General Provident Fund is a compulsory savings scheme introduced by the Government for the benefit of its employees and their Family members, which comes to their rescue in their financial crisis during the service and also at the end of the service.

As per Govt. of Maharashtra FD GR dated 31st October 2005 this scheme would NOT be applicable to the government servants who are recruited on or after 1st November 2005.

Immunity has been provided by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Provident Fund Act, 1925 against giving effect to the recovery of government dues from accumulation in the General Provident Fund account of the employee.

Constitutional provisions were made empowering the President of India to formulate the rules regulating the General Provident Fund for the central government employees and similarly powers were conferred on the Governors of the States to make the rules regulating the GPF for the state government employees.

Majority of the State Governments have entrusted the custody and maintenance of the GPF of their state to the C&AG of India who, through his field offices spread across the country, discharges this function. The Comptroller & Auditor General of India is the Head Of the Department of IA&AD and derives his powers under Article 149 of the Constitution of India as well as the C& AG’s (Duties, Power and Conditions of Service) Act 1971.

All transactions of Receipts and Payments made to and from the General Provident Fund are classified in government account under Part-III- Public Account I- Small Savings, Provident Funds etc. (b) Provident Funds-8009 State Provident Funds. This Major Head is closing to balances hence the balances under this head are carried forward from year to year in the Financial Accounts of the State government concerned.

The Custodians of the GPF

In the State of Maharashtra the Governor of Maharashtra in exercise of the powers conferred on him by the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution of India has made the rules regulating the General Provident Fund relating to Government Servants under the Government of Maharashtra. GPF Rules were amended from time to time and the present form of the rules are named as the Maharashtra General Provident Fund Rules, 1998.

The Office of the Accountant General (A &E ) II Maharashtra, Nagpur is maintaining GPF accounts of around 80Thousand employees pertaining to Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra.

The GPF Account Number comprising of GPF Series and unique GPF Account Number is allotted to each GPF subscriber. The GPF series comprises Department code followed by Region code e.g.  GABN, MBN, PHBN, JBN i.e. GA- General Administration, M-Medical, PH- Public Health, J- Jail etc.  Here ‘BN’ code is suffixed for all GPF series  allottedforGovernment servants working in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra. Sources from which transaction takes place in GPF account:

As pay & allowances of government servants are debited to the Consolidated Fund of the State and the emoluments are drawn from a government treasury /PAO, the recovery of GPF subscription shall be made from emoluments itself and when the pay & allowances are drawn from a source other than the Consolidated Fund of the state, the GPF subscription shall be credited into government account by remitting the amount into treasury through Challan or through DD drawn in favor of the “Accounts Officer” o/o the State AG who is maintaining the GPF account of the subscriber. Each Head of Office/Department has to send a statement to the Accountant General concerned in the prescribed format every month indicating the particulars of all such subscribers (except for Gr-D employees) in his office who are required to subscribe to GPF compulsorily. This statement will be in a form of GPF Schedule prepared in ascending order of GPF a/c number allotted to each Subscriber. (Guidelines given in subsequent paragraphs)

NOMINATION

Rule 5 of the MGPF Rules 1998 defines the rules regarding the facility for Nomination in the GPF scheme. The subscriber shall at the time of joining the Fund, send to the Head of the Office, nomination conferring on one or more persons the right to receive the amount that may stand to his credit in the fund in the event of his/her death. He/ She shall specify in the nomination form the amount or share payable to each of the nominees in such manner that it will cover the whole amount that may stand to his credit in the fund at any time. Nomination becomes invalid in the event of the happening of contingency provided therein.