A recent press release said that the government is going to launch e – payment scheme for contractors, government employees and retirees.
Mr. C.R. Sundaramurthi, Controller General of Accounts (CGA) explained that in the Electronics Payment Mechanism the payments, salaries, pensions and other retirement benefits could be credited in the respective bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
He added that once the payments had been credited in the bank accounts of the Central Government employees they would receive a SMS from the government. The retired employees would also receive alerts via SMS from the government and this would avoid them from going to the bank for enquiring about their pensions. This scheme would be of great help for the contractors where they need not give bribe for getting payments because this system would not involve any human interface.
This new e – payment scheme would be initially launched in nine central departments and by the end of March 2012 all central departments except Railways, Defence and Post & Telegraph would be covered.
Mr. Sundaramurthi also said that the Government wanted to make it compulsory to electronically record the expenditures for each department. Once it is seen that a particular department has completely used up the sum of amount sanctioned the next tranche would be released. This would help in bringing down borrowings.