ABU DHABI // Retired military officials are to benefit from an expansion of services from the Department of Finance Abu Dhabi.
The department’s Military Pension Division plans to launch customer-service centres throughout the country and now provides its services electronically.
The plan also includes detailed audits of retirement salaries, their breakdown and any amendments, an annual entitlement assessment for retired officials and beneficiaries, and collection of updated family information.
Administrative e-systems are to be developed to improve services and the communication processes used to familiarise retired officials with their rights and obligations.
Department officials stressed the importance of updating files and salary-payment records to make sure funds are transferred on time.
An e-system in place since last year registers retirees’ information and monitors any changes, informing the pensioners through a call centre and via text message when a financial transaction is conducted or new pension branch opened.
Another new system developed and implemented over the past year reduced the waiting time for pensioners’ statements to one day, rather than three to seven.
A specialised application, called DoF AUH, was launched to offer services via smartphones to keep pensioners up-to-date with details of their transfers. It also allows them to obtain a pension certificate with more details.
The division services are for retirees from the Armed Forces, the General Directorate of Abu Dhabi Police, the General Directorate of Residence and Foreign Affairs Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi Civil Defence Department.
The division has offices in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Sharjah, and offers services through Armed Forces centres in Al Ain, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah and Abu Dhabi.
Hamad Al Hurr Al Suwaidi, department chairman, said the services are provided in response to retirees’ many years of serving the nation and protecting the country’s territorial integrity.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
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Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
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Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
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