CAG to audit defence pension portal 'SPARSH'

The total number of defence pensioners in the country are 32.94 lakh.

• CAG to audit SPARSH pension system for defence veterans in 2026-27
• Audit to address data migration, errors, and grievance redressal issues
• Defence ministry claims 94% of discrepant cases have been resolved

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The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has decided to audit the 'SPARSH' scheme, an online pension disbursement system for defence veterans, in the wake of issues faced by ex-servicemen.

In a letter addressed to Lt Col RK Bharadwaj (retd), dated December 11, the CAG’s office has noted that the audit of SPARSH, will be taken up in audit cycle 2026-27, and will cover the following “issues”, faced by defence veterans, such as: "(a) defective data migration, (b) expedited implementation without due process, (c) imposition of responsibility on vulnerable pensioners, (d) manifest errors in data, (e) ineffective grievance resolution mechanism et cetera."

Lt Col RK Bharadwaj (retd) has been relentlessly running an online campaign against SPARSH since the past 11 months--highlighting the hardships faced by India’s veterans in accessing their rightful pensions--especially by those who stay in remote areas, with poor internet connectivity.

Moneycontrol had reported the concerns of ex-servicemen regarding SPARSH on July 15.

"After 11 months of my campaign, I received a letter from CAG, where they acknowledged our concerns. I hope that CAG will issue appropriate directions to the defence ministry to correct the issues within SPARSH," he told Moneycontrol.

Bhardwaj, along with other veterans, have also approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking immediate intervention to resolve complaints. In a petition filed on December 8, Bhardwaj requested the Commission to direct the CAG to conduct an Efficiency-cum-Performance Audit of the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) and Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions) Prayagraj to investigate and rectify the systemic failures of SPARSH.

What’s SPARSH?

SPARSH is an end-to-end digital pension portal, which is administered by the Defence Accounts Department (DAD) through PCDA (Pensions) office in Prayagraj. According to a press-release of the defence ministry, dated December 15, SPARSH has onboarded 31.69 lakh defence pensioners across the country as of November 2025.

As of December 9, the total number of defence pensioners in the country are 32.94 lakh.

The platform was launched in 2021, but became fully operational in 2022. It replaced the earlier pension disbursement system, which was managed by banks, and other agencies. According to the defence ministry, “over 45,000 agencies” were previously involved in disbursing pensions.

However, defence veterans say that the conversion process from the old system to the new one has led to incorrect entries in biographical details in many cases which leads to problems, delays and stoppage of pension payments. They complain that the online redressal system is unresponsive and difficult to navigate.

An October 2024 document of the DAD, seen by Moneycontrol, had shown that approximately 6.5 lakh cases related to problems in pension disbursal to former armed forces servicemen were pending redressal.

This was the case, because, prior to 2022, banks used to issue Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) which had details of the pensioners along with nominees. The document was used to identify the pensioners and disburse the appropriate amount every month. And this was done through the banks where the pensioners maintained their accounts.

Post the implementation of SPARSH, all the PPO data was migrated to the portal, which led to discrepancies in disbursement of pensions. While migrating pensioners, inputs of many individuals were added manually, which lead to mismatch of data between SPARSH and the erstwhile bank PPOs, an official at PCDA (Pensions) had explained earlier. "This is why, the pensioners are facing issues with receiving pensions and getting their data rectified," the person had said.

94% cases normalised now

But in the past one year, 6.07 lakh discrepant cases “have been normalised without affecting pensioners’ entitlements,” says the defence ministry, in its December 15 release.

An official in the PCDA (Pensions) office told Moneycontrol that in the past six-seven months, many campaigns and outreach programmes were held to resolve pensioner’s queries and correct their biographical details, which lead to a "substantial reduction" in pending cases.

The official didn’t comment on the CAG’s decision to audit SPARSH, but said all issues are “being looked into”.

Former NSG commando and air defence veteran Col Anupam Jaitely (retd) said in the past six months, we don’t hear much complaints related to SPARSH. "It seems what the defence ministry claims in the recent press release in correct, and the system is getting better. Earlier, I used to hear from veterans that they are facing issues, including those who stay in remote areas. I hardly hear those now."

The defence ministry says that pensioners can now view complete pension details online and easily raise corrections. "Average grievance redressal time has come down from 56 days in April 2025 to 17 days in November 2025 and as per the latest Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances report, DAD has achieved a 73% satisfaction score, ranking 5th among Ministries/Departments."

In FY25, a Defence Pension Budget of Rs 1,57,681 crore was disbursed on a real-time basis through SPARSH, says the ministry.