General Provident Fund : In News
A division bench of the Madras High Court recently upheld the Central Administrative Tribunal’s orders granting pension rights under the General Provident Fund (GPF) scheme to retired Kendriya Vidyalaya teachers.
- General Provident Fund (GPF) is a savings scheme introduced in 1960 that is available only for government employees in India.
- The primary objective of GPF is to provide a dependable source of income after retirement to government employees.
- With a GPF account, all the government employees can contribute a certain percentage of their salary to the GPF.
- Unlike the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), the contributions toward the GPF are made only by the employee.
- The total amount that is accumulated throughout the employment term is paid to the employee at the time of retirement.
- As per the GPF rules, the following are eligible to subscribe to a GPF account:
- All temporary government servants who have given their service for continuously one year.
- All re-employed pensioners(except those eligible for admission to the contributory provident fund).
- All permanent government servants.
- It is a mandatory scheme for government employees, requiring them to contribute a certain percentage of their salary towards the fund.
- The contributions are deducted from the employee’s monthly salary, and the amount earns interestat a predetermined rate.
- The amount for GPF subscription is fixed by the subscriber The minimum contribution is 6% of the salary, while the maximum can go up to 100%.
- Employees can withdraw their savings from the fund upon retirement or resignation from service.
