New Delhi Municipal Council (Pension Fund) Regulations, 2023

F. No.G-28011/515/2021-Budget/pension/NDMC/D-83/(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by section 54 read with sections 43, 44 and 387 of the New Delhi Municipal Council Act, 1994 (44 of 1994), the New Delhi Municipal Council, New Delhi, with the prior approval of the Central Government, hereby makes the following regulations 2023, namely:-

(1) These regulations may be called the New Delhi Municipal Council (Pension Fund) Regulations, 2023.

(2) They shall come in to force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. Definitions.– (1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires,–

• (i) “Act” means the New Delhi Municipal Council Act, 1994 (44 of 1994);
• (ii) “Actuary” means a valuator appointed for ascertaining the pension and other retirement benefits of municipal officers and other municipal employees and the expression “actuarial study” shall be construed, accordingly;
• (iii) “Chairman” means the Chairman of the Pension Trust;
• (iv) “investment  Advisor”  means  a  person  who  makes  investment  recommendations  or  conducts securities analysis;
• (v) “Pension Fund” means the fund constituted under regulation 3;
• (vi) “pensioner” means a retired municipal officeror municipal employee including his spouse and legal heirs entitled to receive pension and other retirement benefits from the Council, and includes the person declared by the competent court to receive pension or retirement benefits from the Council;
• (vii) “Pension Trust” means a public trust created by the Council under regulation 5;
• (viii) “retirement benefits” include pension, commutation of pension, family-pension, death-cum- retirement gratuity, service gratuity, fixed medical allowance and dearness relief on pension or family pension as payable to the municipal officers and other municipal employees and legal heirs of adeceased employee under the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021;
• (ix) “section” means a section of the Act;
• (x) “trustees” includes the Chairman and other trustees of the Pension Trust as referred to in sub regulation (3) of regulation 5; and
• (xi) “trustdeed” means the deed executed under regulation 6.

(2) The words and expressions used herein and not defined but defined in the Act, shall have the same meaning as respectively assigned to them in the Act.

3. Constitution of Pension Fund.– 

(1) For meeting out the liabilities of pension and other retirement benefits of municipal officers and other municipal employees, a fund to be known as ‘the New Delhi Municipal Council Pension Fund’ having a minimum corpus of ten crores rupees shall be constituted by the Council from the date of commencement of these regulations.

(2) The amount available against the pension and gratuity fund under the head the ‘New Delhi Municipal Fund’ as on the date of commencement of these regulations shall be credited to the Pension Fund.

(3) For meeting out further liabilities of pension and other retirement benefits, each year, the Council may transfer by way of budgetary grant, such additional amount from the ‘New Delhi Municipal Fund’, as may be recommended by the Trustees, on the basis of an actuarial study and the sums available in the Pension Fund.

(4) All sums credited to the Pension Fund shall be kept in a separate bank account in the same branch of the State Bank of India in which the General Account of the ‘New Delhi Municipal Fund’ has been kept as per the Act.

4. Application of Pension Fund.–All sums credited to the Pension Fund, interest accrued thereon and the interest on investments made out of the said fund, shall be applied only for meeting out the liabilities of the Council on account of pension and other retirement benefits payable to the municipal officers and other municipal employees including all other expenditure incidental to and necessary for management, administration and operation of the Pension Fund.

(1) For the purposes of management, administration and operation of Pension Fund, the Council shall by resolution create a Public Trust namely the ‘New Delhi Municipal Council Pension Trust’ comprising of Chairman and six other trustees.

(2) The Pension Trust shall be registered and shall obtain recognition of regulator and other appropriate authority, as may be required under the applicable laws.

(3) The Council shall by resolution nominate to the Pension Trust the following persons as its Chairman and trustees, namely:-

• (a) the Chairperson of the Council- Chairman;
• (b) the Financial Advisor, New Delhi Municipal Council- Trustee;
• (c) the Director (Accounts), New Delhi Municipal Council – Trustee;
• (d) the Director (Welfare), New Delhi Municipal Council- Trustee;
• (e) the Director (Personnel), New Delhi Municipal Council – Trustee; and
• (f) two independent persons having experience in finance – Trustee.

(4) The Chairman of the Pension Trust shall have overall control of the Pension Trust and other trustees shall perform such functions and duties as may be assigned to them by the Chairperson in accordance with the trust deed.

(5) For the purposes of management, administration and operation of the Pension Fund, the trustees shall exercise such powers and perform such functions as may be specified in the trust deed.

 

6. Execution of Trust-Deed.–For the purposes of management, administration and operation of  the Pension Fund, the trustees of the Pension Trust shall execute the trust deed in accordance with the applicable laws specifying therein the powers and obligations of the trustees, maintenance of accounts of the Pension Fund and other responsibilities as may be entrusted upon the trustees by the Council.

7. Investment of surplus corpus of Pension Fund.–The trustees shall invest the unutilised or surplus Pension Corpus  by  following  the  Ministry  of  Finance,  Department  of  Financial  Services  notification  number 11/14/2013-PR, dated the 2ndMarch, 2015 mutatis mutandis, as amended from time to time and through an investment advisor or portfolio manager registered with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) preferably those who are being employed by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) or any such Government Organisation as may be decided by the trustees.

8. Maintenance of accounts of Pension Fund.–The accounts of the Pension Fund shall be maintained by the Pension  Trust  in  conformity  with  the  Act,  Accounting  Standards  for  Local  Bodies  (ASLBs),  National Municipal Accounts Manual (NMAM), and other relevant provisions as may be laid down in the Trust Deed.

9. Audit of Pension Fund accounts.–The accounts of the Pension Fund shall be audited by the Chief Auditor of the Council in the same manner as in the case of audit of accounts of the Council in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

10. Grievance Redressal System.–Where any pensioner or his legal heir is aggrieved with regard to pension or retirement benefits as payable to him, he may make an application to the Pension Trust in that regard, and the Pension Trust shall take actions for resolution of the grievancesas mentioned in such application within a period of thirty days from the date of receipt of the application and may also seek information from the Council as deemed necessary for this purpose.

11. Dissolution of the Pension Fund and Pension Trust.–

(1) The Council may by a resolution dissolve the Pension Fund once the purpose for which the fund is created, is achieved.

(2) The Council may by a resolution dissolve the Pension Trust in the event of,–

• (a) mis-management of the Pension Fund by the Pension Trust; or
• (b) non-performance of the Trust.

(3) Upon dissolution of the Pension Fund under sub-regulation (1), the unutilised balance amount in the Pension Fund, if any, shall be transferred to the ‘New Delhi Municipal Fund’ by transferring such amount from the Pension Fund Bank Account to the General Account of the ‘New Delhi Municipal Fund’. 

12. The issues relating to the management, administration and operation of the Pension Fund including the kinds of pension admissible, revision of pension or family pension, disbursement processes, banking, dearness relief to pensioners, certification by the pensioners shall be governed in accordance with the provisions of the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021and the orders of the Central Government issued on the subject from time to time.

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