Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) | DEPARTMENT OF Expenditure

The Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) was established w.e.f. 1st January, 1990 for Payment and Accounting of Central (Civil) Pensioners and Pension to Freedom Fighters etc. CPAO is a subordinate office under the Office of the Controller General of Accounts, Ministry of Finance, and Department of Expenditure. It has been entrusted with the responsibility of administering the scheme of payment of pension to Central Government (Civil) Pensioners through authorized Banks. Its core functions are :

Issue of Special Seal Authorities(SSAs) authorizing payment of pension in fresh as well as revision of pension cases to the CPPCs(Central Pension Processing Centers) of pension disbursing Banks
Preparation of Budget for the Pension Grant and accounting thereof
Audit of CPPCs of pension disbursing Banks
Maintenance of Data Bank of Central Civil Pensioners containing all details indicated in the PPOs and Revision Authorities
Handle the grievances of Central Civil Pensioners

As an interim arrangement, payment of provisional pension to the pensioners/family pensioners covered under New Pension Scheme as per orders of Ministry of Finance.

E-Governance activities & initiatives
CPAO is a fully computerized office. A wide range of software’s/packages have been developed/implemented in this office for streamlining pension authorization, accounting, Grievance Redressal etc. Which include :

Pension Authorization Retrieval & Accounting System (PARAS) : All the pension processing activities from receipt to dispatch are managed through PARAS. The web interface of PARAS provides the related information to pensioners; PAOs/Ministries & Banks. About 12 lakhs Central Civil pension cases have been processed by CPAO through this software thereby creating digital database of these pensioners. Various MIS reports are also generated by this software for the monitoring purposes.

COMPACT : For compiling Monthly Accounts, processing of GPF, Pension and Salary payments. This software is provided by the office of the CGA.
PFMS (Public Financial Management System) : For online payment and reconciliation of payments and receipt with banks.
Database Management Software : Software for comparison of bank’s database with CPAO’s database of pensioners has been developed and exception reports are generated by it to clean up the database and establish a completely matching database at both the ends.
Grievances Redressal Management Software : NIC, CPAO has developed a software for Grievance handling where grievances received from pensioners are registered and processed in an organized manner.
e-scroll software : This software has been developed and introduced recently for processing of payment and receipt scrolls from CPPCs and ‘put through statement’ from Reserve Bank of India for speedy accounting and reconciliation at CPAO.
e-PPO/e-revision : This system has been developed for sending online digitally signed authorities from CPAO to CPPCs of banks for arranging payment to the pensioners. At present, under this project, digitally signed revision authorities are being sent to 23 banks (out of 29) from CPAO. Remaining 6 Banks are in process of getting covered under this project.
Bar-coding software : Bar-coding system was incorporated in PARAS this year with the help of postal Department for speedy transmission of pension papers to CPPCs and trekking of dispatch status of pension cases.
Web Responsive Pensioners’ Service (WRPS) : CPAO has developed a mobile responsive facility for pensioners with comprehensive information. This service was launched by Hon’ble Union Minister of Finance Shri ArunJaitely on 14th Sep, 2016. Now pensioners can avail following services by registering on CPAO website through PPO number and date of birth & date of retirement/date of death :
1. Pensioner Profile : pensioners can view their basic details and also bank and PAO details. They can update/provide their contact details like mobile number, email, and Aadhaar number.
2. Digital Record of Pension & Revision Orders : Pensioners can view list of all Pension Payments & Revision Orders sent to banks from CPAO, authorizing payment of pension with details like PPO& SSA No. and date sent from CPAO to bank.
3. Download Facility of Pension/Revision Orders Sent to Banks : Pensioners may download the Pension/Revision Orders Sent to Banks from CPAO website.
4. Pension Processing Status Tracking : Both retired and retiring pensioners can track status of their pension cases both in fresh as well as revision cases like date of receipt of their cases in CPAO and date sent from CPAO to bank.
5. Monthly Details of Pension Payment : Pensioners can view the details of monthly payments of pension, which are credited to their accounts by the bank, i.e. their basic pension, dearness relief, medical allowance, arrear payments, etc. This information is being made available from the monthly scrolls received from the banks. Previous six transactions payment details are shown.
  1. Dashboards : For monitoring point of view, dashboard facility with meaningful MIS reports has been provided to following :
    1. Pensioners : In the pensioners’ dashboard, facilities to view personal and pension details, last six payments transactions, view and download of SSA, registration and tracking of grievances have been provided.
    2. Banks : In the banks dashboard detailed information on pensioners grievances forwarded to the banks and their settlement status has been provided to the heads of CPPCs and Government Accounting Divisions/Government Business Units.
    3. Ministries/Departments : Dashboards have been created for PAOs, Chief Controller of Accounts & Joint Secretaries (Administration) to track the status of Grievances pertaining to their Ministries/Departments and take timely action to dispose of the Grievances. Further, Dashboards are also provided on details of uploading of quarterly lists of retiring government employees so that they may keep track of progress on providing these lists and pendency in processing of such cases. The status of list of retiring employees is also provided in the Dashboards for Financial Advisors.
Grievance Redressal : Apart from desktop computers, Pensioners can now lodge their grievances from their mobile devices and view/track the status of their grievances through this section. Besides lodging their grievances online on CPAO website, facility to lodge grievance by letter, fax, email, Toll free Number and personal visits and track its status is already provided. After receiving the grievances from pensioners; CPAO is forwarding the same online to the banks and field offices for redressal and status is updated in its website for the information of pensioners.
SMS Facility : Pensioners are now provided SMS facility for pension process status at CPAO and at the stage of grievance registration & disposal.
Links to Jeevan Pramaan, Bhavishya and CPENGRAMS Portals : To facilitate the pensioners for submission of Digital Life Certificate (DLC) in the month of November, a link to Jeevan Pramaan Portal has been provided on CPAO website. For those Government servants who are going to retire soon, a link has been established with Bhavishya Portal of DP&PW to enable them to track the status of their pension cases even before reaching the same at CPAO. A link to CPENGRAMS (Central Pension Grievance Redress and Monitoring System) has also been provided so that if pensioners desire, they can lodge and track their grievances in CPENGRAM.

All these initiatives aim at establishing seamless processing and accounting of pension disbursement to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of the pension delivery mechanism.

For further information please visit http://cpao.nic.in