Govt issues new SOP for NPS to OPS migration

The Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) has revised the procedure for migrating pension cases from the National Pension System (NPS) to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in cases involving the death or disability of government employees.

The Ministry of Finance has issued a revised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the migration of cases involving death and disability of NPS pensioners through office memorandum dated October 19, 2026. The new procedure supersedes the guidelines issued on September 17, 2025.

The Ministry of Finance says in the office memorandum, “In view of the challenges encountered in the process of migration, and in order to ease and facilitate this process, O/o CGA has approved a revised SOP for the migration of the legacy NPS-AR pension cases to OPS.”

The Ministry has ordered stakeholders to take necessary action to ensure the implementation of the revised SOP and to bring its provisions to the notice of all concerned officers/officials.

Here is what pensioners and family pensioners need to know about the revised procedure.

What should eligible pensioners do to shift from NPS to OPS?

Get the new Pension Payment Order (PPO) and return the old Provisional Pension Payment order (PPPO)

Pensioners should hand over their old Provisional Pension Payment Order (PPPO) to the bank after they receive the new regular Pension Payment Order (PPO).

As part of the migration process, the old PPPO will be collected by the bank and the relevant copies will be returned to the concerned authorities.

Continue to submit ife certificate every November

As per the existing guidelines of the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW), pensioners are required to submit their life certificate to the bank in the month of November every year.

What will be done before the new PPO is issued?

Pensioners don’t have to prepare the new PPO on their own. It will be done by the concerned government offices and pension authorities.

The CPAO will send the copies of existing PPPOs to the concerned pay and accounts office (PAO). The PAO will collect the service book and other necessary records of the employee from the Head of Office prior to the preparation of the new PPO.

The new PPO will contain the old PPPO number along with the Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) of the employee.

After verification, the documents will be sent to the CPPC of the concerned bank for processing through the CPAO.