TCS Bags Extension On 30 Lakh Defence Staff’s Pension Project

Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Tuesday said it has bagged an extension of a Government of India contract on processing the pension for 30 lakh defence personnel.

The Tata Group company said it has been executing the contract since 2020, and its interventions have helped save Rs250 crore annually by centralising the pension disbursement process and eliminating bank service charges.

It, however, did not disclose the value of the deal. TCS has signed a three-year extension of its contract for SPARSH (System for Pension Administration, Raksha), a Government of India initiative to streamline pension distribution for over 30 lakh defence pensioners, according to a statement. TCS will maintain the hardware and software of the programme for three years, and also deliver key updates to the system.

The company statement said over the years, it has been able to reduce pension processing timelines from 12 to 18 months to just 14 days, and do it within a week for first-time pension payments. It has also helped implement the once contentious One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme, the statement said.

“TCS has enabled the processing time to reduce from six to eight months to just two weeks, allowing the disbursement of OROP to 1.8 million eligible pensioneRsin a record time of 15 days,” it added. The company is also in discussions with the Controller General of Defence Accounts to potentially develop a digital solution that would allow pensioneRsto make reverse payments in the event of overpayments, the statement said.