IMPHAL, December 9: The state government has decided to introduce the Electronic Clearing Services (ECS) a new system of paying salaries and other allowances for its employees starting this month so that the other modes of payment through cheque/cash could be discontinued, said a source.
According to an official source, the state government had taken the decision following an official directive of the department of finance services, Ministry of Finance.
The finance ministry in its official directive had advised the state government to make all its payments to its employees’ accounts electronically and further directed that no payment should be made or received through cheque except from such institutions which do not have the Core Banking Solution or have no access to ECS payment facility.
The source has also informed that the state government has been considering the introduction of the electronic system for quite some time. After making a minute consideration of the ECS system, and considering the instructions from the centre, the state had decided to introduce the system to its employees in the Imphal area first.
The source has also informed that the state finance department in an official memorandum has advised all department heads to order that all drawals from the treasuries and payments made by the state government through the departments to the beneficiaries/organizations/vendors etc. will be made through the ECS.
The memorandum from the state finance department has also mentioned that the electronic mode of payment for all government employees will follow a laid down procedure and guideline, the concerned DDO shall obtain an authorization slip from the recipient body as per a format, furnishing the bank account details indicating name of the bank branch, IFSC code, MICR Code & Bank a/c no etc. duly attested by the concerned bank branch.
The source has further added that the procedure and the guideline is a one-time measure especially in case of recurring payments (for instance scholarship, old age pension, etc) and that it shall be preserved by the DDO as official record.
In case of payment of beneficiaries of the government scheme, for example NREGA, scholarship scheme, old age pension scheme etc, pre-receipt will not be necessary and bank scroll will be used as APR for office record, the source has further informed.
The official guidelines of the state finance department also further mentioned that, the DDOs will submit the details of recipient body along with the pay-in-slip, in both hard and soft copy, as per the official format while submitting bills to the treasury, sub-treasury officers for payment by account and electronic transfer from DDO’s account to beneficiaries accounts maintained in various bank branches. The DDO will further reconcile and settle the transaction with the daily scroll of the bank for the purposes of accounting, it further stated.
The official instructions of the state finance department further mentioned that the given guidelines will be followed with effect from the December 1 this month for all transactions through treasury and inter-bank transfer, including transfer to beneficiaries to all government schemes and payments to organizations and vendors.