Amongst the other units of Department of Telecom (DOT), Controller General of Communications   Accounts (CGCA) also set up a stall in IMC-2023 to demonstrate its digitization programme for ease of doing business for the telecom licensees as well as quality service delivery to the Telecom/BSNL/MTNL Pensioners  in the form of SARAS and SAMPANN.

SAMPANN and SARAS teams were honored to host the following distinguished visitors at the stall:

1. Minister of State for Communications, Sh. Devusinh Chauhan visited the stall and appreciated the systems and urged the Department to scale up the systems for bettering the lives of Pensioners.
2. Secretary, DOT understood the breadth of the systems and appreciated the systems.
3. Secretary, DARPG was given a demo of the SAMPANN and thereafter acknowledged that the system has been disbursing pension directly to pensioners.
4. Several other senior officers of the GoI and PSUs and officials of several TSPs visited the stall. The stall facilitated submission of Life Certificates using Face Authentication.
5. Ex-Member (Services) and Ex-CMD, BSNL submitted their Life Certificate using the Face Authentication Jeevan Pramaan App.

At the stall, QR codes have been displayed for accessing LF Handbook for decentralized licensees, Simplified Financial Compliance of License Agreements for ISPs and CGCA website Link for revenue related orders. At the stall QR code has been displayed for submission of feedback by Telecom Licensees visiting the Stall during the IMC-2023. The stall also features brief videos on SARAS showcasing its features and outcome.

SARAS, which was launched by the DOT on 15.01.2021 is a portal for the licensees for ease of compliance of financial conditions of license agreements. Through SARAS portal, Licensees are able to avail facility to make online paperless payments for LF, SUC, Spectrum Auction payments and CAF/EMR penalty, Testing Fees and other penalties.

SARAS has led to Fully Digital and Paperless Submission of Statement of Revenue and License Fee on Quarterly Basis and Audited Document and Annual Financial document on Annual Basis. It enables Online Submission of Deduction document and Access to Online Assessment and demand notices for LD and SUC, demand notices for other dues. It acts as a Single Window for issuance of No Dues Certificate and thus exit management. Already 2659 licensees are on boarded on SARAS.

Through SARAS revenue around Rs two lakh crore has already been collected.

SAMPANN – ‘System for Accounting and Management of Pension’ project is a seamless online pension processing and payment system for Department of Telecommunications pensioners. It was dedicated to the nation by the Honorable Prime Minister on 29^th December 2018.

More than Four Lakh pensioners of DOT/BSNL/MTNL are currently being serviced by CCA units all over India via SAMPANN which has improved the service delivery to pensioners by providing a single window setup ensuring the following benefits:

• Timely settlement of pension cases
• Provision of e-Pension Payment Order
• Login for each pensioner enables access to key information like payment history
• Online submission of grievances and timely SMS alerts

An amount of approx. Rs. 1,239 crore is being disbursed as monthly pension via SAMPANN.

Also, till September 2023, SAMPANN has resulted in to savings of approx. Rs 44 crore and would accrue an annual recurring savings of Rs 40 Crore per annum for the Government.

DK/DK