After the contribution of one-day salary of all the employees of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to the PM CARES Fund to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, a proposal has been moved to contribute one-day salary every month of this financial year to the Fund, defence sources said.
“The proposal is to deduct one day’s salary every month this financial year and deposit it in the PM CARES Fund. The circular on this will be issued in a day or two. This will be purely on a voluntary basis,” a defence source said on Friday.
End of March, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved a proposal for the contribution of the MoD employees’ one-day salary, which the Ministry had stated “around ₹500 crore will be collectively” from the three Services, Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSU) and others, to the PM-CARES Fund . The contribution is voluntary and those desirous of opting out will be exempted, the MoD had noted.
In addition, the DPSU’s and the Ordnance Factory Board have made a contribution from the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds.
Earlier, the Finance Ministry issued a circular dated April 17 on contribution of a day’s salary every month of all its employees to the fund till March 2021. It stated that “any officer or staff having objection to it may intimate drawing and disbursing officer, Department of Revenue in writing...”
However, this was modified in an order on April 29 that said anyone willing to contribute a day’s salary every month has to write to the drawing and disbursing officer of the Department of Revenue.