By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 02, 2018: THE Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) celebrated here yesterday its 29th Foundation Day in the service of the Central (Civil) Pensioners. CPAO was established on January 1, 1990; primarily to cater to the needs of central civil pensioners and other stakeholders in the Ministries/ Departments and Banks. The Central (Civil) pensions are authorized through Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) functioning under the Controller General of Accounts (CGA). CPAO is administering the 'Scheme for Payment of Pensions to Central Government Civil Pensioners by Authorized Banks (both Public Sector and some Private sector Banks).  Its functions include, issue of Special Seal Authorisations (SSAs) for pension payments to Authorised Banks, preparation of budget for the Pension Grant and accounting thereof, reconciliation with and performance review of banks with respect to pension payments and disbursements & maintenance of the database of the Central Civil Pensioners etc.

CPAO was created with the primary objective of simplifying procedure and reducing the number of agencies for pension payment and to expedite the process of authorization, revision and transfer of pension through Authorized Banks. The working of CPAO is fully computerized and it maintains a database of over 12 lakh Central (Civil) pensioners through Pension Authorisation, Retrieval and Accounting System (PARAS). These pensioners are being provided pension related services by the CPAO through more than 70,788 paying bank branches all over the country.

CPAO has Pension Tracking System to check the latest status of the pension processing and SMS facility is also being provided to the pensioners at each stage. CPAO has taken many steps under Digital India Mission like e-Scroll, e-SSA, e-PPO project etc. to reduce the paper movement and creation of digital record of the Special Seal Authorities (SSAs), PPO (Pension Payment Order) etc.  CPAO is also handling the grievances of the Central (Civil) Pensioners through its Grievance Redressal Mechanism which includes Web Responsive Pensioners Service (WRPS) facilitating information to pensioners on pension payments, facility to view and download latest orders and special seal authorities (SSAs) issued by CPAO among others.