How employees can declare their FBP using their ESS portal?

Once the Admin has created a Flexible Benefit Plan (FBP) for you, you can go ahead and declare the various components. You can choose from the various FBP components that are offered and then declare these components based on the policies that are predefined by the Admin.

Perform the following steps to declare the FBP components:

1. Click the My Info menu on the Home page and then click FBP Declaration under Salary. The FBP Declaration page appears displaying the joining date, effective date, pay date, last updated date and plan date and a section where you can declare the FBP components.

   • If Admin has not yet defined any plan for you, the following message appears on the FBP Declaration page:

   Plan is not created for this employee.

   • The month drop-down list appearing at the top-right corner, indicates the period across which the plan is effective.

   The components that the Admin has defined for you, appear under the Allowances column. And the Max Limit column denotes the entitlement amount for a particular component. 
   
   Figure 1: Declaring the FBP Components
   
   
    

2. Based on the policies associated with a component, you can declare that component on the following grounds,

   • Component is mutually exclusive in nature—A component can be mutually exclusive with another component. For example, let us consider Driver Allowance and Conveyance Allowance as mutually exclusive components. In such a case, you can declare any one of the mutually exclusive components.  
   • Component is dependent in nature—A component can be dependent on other components. For example, let us assume Driver Allowance as dependent on Car Maintenance Allowance. Then while declaring Driver Allowance, you must have already declared Car Maintenance Allowance.
   • Component is quantity based—A component can be quantity based. For example, let us assume that Admin has defined Food Coupons as a quantity based component with a base value of Rs. 500. So, under the Preference column you get to choose number of food coupon booklets you require. If you choose five in the drop down, then the declared amount is considered as Rs. 500 * 4 = Rs. 2,000. 
   • Component is marked as Opt In—If Admin marks a component as Opt In, a drop-down list appears under the Preference column. You can only choose Yes or No from the drop-down list, indicating whether you want to declare the amount for this component or not. On choosing Yes, the entitled amount for that component is automatically considered as the declared amount.  For example, let us assume, Food Coupons (with an entitlement of Rs. 1,500), as a component that Admin has marked as Opt In. Then for Food Coupons you can find a drop-down list under the Preference column. You can either choose Yes or No from the drop-down list. On choosing Yes, the complete entitlement, that is Rs. 1,500 is considered as the declared amount. And on choosing No, you do not get to declare for this component. 

3. Click Submit after you have declared all the components. A message appears prompting you that the plan has been successfully submitted.