment has been provided to those pensioners who have provided their mobile numbers. As a result, pensioners’ can easily track the movement of their pension case. This is in addition to the already available facility on the website of CPAO (www.cpao.nic.in) to pensioners’ to track their pension processing status at CPAO by providing 12 digit PPO number.
• With the implementation of e-scrolls, CPAO is now better placed to audit the monthly payments to pensioners by banks. CPAO also monitors the payment of first credit in fresh pension case through e- Scrolls and generates various reports like delay is start of pension, delay in restoration of commutation etc. which are very useful for the decision makers.
• Through Pension Authorization, Retrieval & Accounting System (PARAS) all the pension processing activities from receipt to dispatch are managed. The web interface of PARAS provides the related information to pensioners, PAOs, Ministries and Banks. About 13 lakhs central civil pension cases have been processed by CPAO through this software thereby creating digital database of these pensioners. Various MIS reports are also generated for the purpose of monitoring

For more information, Please visit: https://cpao.nic.in/