Bank of Baroda and HDFC Bank to be a service center for Defence ministry SPARSH pension system

Tags: Economy/Finance Defence

The Defence Accounts Department of the Union Ministry of Defence signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bank of Baroda and HDFC Bank, to onboard them as Service Centers under the System for Pension Administration (defence) (SPARSH) initiative on 21 September 2022.

Now defence pensioners having accounts with these banks can get their pension directly in their account.

Speaking on the occasion the defence secretary Dr Ajay Kumar said that the objective is to bring 17 Lakh pensioners out of the total 32 lakh defence pensioners on SPARSH by the end of September, 2022 and the remaining pensioners will be brought to SPARSH at the earliest.

He said that the average time in pension settlement has come down significantly to about 16 days.

IMPORTANT FACTS -

System for Pension Administration (SPARSH) :

• SPARSH is a web-based system for processing the pension claims and crediting the pension directly into the bank accounts of defence pensioners without any external intermediary. 
• This system is administered by the Defence Accounts Department through the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions), Prayagraj and caters to all the three Services and allied organizations.