E-Governance: 10/06/09

 

REGULATOR PLANS E-PAYMENT, ONLINE APPLICATION FOR NPS
Vandana, Mumbai
Business Standard

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is working on a slew of measures to make the New Pension Scheme (NPS) more attractive for investors.

According to senior PFRDA officials, the regulator is putting in place an online application system and e-payment facility for the internet-savvy investors.

The software is being developed in association with the Central Record-keeping Agency (CRA). It is expected to debut by the end of this year. PFRDA is also looking to have an ombudsman for redressal of investor grievances.

To increase liquidity of the scheme, there could also be Tier-II accounts by the end of this year, which would allow investors to withdraw money at any given point of time. However, sources said that investors, who have Tier-I accounts, would be allowed to have Tier-II accounts.

“By allowing Tier-II accounts, we want to offer liquidity to the investors unlike Tier-I. This is next on the priority list,” said a PFRDA official.

At present, investors are allowed to withdraw anytime before the age of 60 years. However, there is a condition that 80 percent of the money will have to be used to buy an annuity plan. The rest 20 percent can be paid in lumpsum.

PFRDA has also recommended to the Centre that NPS be given the exempt-exempt-exempt (EEE) status. At present, NPS has the exempt-exempt-taxed (EET) status, whereby contributions and returns are tax-free, but withdrawals attract tax.

Earlier, PFRDA had recommended that the annual maintenance charges be borne by the government for the initial few years. The move was aimed at promoting the product.

Currently, annual maintenance charges form a major part of the total charges that an investor has to pay. The CRA charges Rs 350 per customer as annual maintenance charge. The basic functions of a CRA include record-keeping, administration and customer service functions for all subscribers of NPS.

The initial response to NPS has not been too impressive. “We have registered 384 investors in one month. We would be looking at rationalising costs provided volumes increase,” said a senior PFRDA official.

Sources said that PFRDA has spent around Rs 1 crore till now on various media-marketing campaigns for creating awareness about NPS.

 

E-Governance Update: 09/06/09

 

FINMIN TO WEB-MONITOR INFRA PROJECTS
New Delhi
The Times of India

With the focus of the Congress-led UPA government shifting to time-bound completion of its action plans, the finance ministry is set to revive a web-enabled infrastructure monitoring system where it would help mandarins in North Block assess progress of a project at the click of a mouse.

Having the capability of GIS mapping, the UN-supported initiative would help officials in the finance ministry to identify causes of delay and the point of disruption, if any, in case some implementing agency is missing deadlines.

The system, developed by the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry primarily for monitoring externally aided projects, has the capability of GIS mapping giving the overall picture of infrastructure projects being implemented in a particular state up to the district level.

The project called Coordination and Decision Support System (CDSS) is designed in a manner where it can generate reports and charts with different permutations and combinations as per the requirement of the government. It allows uploading actual project pictures and documents. The software is able to track both financial flows and the physical progress.

All stakeholders such as the implementing agencies in states, the Department of Economic Affairs which is monitoring the progress, and other states and central ministries concerned have been given passwords where each can on its own upload data related to its field.

However, pilot projects launched in four states earlier did not take off owing to disinterest shown by various stakeholders in uploading required information in the database. This time, however, there is a proposal to make it legally binding on all the agencies concerned to adhere to the government's instructions on online submission of progress reports within a deadline.

A joint secretary level officer in the finance ministry has been made in charge of the project and a budgetary allocation of $800,000 has been approved from the UNDP for the April 2008 to December 2009 period.

The state rollout of the monitoring scheme was done in March 2008 where necessary training was imparted to users from various agencies and ministries. It is likely to help the government in building capacity and improving coordination among various stakeholders.

HUDA MULLS ONLINE PLAN APPROVALS
Chandigarh
The Times of India

Following up a whole slew of people-friendly measures, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) is now planning to introduce online approval of building plans. Come January 1, 2010, and the facility would be available to all allottees in the state, chief secretary Dharamvir said on Monday.

Approvals would be granted within minutes of a soft copy being routed to the authorities, provided the plan clears a preset checklist. In case of any hiccup, allottees need not despair as, according to citizen’s charter, Huda already has in place a 21-working day deadline for granting approval of building/building plan.

To begin with, the facility would be launched at the estate offices of Panchkula, Gurgaon and Faridabad - preferably within a month - and later extended to all offices across the state.

Notably, on any given day, estate offices have a pendency of at least 500 to 1,000 such applications. Other than staff shortage, approvals may also get delayed because of the non-availability of field staff, who have the added responsibility of dealing with anti-encroachment drives and court cases among others.

’’Once operationalised, it will do away with entire paper work and also bring in much required relief to allottees, who would no longer have to run after the field staff,’’ Huda chief administrator T C Gupta claimed.

A three-member team comprising senior town planner Nadeem Akhtar, district town planner Naresh Mehtani and senior architect M Bhardwaj has been set up to visit the Pune-based development agency which is preparing the software. ‘’Once the team is back, the project would be launched within a month or two,’’ he added.