ISLAMABAD: Accountant General of Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) Islamabad clarified on Saturday that the media reports, columns and news items regarding presence of 600,000 ghost pensioners is utterly baseless.
It is important to note that the figure of 600,000 ghost pensioners has neither been supported by any evidence, calculation, break up nor has been provided officially, therefore such news item is totally baseless. AGPR said.
It was an off the cuff utterance by one of the presenters of the NBP in Senate Standing Committee on Finance.
The media reports as well as various different columns of the news items in the Urdu and English daily newspapers has been noted with serious concerns at the AGPR.
The AGPR clarified that total number of pensioners drawing pension from the AGPR Islamabad and all the five sub offices at the provincial capitals including Gilgit Baltistan is 373,000.
The authorized NBP branches from where the pensioners receive their pension, are legally and through an agreement bound to ensure that the pension is paid to the right person at the rates authorized. Under the agreement/instructions, the National Bank is required to obtain a certificate of “being alive” every six months in March and September every year, so that in case a pensioner expires, the pension could either be converted to the Family Pension or if so required, stopped.
This could be done by ensuring the pensioners personal appearance or by through their representative.
In order to further streamline the pension payments, and also to facilitate the pensioners.
The Controller General of Accounts Pakistan, with the approval of the Finance Division, has introduced Computerisation of the pension payment process. Under the system each and every new pensioner receives his pension through the same bank account from which he received his monthly salary during active service.
For this purpose, the pension is processed by the AGPR and every month the same is credited to the pensioner’s bank accounts through a check each for the disbursing banks. The scheme is called Direct Credit Scheme (DCS).
By now, some 19,000 pensioners of the Federal Government who had received their salaries from the AGPR or its sub offices, have been put on the DCS.
The remaining (existing) pensioners of the old system are also being encouraged to open their bank accounts and get their pension converted to DCS.
A complete procedure with necessary direction for the purpose has been placed at the AGPR website. It is believed that with the maximum coverage of the pensioners under the DCS, the chances of ghost pensioners shall be minimized.
