FROM
S.RAMACHANDRAN, MOST URGENT 17TH NOVEMBER 2020
Retired General Manager
Bank OF Baroda,
Super Senior Citizen, Aged 82 years)
Former Chairman and Ceo of erstwhile Sangli Bank ltd,
(now taken over by ICICI BANK LTD)
Former Administrator of Madhavpura Mercantile Bank ltd, Baroda,
Former DG OF-MCCIA,Pune,
SHIV SAI VISHVA, Bldg no k-102,
OPP Challenger Public School. Near Lotus Hospital,
Pimple Saudagar,,Aundh Camp,
Pune 411027
Mobile -8600064195,
Email ID- ramans 1938 @gmail.com
TO
HON'BLE SMT NIRMALA SITARAMAN,
FINANCE MINISTER
GOVT OF INDIA,NORTH BLOCK,
Raisina Hills,
NEW DELHI-110001
RE.Pension updation/Improvement in family pension/100 DA Neutralision to bank employees retired prior to nNovember 2002/Irregularities in implementation of IBA group medical insurance scheme
Madam,
SEASONS GREETINGS
In continuation of my email of 16th November 2020 on the above subject and would like to place before you following more facts for your information .
1.Since you have very rightly understood the plight of bank retirees and told in the INDIAN BANKS ASSOCIATION at its ANNUAL GENERAL BODY meeting to provide one rank one pension to bank retirees .
2. The salary to the bank employees is paid out of profit he makes in banks and not out of the exchequer .When Section 10(7)of Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer
of Undertaking ) Act 1970 (Act 5 OF 1970 permits ,banks to declare dividends and to retain surplus profit only after making due provisions of Superannuation Fund ,banks were declaring the dividend ranging from 10% to 80%in gross breach of the section without making funds provisions to Superannuation Funds ,in gross disregard to the STATUTE.
The Employees Provident Fund and Misc provisions act requires banks to pay a certain amount say 10% identical contribution by the employer to the EPF TO SECURE THE NEEDS OF EMPLOYEE on cessation of employment .Above contributions are wages retained by the bank in trust for payment to them for their comfortable living in old age. .Provided Fund being earned wages of the employee is not a retirement benefit .provided by the employer to the employee and is their deferred wages.
When pension scheme was launched in bank in lieu of CONTRIBUTORY PROVIDENT FUND scheme of the CPF of employees held by banks were transferred to the Pension Fund.Pension is paid out of Pension fund and such cost zero cost to the banks..But it seems there is a concerted and continuous attempt by some vested interest (IBA OFFICIALS WHO ARE IN DIALOGUE WITH MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND UNIONS ) to conceal this fact from the finance minister .Instead they misrepresent facts by appraising the finance minister that updating of pension would impact the profits of the bank.
Sadly the powerful unions and associations representing serving employees and officers have no love left for the the retirees. While they express lip sympathy for the retirees and their cause ,they are cowardly in connivance with the IBA for delaying and denying the pension updating rightfully due to the retirees. The IBA tailors the fact to suit its objectives It is the time the finance minister took note of this .Banks aided by MINISTRY OF FINANCE WERE DETAINING THE MONEY ,PROPERTY AND DEFERRED WAGES OF EMPLOYEES IN BREACH OF TRUST putting them to starvation.
This is an offence that tantamount to breach of trust by public servant (section 405) and breach of trust by banker (section 409)punishable with fine and imprisonment under INDIAN PENAL CODE.
Updating of Pension in banks it is pertinent that in terms of clause 12 of Memorandum of settlement dated 29/10/1993 entered with IBA pursuant section 2(p) of Industrial Dispute Act . The Pension scheme in banks was to be identical to that obtaining in RESERVE BANK OF INDIA as regards the amount of pension updating etc While government sanctioned updating pension in RBI in MARCH 2019 No similar was there in banks.This was a gross breach of aforesaid settlement,i THEREFORE REQUEST YOU TO GRANT PENSION UPDATION TO ME AND OTHER BANK RETIREES FROM MARCH 2019 TO DO JUSTICE TO US ALSO..
Regulation 35(1)of the Bank (EMPL0YEES) PENSION REGULATION lays down that "bank pension and additional pension wherever applicable shall update"and regulation 56 makes it unambiguous that the pension scheme in banks is to be on the premise of Central CivilPension making it inevitable that pension in banks is to be updated with the revision in payscales arising out of each bipartite settlement in the same way civil pension gets updated with the implementation of each Pay commission in the absence of any specific provision.
IBA is an illegal and pseudo association with no registration under any statue .IBA which claims itself as a voluntary association is collecting huge amount of subscription and service charges from member banks which can be verifies from IBAs record and banks record .PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS ARE ALSO PAYING without demur such subscriptions and service charges as determined by the Managing Committee of this voluntary ,out of public money without demur without having any enabling provisions in ACT 5 of 1970.Such subscriptions and levies run in several crores of rupees every year.
Now IBA has organised GROUP MEDICAL INSURANCE for serving and retirees employees including widow family pensioners ,This is also a hawkish business to earn commission from insurance companies.,I fail to understand why banks themselves could not directly arrange this scheme and the commission they could have got i as they are commercial agents for doing insurance business and this could have helped to banks to add this commission amount to their kitty.this aspect also needs to be investigated.
under this scheme retired employees and widow family pensioners have to pay huge amount of premium while the bank makes payment of premium for working employees out of staff welfare fund which are to be utilised uniformly among serving and retires employees as per government instructions, Serving employees who have salary income are given free insurance coverage for self,spouse and dependant while retired gets coverage limited to self and spouse at the cost of their meagre pension .good number of retirees and widowed family pension get much less pension than the premium amount.Further the premium levied now is more than 10 times of what was levied four years back unfortunately the premium payable by retirees for medical insurance is levied huge GST AT STANDARD RATE IN SPITE OF IT BEING AN ESSENTIAL WELFARE MEASURE FOR THEM.
IN VIEW OF WHAT IS STATED I AWAIT YOUR FAVOURABLE RESOLUTION TO THE ABOVE PENDING ISSUES,
WITH RESPECTFUL REGARDS
S.RAMACHANDRAN
AGE 82 YEARS
SUPER SENIOR CITIZEN,
PUNE
No comments:
Post a Comment