SPARSH has successfully introduced Defence pension disbursement and administration but the pensioners are in quite confusion regarding submission of life certificate and update of personal data etc. SBI has instructed all the Branches to deal the SPARSH related case as per the directions of Ministry of Defence. A copy of the text of the letter written by Chief General manager of SBI (GBSSU) to all Branch / circle heads are reproduced below-
2. Defence Accounts Department (DAD), Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched a new web-based system named SPARSH – System for Pension Administration (Raksha) to take care of all the pension related activities. The Ministry has started processing and paying the pension to new retirees through SPARSH. The DAD has also started the process of reverse migration of processing of exiting Defence Pensioners from Banks to SPARSH and will gradually complete the migration process. Under the reverse migration of PPOs, which was started from November 2021, about 12 lacs PPOs out of 17.5 lacs (approx.) have already been migrated till date from us.
3. MoD has desired that Life Certificates for Defence Pensioners, migrated to SPARSH where pension is being credited in accounts maintained with SBI, are to be captured at All Branches of SBI and to be submitted to SPARSH digitally. Accordingly, our Bank along with Principal Controller of Defence Account (Pension) has developed a new functionality in existing CPPC application from where the Life Certificate of Defence pensioners migrated under SPARSH can be processed. The related process flow is enclosed as Annexure-A.
4. All Branches (including Non-Home Branches), will accept the Life Certificate of Defence pensioners migrated under SPARSH, manually, maintaining accounts with us and provide the acknowledgement to pensioner submitting Life Certificate. Branch will update the Life Certificate in Pension Application Software immediately and ensure that it is authorized by the checker on the same day. The Life certificate obtained and duly verified by the Official for the migrated pensioners to SPARSH will remain with the Branch. It will be the responsibility of the Branch to ensure as under:
i) The Life Certificate should be under safe upkeep and to be retained for a period of 5 Years.
ii) Under no circumstances, the Life Certificate will be sent to CPPC. The Life Certificate will be updated digitally in SPARSH on the completion of authorisation by the checker in Pension Application System.
5. The existing pensioners whose pension is processed and paid by our Bank; the earlier instructions will remain unchanged.
6. A suitable notice in this regard should prominently be displayed in All Branches for the benefit of Defence Pensioners migrated to SPARSH.
7. Please bring the contents of this e-Circular to the notice of all concerned and ensure meticulous compliance of the instructions.
Yours faithfully,
(Shalini Kacker)
Chief General Manger (GBSSU)
Encl.: As above