Finance dept adopts paperless process for salary & pension bills

Kolkata: The state Finance department is doing away with the physical submission of bills and vouchers to Accountant General, West Bengal (AGWB) in a phased manner for salary, (including arrear salary), bills and monthly pension Bills along with monthly accounts from the month of May-2025 onwards for all state government employees.

A senior department official said that phasing out the physical submission and simultaneous transition to digitised submission of bills and vouchers to AGWB for accounting and auditing purposes has been under the active consideration of the state government for some time past; with almost all states shifting to digital mode in this regard.

A recent order issued by the Additional Chief Secretary of the Finance department PK Mishra instructs the Pay & Accounts offices and treasuries to exclude the hard copies of the salary (including arrear salary) bills during the physical submission of monthly accounts to AGWB.

“The pension disbursing treasuries shall not be required to submit hard copies of the pension bills, physically to AGWB, along with the monthly accounts for the month of May-2025 onwards, and therefore, are advised to discontinue the practice of printing of pension bills from this month,” the order states.

The submission of the physical salary (including arrear salary) bills to the treasuries for processing will continue till further instructions from the department, as an additional back-up measure, during this transition phase. Such bills, after approval, shall be preserved in the respective Pay & Accounts Offices and Treasuries till further instruction from the Finance department.