Government of West Bengal

Finance Department

Nabanna, Howrah

No.4035-F(eGov) Dated 3rd November 2026

NOTIFICATION

Sub: Introduction of West Bengal Salary Advance Scheme

The Government of West Bengal since some time past has been actively considering providing structured salary advance access facilities in partnership with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulated Scheduled Commercial Banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), operated through fully digital, consent-based platforms integrated with the State's payroll/treasury systems, to promote financial wellbeing of the Employees, as a safe, transparent, and dignified alternative to high-cost informal credit and prevent the employees from facing any short-term or medium-term liquidity constraints or falling prey to unregulated or high-cost informal lenders, exposing them to avoidable financial distress on account of medical emergencies, family obligations, education expenses or other unforeseen contingencies.

2. Accordingly, the Government of West Bengal now introduces the "West Bengal Salary Advance Scheme" (hereinafter "the Scheme"). In the first phase, the Scheme shall extend to all regular employees of the Government of West Bengal, across all Groups (Group A, B, C and D, or equivalent). At this stage, the Scheme shall be operationalised for those Employees whose salary is disbursed through the Treasury/Pay and Accounts Office system through HRMS/ WBIFMS. Extension of coverage of the Scheme to other categories of Employees / organisations may be considered by the Finance Department in a phased manner at a subsequent stage, upon finalisation of the requisite data-sharing and payroll-integration protocols and development of requisite online Portals.

3. Objectives of the Scheme:

i. To provide Employees a safe, transparent and RBI-regulated alternative to informal or high-cost credit for short-term and medium-term liquidity needs.

ii. To promote timely, digital, consent-based access to a line of credit linked to earned salary.

iii. To ensure that the facility operates on a zero-cost and zero-liability basis for the Government of West Bengal.

iv. To leverage the State's existing payroll infrastructure (WBIFMS/HRMS) for seamless, auditable disbursal and recovery.

v. To ensure robust consumer protection, data security, and grievance redressal for all beneficiaries under the Scheme.

4. Definitions:

i. "Credit Limit" means the maximum amount of Short-Term Advance or Multi-Month Advance that may be sanctioned to a User, as determined by the Lender/Service Provider through a risk-assessment framework compliant with RBI guidelines, subject to the EMI Cap and ceiling prescribed under this Scheme.

ii. "DDO" means the Drawing and Disbursing Officer of the concerned establishment of the Government of West Bengal, including the Head of Office discharging such functions.

iii. "EMI" means the Equated Monthly Instalment payable towards repayment of a Multi-Month Advance.

iv. "EMI Cap" means the ceiling of 50% (fifty percent) of the net payable salary of a User during the sanction month, up to which instalments/recoveries under this Scheme (taken together and across all Service Providers/Lenders), may be effected.

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v. "Empanelled Service Provider(s)" or "Service Provider(s)" means the Entities empanelled by the Nodal Entity based on its prescribed criteria, to design, develop, implement and operate the digital platform for the Scheme.

vi. "Employee" means an employee of the Public/Government Sector in the State of West Bengal.

vii. "Empowered Committee" means the Empowered Committee to be constituted by the Finance Department under the Scheme.

viii. "Exception Event" means the resignation, retirement, death, suspension, transfer, unauthorised absence, leave without pay or termination of a User, or any other event affecting recovery of the Repayable Amount.

ix. "HRMS" means the Human Resource Management System module of the Government of West Bengal, integrated with WBIFMS, containing service and payroll records of Employees.

x. "Key Fact Statement" or "KFS" means the standardised disclosure of interest/APR, fees (if any) and other charges furnished to a User prior to disbursal in accordance with RBI's Digital Lending Guidelines.

xi. "Law" means any Act, rule, regulation, notification, order or direction having the force of law, issued by the Government of India, the Government of West Bengal, the Reserve Bank of India or any other competent authority.

xii. "Lender" means the Scheduled Commercial Bank or RBI-registered NBFC that sanctions and disburses the Short-Term Advance or Multi-Month Advance to a User, whether the Empanelled Service Provider itself (where it is a Bank/NBFC) or the Bank/NBFC that is its subsidiary or associate company (within the meaning of the Companies Act, 2013).

xiii. "Multi-Month Advance" means the salary-linked advance as described hereinafter at Para 6(2).

xiv. "Nodal Entity" means the e-Governance Group, Finance Department, Government of West Bengal, responsible for administration of the Scheme.

xv. "Repayable Amount" means the cumulative sum of the principal amount of the Short-Term Advance/Multi-Month Advance and the interest and the fee (if any) permitted under this Scheme, together with applicable taxes thereon, payable by a User in accordance with the terms disclosed at the time of availing the advance.

xvi. "Scheme" means this West Bengal Salary Advance Scheme, including all annexures and amendments thereto.

xvii. "Service Rules" means the rules, regulations, orders and instructions governing the service conditions, pay, allowances and deductions of Employees, as amended from time to time.

xviii. "Short-Term Advance" means the salary advance as described hereinafter at Para 6(1).

xix. "Standard Deductions" means recurring deductions from the salary of an Employee under Service Rules or Government orders, such as GPF, NPS, GIS, Professional Tax, and similar recurring deductions.

xx. "Top-up Facility" means a facility under which, while a Multi-Month Advance is outstanding, the Lender sanctions a fresh Multi-Month Advance to the User, the proceeds of which are first applied to repay the outstanding Multi-Month Advance in full (without any foreclosure or pre-payment charge) and the balance, if any, is disbursed to the User, so that only one advance remains outstanding at any time; the fresh advance shall remain subject to all parameters of this Scheme, including the Credit Limit, EMI Cap, tenure, APR ceiling and the prohibition on undisclosed fees and charges.

xxi. "User" means an Employee who has consented to avail the Short-Term Advance and/or Multi-Month Advance under this Scheme.

xxii. "WBIFMS"/ "IFMS" means the West Bengal Integrated Financial Management System, the digital treasury/payroll platform of the Government of West Bengal.

5. Nodal Entity and Governance Structure:

i. The e-Governance Group, Finance Department shall function as the Nodal Entity for administration of the Scheme, including empanelment and engagement of the Service Providers; execution and custody of the MoU; overall commercial and contractual oversight;

certification and oversight of integration of the Service Provider's digital lending platform with WBIFMS/HRMS; defining data-exchange protocols/APIs; ensuring data security and regulatory (IT Act, RBI Digital Lending Guidelines) compliance of such integration; operationalisation of at-source recovery of the Repayable Amount from the salary of Employees through the Treasury/DDO network, on the basis of deduction instructions received through WBIFMS; and periodic review of Scheme performance.

ii. The Head of Office/DDO of the concerned establishment shall be responsible for employee-data updation, facilitation of consent, and prompt reporting of any Exception Event.

iii. An Empowered Committee to be constituted by the Finance Department shall undertake periodic review of the Scheme.

6. Structure of the Scheme:

The Scheme shall comprise two distinct products, namely:

6(1) Short-Term Advance:

i. Purpose: to meet urgent, short-term liquidity needs of a User.

ii. Repayment: within the same or immediately succeeding salary cycle, not exceeding a period of 60 (sixty) days, as may be specified in the MoU/platform terms.

iii. Pricing: Nil interest where the advance is repaid within the stipulated cycle; only a nominal and fully disclosed transaction fee, if any, not exceeding 1% (one percent) of the amount of the advance (inclusive of GST and all applicable taxes), may be levied for late intimation/deduction after the stipulated date, and no such fee shall be levied where the delay is attributable to the Government, the DDO or the deduction mechanism. No other interest or penal charge of any nature shall be levied on a Short-Term Advance, whether before or after the stipulated date, and no processing fee, platform fee, convenience fee, subscription fee or similar charge shall be levied under any name.

iv. Amount: up to a percentage (not exceeding 50%) of the net payable salary of the sanction month, subject to the risk-assessment framework of the Lender and the EMI Cap prescribed under this Scheme.

v. Single Facility: shall apply to a Short-Term Advance as it applies to a Multi-Month Advance, as mentioned at 6(2)(vii) hereinafter.

6(2) Multi-Month Advance:

i. Purpose: to meet planned or emergent requirements needing a longer repayment horizon.

ii. Tenure: from 2 (two) months up to 60 (sixty) months (an advance repayable within 60 (sixty) days being a Short-Term Advance); provided that, in the case of serving Employees, the repayment tenure shall not extend beyond the date of superannuation.

iii. EMI Cap: the EMI towards recovery of the Multi-Month Advance, taken together with any other advance/deduction being recovered under this Scheme, shall not exceed 50% (fifty percent) of the net payable salary of the sanction month.

iv. Credit Limit: to be determined by the Lender based on its risk-assessment/underwriting framework, compliant with RBI guidelines, subject to the EMI Cap above and to a ceiling of 30 (thirty) times the net monthly payable salary of the User, which ceiling shall apply together with the EMI Cap.

v. Pricing: interest/Annual Percentage Rate (APR) and all other charges shall be transparently disclosed to the User through a Key Fact Statement (KFS) prior to disbursal, in accordance with RBI's Digital Lending Guidelines. The APR (as disclosed in the KFS) charged on a Multi-Month Advance shall not exceed the ceiling fixed by the Finance Department during empanelment. APR shall be computed inclusive of interest and all other charges/fees as per RBI guidelines.

vi. No Foreclosure Charges: no charge shall be levied for foreclosure/pre-payment of the Multi-Month Advance at any point during its tenure.

vii. Single Facility: only one advance (whether a Short-Term Advance or a Multi-Month Advance) shall be permitted to remain outstanding against a User at any given time, across all Service Providers/Lenders, and a Short-Term Advance and a Multi-Month Advance shall not run concurrently; each Service Provider/Lender shall verify through the WBIFMS integration that no advance is outstanding and that exclusive consent is received before sanction; a fresh advance may be availed only after full repayment/foreclosure of the outstanding advance, subject to the Top-up Facility, if offered by the Lender to the User. After a loan is closed with a Service Provider, there shall be a cooling-off period of 30 days before consent can be changed to a different provider to avoid any reconciliation issues.

7. Empanelment of Service Providers:

The Nodal Entity shall empanel eligible Service Providers for implementation of the Scheme from eligible Scheduled Commercial Banks, RBI-registered NBFCs, and Entities holding a Bank/NBFC as a subsidiary or associate company, meeting the eligibility criteria prescribed by the Nodal Entity. The entities so empanelled ("Empanelled Service Providers") shall execute a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nodal Entity to function as Service Providers on a non-exclusive basis.

8. Implementation Mechanism:

i. Consent: No advance shall be processed, and no data shall be shared, without the explicit, informed, digital consent of the User concerned, including a standing instruction authorising salary deduction. Consent shall be exclusive to one Service Provider at a time. Consent may only be revoked explicitly on WBIFMS after closing the loan and after completing the cooling-off period.

ii. Platform Integration: The Service Provider's platform shall be integrated with WBIFMS/HRMS through secure Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), certified by the e-Governance Group, for exchange of eligibility, salary and deduction data, and for transmission of EMI/recovery instructions.

iii. KYC: The Service Provider/Lender shall complete Know-Your-Customer verification of the User in accordance with RBI guidelines, including biometric/video-KYC where mandated.

iv. Disbursal: On completion of consent, KYC and underwriting, the approved amount shall be disbursed directly to the User's bank account by the Lender through the Service Provider's platform, ordinarily within 60 (sixty) seconds to a few hours of approval.

v. Recovery: The Repayable Amount shall be recovered at source from the salary of the User in the succeeding payroll cycle(s), on the basis of instructions transmitted by the Service Provider through WBIFMS, and remitted by the Treasury/DDO to the designated account of the Lender/Service Provider within the timeline specified in the MoU. Recovery shall be subject to the order of priority mentioned at 8(vi) hereinafter and shall be made only to the extent permitted by Law and Service Rules.

vi. Order of Priority: Recovery of the Repayable Amount shall rank only after statutory deductions, Standard Deductions and dues owed to the Government have been made, and in priority to any other deductions from salary; and in no case shall the Repayable Amount rank ahead of statutory deductions, Standard Deductions or dues owed to the Government.

vii. Exception Handling: In the event of any Exception Event in respect of a User, the concerned DDO shall promptly intimate the Service Provider. Where a User separates from service, the outstanding Repayable Amount may, to the extent permitted by Law and Service Rules and only under the User's standing instruction, be recovered from the amounts payable to the User on final settlement, after statutory deductions, Standard Deductions and dues owed to the Government; the Government shall not be responsible for any shortfall in such recovery.

viii. Suspension of Access: The Nodal Entity may, at any time and with immediate effect, direct a Service Provider to stop or suspend the facility for all Users, a group of Users or any specific User, and may suspend or revoke the Service Provider's system access in case of any security concern, data misuse or non-compliance with this Scheme or the MoU. The Service Provider shall comply forthwith.

9. Zero-Cost, Zero-Liability Model:

The Scheme shall operate on a zero-cost and zero-liability basis for the Government of West Bengal. All credit risk, including the risk of default or non-recovery from a User who separates from service or is otherwise unable to repay, shall be borne solely by the Lender/Service Provider. The role of the Government of West Bengal under this Scheme shall be limited to (i) facilitating User-consented data-sharing, (ii) enabling at-source deduction and remittance, where permitted, and (iii) technical integration through WBIFMS/HRMS. The Government of West Bengal shall not extend any financial guarantee, sovereign assurance, letter of comfort or credit enhancement of any nature in respect of the Scheme, and shall act purely as a facilitator.

10. Data Security, Confidentiality and Regulatory Compliance:

i. The Service Provider shall comply with the Information Technology Act, 2000, RBI's Digital Lending Guidelines/Master Directions, RBI's cyber-security directions, the extant cyber-security framework of the competent authorities of the Government of India and the Government of West Bengal, and all other applicable law.

ii. The Service Provider shall hold, and maintain for the duration of the MoU, information-security certifications including ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and SOC 2 Type II, and shall be subject to periodic security audit. Provided that a Scheduled Commercial Bank shall not be required to hold such certifications, but shall comply with the cyber-security directions of the Reserve Bank of India applicable to it and with the extant cyber-security framework of the competent authorities of the Government of India and the Government of West Bengal.

iii. Data shared by the Government/Users shall be used solely for the purposes of this Scheme and shall not be shared with any third party except the Lender, to the extent necessary for extending the advance, and except as required by law.

iv. The Service Provider shall maintain data-audit trails and system logs, and shall report any actual or suspected personal data breach, unauthorised access or other data-security incident to the Nodal Entity immediately, and in no case later than 24 (twenty-four) hours.

v. Upon cessation of an Employee's eligibility under this Scheme (including by reason of any Exception Event), access to the Government-shared data of that Employee shall cease forthwith, and the Service Provider shall delete or irreversibly anonymise such data, except to the extent required for recovery of any outstanding Repayable Amount or for retention required under law.

11. Grievance Redressal:

i. The Service Provider shall operate a round-the-clock (24x7) helpdesk and shall appoint a Grievance Redressal Officer.

ii. Complaints shall receive an initial response within 72 (seventy-two) hours, and shall ordinarily be resolved within 7 (seven) days of lodging.

iii. Unresolved grievances may be escalated to a Grievance Nodal Officer to be designated by the Nodal Entity.

12. Monitoring, Reporting and Review:

i. The Service Provider shall submit monthly and quarterly Management Information System (MIS) reports to the Nodal Entity, covering the number of beneficiaries, amount disbursed and recovered, defaults, and grievance-redressal status.

ii. The Empowered Committee shall undertake an annual review of Scheme performance and may recommend revision of financial parameters, coverage or process.

iii. A mid-term review of pricing (interest/APR, fees) may be undertaken to ensure continued alignment with prevailing RBI guidelines and market conditions.

13. Amendment and Interpretation:

The Finance Department, Government of West Bengal reserves the right to amend, modify or withdraw this Scheme, in whole or in part, at any time without assigning any reason thereof. The decision of the Finance Department on interpretation of any provision of this Scheme shall be final. Matters not specifically covered herein shall be decided by the Finance Department. Any amendment to this Scheme shall be binding on the Service Providers from the date specified in the amendment, prospectively and without affecting advances already sanctioned, and the MoU shall be construed subject to this Scheme as amended from time to time. Every provision of this Scheme, and all instruments issued under it, relating to deduction, recovery, remittance or the sharing of salary and service data shall operate only to the extent permitted by Law and Service Rules.

14. Effective Date and Duration:

This Scheme shall take effect from the date of notification and shall, in the first instance, remain in effect for 5 years, extendable, renewable or revised by the Finance Department as may be considered appropriate. The MoU with each Empanelled Service Provider shall be for a period of 5 (five) years from the date of its execution, or till this Scheme remains in force, or until further orders of the Government of West Bengal, whichever is earlier.

15. This is issued with immediate effect in the interest of public service.

(Prabhat Kumar Mishra)

Additional Chief Secretary to the

Government of West Bengal