ELECTRONIC PAYMENT SYSTEM Instructions for DDOs 1. Each payee is required to be got allocated a unique code (UCP) by furnishing bank details in specified format (Annexure I) at the concerned treasury. The code allotment process will involve furnishing of details by DDO, entering of data at Treasury Office and generation of a List for verification containing the data. While submitting the list of payees for allotment of UCP, the DDO should ensure that each page of the list is page numbered and any list submitted subsequently should carry page number in continuity with the previous list. Similarly continuous serial number will be given to each payee in such list. In subsequent list, the serial number will be in continuity to the last list. List for verification will be collected by DDO/ Authorized Messenger after a gap of five working day from Treasury Office. All details in list will be checked and verified by DDO. Any corrections to be made will be indicated in the specified space in the list. This verified list will be resubmitted by DDO / Authorized Messenger at Treasury Office and the corrections, if any will be made and a final verified list will be generated and signed by Treasury Officer / ATO / Authorized person and the same can be collected by DDO / Authorized Messenger again after a gap of five working days. The UCP thus generated should be conveyed by DDO to the concerned payee and his signatures should be taken on the verified list. DDOs should ensure this as a precautionary measure also so as to ensure correctness of the details of the payee, especially the bank account number. It may be noted by DDO that he will be fully responsible for any credit in wrong bank account if correct details for allotment of UCP are not provided by him. They should get a copy of crossed cheque of the payee s account or a photocopy of such cheque for the purpose of verification of account number / MICR code etc. For PAN details, photocopy of PAN CARD should be taken and kept on record. In case DDO furnishes a certificate in prescribed form (Annexure - II) in respect of a certain payee that the said payee is not a taxable entity and thus not required to apply for PAN, then UCP will be allotted accordingly without PAN. 2. Since no bill can be passed unless payee has been allotted the UCP by Treasury Office, so DDOs should ensure timely submission of bank details for getting the UCP allotted. Even in case of any type of refunds to be issued, UCP will have to be got allotted by furnishing the bank details of the payee. 3. DDOs should ensure that the bank details and other requisite details of various vendors / payees are collected at the first instance, while giving them any work/ making any purchases etc, so that the details are available and UCP can be got allotted well in advance before a bill is submitted for payment. DDO should also ascertain from such person as to whether he has already been got allotted a UCP by some other DDO. In such a case, the said UCP can be got enabled by using procedure in para 19. Instructions for DDOs Page 1 of 8
4. The bill to be submitted at treasury will remain in same format, however along with the name of payee the allotted UCP will be mentioned in bracket. In the case of hand written bills while writing the UCP the numeral zero should be written as Ø and alphabet I should be written as I to avoid any confusion between zero and alphabet O and that between numeral 1 and alphabet I. 5. In case of salary bills of employees the DDO will submit two hard copies of the bank details of payees, the soft copy of which is presently being provided to bank for purpose of credit of salary into the payees accounts. These should be duly verified, signed and stamped by DDO. Similar procedure to be followed in case of TA / contingency bills of payees if total number of payees in a bill exceeds 25. In such case a similar list containing detail of payees, bank details and amount should be submitted and soft copy provided to Bank. 6. Other than salary payments, no other payment of Rs. 10,000/- or more will be made unless PAN details of payee are provided. 7. After passing of bill, the bill will be retained in Treasury Office and an EPS pay order along with an invoice will be provided to DDO. EPS pay order may contain payment related to more than one bill submitted by the DDO (However, one EPS pay order will contain payments for the bills relating to same major head only). The details of all bills will be mentioned on the invoice as well as on EPS pay order. While receiving the pay order the DDO / Authorized Messenger will check the number of pages, details of which is given in pay order as well as in the invoice. He will sign the acknowledgement on one copy of the invoice, which will be retained at the Treasury Office. 8. The details in EPS pay order will then be checked by DDO in respect of name, amount, bank details etc. and then duly verified and endorsed. The invoice will be kept by DDO for his office record. The EPS pay order will then be submitted at bank, however credit before the time and date mentioned on top right corner of the pay order cannot be insisted upon the bank. 9. The EPS pay order should not be folded, mutilated, disfigured. No manual alteration is allowed in the EPS pay order. Any discrepancy in name/amount/bank details should be brought to the knowledge of the Treasury Officer by presenting the EPS pay order for cancellation at treasury office. In case of correction in amount or UCP the same can be done at treasury office without any further requirement. However if the above are correct but bank details or name etc. are not correct that indicates wrong furnishing of bank details for purposes of allotting UCP. So correction of the said data is required to be done, for which application in prescribed form will have to be made and a new EPS pay order will be generated with correct details. 10. Each EPS pay order will be valid for a time period of 10 days from the date of issue (issue date and validity date is printed on top right corner of the pay order) or 31 st March 11:59 PM of Instructions for DDOs Page 2 of 8
the financial year, whichever is earlier. A pay order will not be accepted by bank, if it is submitted beyond the due date. Even if it is accepted by mistake, bank will not be able to provide credit on the basis of same. 11. The DDO / Authorized Messenger should get acknowledgement slip, duly signed/ stamped/ dated back from the bank and same may be kept for record purposes. 12. In case of any wrong data of payee, on basis of which UCP had been allotted, the bank might not be able to credit the account of the payee. So it will issue an account payee draft / RTR in favour of payee, mentioning the payees name, and place of payment and the same will be required to be collected by DDO from the bank. Further, since bank will send intimation regarding above aspect to Treasury Office, the said UCP will be disabled and no further payments will be released against the said UCP if any other bill is pending till the data is got corrected at Treasury Office by resubmitting the correct details. Further since incorrect bank details, as submitted by the payee for allotment of UCP, will be printed on such RTR / DD, so it will not be possible to use the said cheque/dd and it will have to be got cancelled by DDO from bank and the amount would be deposited back in treasury using proper challan. However since amount has already been debited to Government Account so when a fresh bill is presented after furnishing correct details at treasury office, the amount will again be deducted from the budget of the DDO. So DDOs should be cautious while furnishing the details for allotment of UCP and also while verifying the detail list supplied by treasury office before allotment of UCP. They should get a copy of crossed cheque of the payee s account or a photocopy of such cheque for purpose of verification of account number / MICR code etc. For PAN details, photocopy of PAN CARD should be taken and kept on record. In case of any change in bank details, the data should be furnished to treasury office in prescribed form for getting the same modified, however the UCP will remain the same. 13. In case the bank is not able to credit the account of the payee due to certain temporary technical problem, in such case also bank will issue an account payee DD / RTR in favour of payee, mentioning the payees name, bank details and the name of the bank and the same will be required to be collected by DDO from the bank and disbursed to the payee. However in such cases the UCP will not be disabled at the treasury end. 14. In case of loss of pay order the DDO will intimate in writing to the Treasury Officer as well as treasury bank mentioning the EPS pay order number and amount which is written at the top of the EPS pay order. A request for issue of fresh EPS pay order should be made to the Treasury Office along with a confirmation from bank that the said EPS pay order has not been got encashed and has been blocked. However, a fresh pay order will not be issued till the expiry date of the EPS pay order and Non Payment Certificate(NPC) from bank is furnished. Instructions for DDOs Page 3 of 8
15. In case of an employee getting transferred, the DDO will send intimation in prescribed form to TO/ATO for disabling the said UCP. After doing the needful, TO/ATO will provide a code disabled order. Such order will contain complete bank details of the employee as well as date on which code is disabled. This order will be sent by DDO to the new DDO alongwith the last pay certificate. 16. In case an employee joins on transfer, the DDO will receive the last pay certificate and code disabled order from the old DDO. He will then produce code disabled order before the concerned TO/ATO with a request to enable the UCP. If bank details are required to be changed, the same would be provided to TO/ATO and the same UCP will be enabled by new TO/ATO. The process of verification of details and providing verified list will remain same as in para 1. 17. In case of transfer of employee, if the old DDO wants to release certain payments like arrears to the transferred employee after the code has been disabled, he will make a request to the TO/ATO to temporarily enable his UCP for a particular transaction. The request for same will have to be made in written. Such a request should however be duly endorsed by the new DDO. The TO/ATO will examine such request and enable the UCP of said employee for that particular transaction. This facility can also be used to draw payment related to an employee if due to some reason payment has to be drawn from a DDO other than the DDO with which the UCP is registered. 18. In case of persons other than employees, if DDO feels that no more transactions are likely to take place with said person, he can make request to TO/ATO for disabling his UCP to avoid fraudulent payments. Such UCP can however be got enabled on request by the DDO at any later date. 19. If a person, other than employee, informs DDO that he has already been allotted a UCP through some other DDO then a request in prescribed form can be made by such DDO to TO, mentioning the UCP, for enabling the said UCP under his DDO code. The needful will be done by TO/ATO. However if the other DDO was under jurisdiction of some other TO/ATO, then bank details of the person will have to be submitted to the TO/ATO, but UCP will remain same. 20. DDO can request the bank to provide the acknowledgement of EPS transactions which have been successfully done or RTRs issued (in case of failed transaction) from the bank and the same will be supplied by the bank to the DDO. DDO will be responsible for collection of RTRs from bank in case of failed EPS transactions. 21. Rights & obligation of customer, beneficiary bank and sending bank for NEFT will be as per procedural guidelines for NEFT as issued by RBI. (Gist enclosed) Instructions for DDOs Page 4 of 8
Duties and responsibilities of Banks as per Procedural Guidelines for National Electronic Fund Transfer System issued by Reserve Bank of India, Departmental of Payment & Settlement Systems, Central Office Mumbai, November 2005 (Revised version 1.1 as on September 1, 2008) Some relevant paras ;- 2.1(x) Credit received by the NEFT member through the NEFT system, has to be ultimately credited to the account of the beneficiary customer at the concerned branch of the beneficiary bank on the basis of the account number and the name of the beneficiary customer, after due verification therof. In case of discrepancy observed in respect of the name of the beneficiary customer, the credit should be effected on the basis of the account number, after due verification thereof. 4.7 The sending bank shall prominently display at its premises the cut-off timings up to which it shall receive the NEFT Application Forms from its customers for different settlements and the likely timings of the settlements by the NEFT centre. Any payment instruction received after the cut-off time shall be included for the next available settlement either on the same NEFT day or the next NEFT day. 4.17 If beneficiary specified in the sender s payment instruction fails to get payment through the NEFT system for some valid reasons, the sender shall be informed immediately after the sending bank gets the return NEFT. The sending bank shall also arrange to make payment to the sender by crediting the account of the sender or otherwise placing funds at the disposal of the sender. 4.19 After crediting the account of the beneficiary, the beneficiary bank shall advise the beneficiary of the funds received. The Statement of account/pass Book entry or any online messaging system shall indicate briefly the source of funds as well. 4.20 In case of a holiday at the beneficiary branch, the credit will have to be effected on a value dated basis wherever feasible or latest at the commencement of business on the next working day. Rights and obligations of customer, participating banks or institutions 6.7 In the event of any delay in the completion of the Funds Transfer or any loss on account of error in the execution of the Funds Transfer pursuant to a payment instruction, the bank s liability shall be limited to the extent of payment of interest at the Bank Rate for the period of delay in the case of delayed payment and refund of the amount together with interest at the Bank Rate upto the date of refund, in the event of loss on account of error, negligence or fraud on the part of any employee of the bank. 6.8 The sender/originator shall be entitled to claim compensation from the sending bank for the period of delay in the completion of funds transfer, and/or any other penalty which may be levied / decided by RBI. Instructions for DDOs Page 5 of 8
Rights and obligations of Sending bank 6.13 If the funds transfer is not complete before end of the particular NEFT batch timing as specified by the customer, the bank shall advise the customer of the same. 6.15 The sending bank shall be responsible for the accuracy of the transaction as furnished / originated by the customer. 6.17 The sending bank shall maintain duly authenticated record of all payment instructions executed by it for a period for which bank records are required to be preserved under the applicable rules. 6.18 The sending bank shall, upon completion of funds transfer of a payment instruction, furnish to the originator on request by him, a duly authenticated record of the transaction. 6.19 The participating banks shall reconcile the transactions on a daily basis with reference to the settlements/settlement details made available by the NEFT centre and the bank account details by RBI, DAD, Mumbai. Rights and obligations of beneficiary bank 6.30 The beneficiary bank shall execute the payment instruction on the NEFT working day on which the payment instruction is received by it unless it notices one or more of the following deficiencies. a) The beneficiary specified in the payment instruction has no account or the account of the beneficiary maintained does not tally with the particulars specified in the payment instruction. b) The beneficiary bank is bound by instructions of the beneficiary not to give or receive any credit to the account. c) No credit could be afforded to the beneficiary s account for any other reasons. 6.31 The beneficiary bank may reject a payment instruction on one or more of the grounds mentioned in Clause (a, b & c) above. The beneficiary bank shall return the funds and the reasons for the return as per the NEFT procedure, specified in para 4.16 of these guidelines to the sending bank. Instructions for DDOs Page 6 of 8
ANNEXURE - I REGISTRATION / DISABLING / EDIT / RENEWAL / TEMPORARY REGISTRATION OF UNIQUE CODE FOR PAYEE (UCP) (Please whichever applicable) 1. Code of requesting DDO 2. Category: (a) Employee (b)others (c) Third party 3. Unique Code Allotted 4. Code of DDO who got the unique code allotted to payee / previous DDO with whom UCP was registered. 5. Reasons for registration/ disabling/ edit/ renewal/ temporary registration (Please specify) 6. Enclosures (a) Code disabled order issued by TO in case of registration of transferred employee or others. (b) No objection certificate from new DDO in case of Temporary registration of an already transferred employee. (c) In case of registration of 3 rd party unique code data details issued by TO or a certificate from old DDO containing such details., if unique code allotted by some other TO. Date : In case of Temporary Registration Signature of requesting DDO Name : Designation : Signature of DDO as in (4) above Name : Designation : For office purpose : Initials of TO/ATO : Initials of the official entering data : Allowed Not Allowed Date :. Instructions for DDOs Page 7 of 8
ANNEXURE - II I have satisfied myself that (Name of the Payee) with address (Complete address) is not liable to pay any income tax and provisions of TDS would not to be attracted in its case. The said payee may be allotted a unique code of payee (UCP) without PAN for all kinds of payments. Date : Signature of DDO Name : Designation : Instructions for DDOs Page 8 of 8