'Pension preparation handled fully by State Treasury'
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR

Imphal, July 12 2016: Manipur is the only State in the Northeast where pension preparation is handled fully by the State Treasury whereas all the other States have handed over this function to the banks, said Th Kirankumar, Director of Treasuries & Accounts, Government of Manipur.

He was addressing a press conference organised by DIPR at its office complex today.

He further explained how computerisation of pension data and payments have considerably eased the problems of pensioners including stand-ing in long queues for hours together in hot sun while drawing their pension.

Computerisation has made pension payment much more efficient thereby reducing delays in pension disbursement and it has also greatly helped in removing fraudulent practices.

There are at present around 48000 pensioners/family pensioners.

The Director also inform-ed media persons with a sen- se of great satisfaction that Treasuries & Accounts became the first Government office in the State to become fully computerised.

In recognition of computerization work carried out by the Directorate of Treasuries & Accounts, Manipur, the Dept was awarded the first prize at the 3rd e-North East Award, 2012 held at Gang-tok, Sikkim on November 22-23, 2012 .

There are at present eighteen offices under the Direc- torate of Treasuries & Accounts including the Direc- torate Office, 11 District Treasuries and six Sub-Treasuries.

Out of these 17 Treasuries/Sub-Treasuries, Jiribam Treasury is functioning as non-banking treasury and the rest are banking treasuries.

The latest sub-treasury to be opened was the Wangoi sub-treasury which was inaugurated on December 13, 2013 .

The major functions carried out by the Treasuries & Accounts Department are clearance of bills submitted by various departments of the Government, to deposit receipts, taxes and other reve- nues generated by the different departments, submission of all the financial transactions to the Accountant Gene- ral, the Directorate also collects judicial and non-judicial stamps from the place where they are printed, stores them and finally sell them off to the vendors.

The State Treasury Department is among few treasuries in the country to successfully implement the National Pension System (NPS), which was introduced in the State for the Govt employees joining the State service on or after January 1, 2005.Till date, there are around 23,500 NPS subscribers in the State.

The Directorate of Treasuries & Accounts ensures regular credit of contributions to the respective NPS Subscribers' Accounts.

During the Financial Year 2015-16, a huge backlog of NPS contributions of employees of the Government of Manipur has been successfully credited to the respective subscriber's accounts.

Manipur is the first State in the entire North East to take up electronic fund transfer for Government payments in a big way using Electronic Clearing Services (Credit) of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

For this achievement, the state Treasuries & Accounts department was also awarded the Jury Special Mention" (which was the second Prize) at the "2nd e-North East Awards, 2011 in a function held at RIELIT, Kohima, Nagaland on the November 25 2011 for the project on "The Payment of salary through ECS (Credit) for the Government Employees of Manipur" in the category of "ICT & Financial Inclusion" .

Another major achievement of the department is the successful cataloguing of all the records related with financial transactions of various offices using colour codes for easy identification.

At present any record of any financial transaction can be retrieved within few minutes.

All Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) have been kept using locker system (vertical shelve lock system) and also other records are kept using Optimizer from January, 2010 onwards.

Treasury offices are among the first offices in the State after Archives and Library to introduce proper records management.

The Department of Treasuries & Accounts successfully brought out a compilation of various instructions/decisions, office memoranda, clarifications of the Government of Manipur on various topics/themes in two volumes.

The topics include � Pension, National Pension System (NPS), Terminal Benefit Rules, GIS, HRA, SCA, Electronic payment, CPIS/MGEL, DDO Code, Encashment permission, Manipur FRBM, Manipur Public Servants' Personal Liability Act, GPF, Travelling Allowances, Medical Reimbursement, Compassionate Appointment, Miscellaneous matters.

It has also undertaken a project on "Compilation of FORMS of Government of Manipur" commonly used by various Departments under the State Government for various purposes has been taken up.

Employees/citizens of the State will find this compilation extremely useful as ready reference for various purposes.

Another very important venture taken out by the department, according to Th Kirankumar is the linking of all Treasuries/Sub-Treasury offices through a network under the project for computerisation of Treasuries.

Process for installation of VSATs in 13 Treasuries/Sub-Treasuries and connection through BSNL Leased Line and NIC Net is underway.

With the completion of networking of all Treasuries/Sub-Treasuries, wide range of possibilities and options will be opened.

It shall pave the way partly for implementation of Integrated Financial Management System or equivalent system in the State in near future.

The department is also undertaking installation of 5KwP Solar Power plant each in 13 Treasuries/Sub-Treasuries has been taken up with funding from MNRE and State Plan support.

The Project is being implemented through MANIREDA and will facilitate uninterrupted power supply in the Treasury offices.

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