FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS OF GENERAL PROVIDENT FUND ACCOUNT
1. When the General Provident Fund is Came into exixtence?
The Accountant General (A&E)
maintains the individual General Provident
Fund accounts of nearly 3.7 Lakh employees of
the Kerala State Government, High Court Judges and All India Service
Officials working in Kerala as per the rules and procedures contained in
the General Provident Fund (Kerala)
Rules 1964 and All India Service (Provident Fund) Rules 1955
respectively. The State Government have introduced Provident Fund Scheme
for the Part Time Contingent Employees with effect from 17.03.2005; the
maintenance of the fund is entrusted with the Accountant General
(A&E), Kerala. Admission to the Fund started in November 2007. The GENERAL
PROVIDENT FUND for full time employees is constituted with effect
from 1st April 1964. The GENERAL PROVIDENT FUND for Part-time
contingent employees (KPTCEPF) is constituted with effect from 17.03.2005.
2. Who can Join the Fund?
The
following categories of staff of the Government of Kerala are eligible to join
the Fund:
1. All
permanent employees of any pensionable service
2. All
probationers in any service who will be made full members of the service
on due completion of their period
of probation
3. All temporary,
acting and officiating members of any service on completion
of one year’s service.
4. All part-time
contingent employees of any service on completion of one
year’s service.
5.Temporary, acting and
officiating members who have not completed one year’s service can also be
admitted to the Fund if they apply for it in writing.
3. Is it necessary to file a Nominations and how it canbe filed?
A
subscriber has to file a nomination in the prescribed form at the time of
joining the Fund. If the subscriber has a family at the time of
filing the nomination, the nomination cannot be in favour of any
person(s) other than the member(s) of his family. The nomination
made by a subscriber who is not married shall become invalid on his
getting married. If a subscriber nominates more than one person, he has
to specify in the nomination the amount of share payable to each of the nominees
in such a manner as to cover the whole of the amount that may stand to his
credit in the Fund at any time. The responsibility of scrutiny,
acceptance and safe custody of the nominations filed by Non-Gazetted Officers
vests with Head of Office whereas the nominations of Gazetted subscribers are
kept by the Accountant General. In the case of the promotees from
Non-Gazetted service, Heads of Offices have to transfer the nomination to
the Accountant General only on their substantive promotion to Gazetted
cadre. A subscriber can cancel a nomination by sending a notice in writing
to the Head of Office/Accountant General along with a fresh nomination.
4. For getting admission to the Fund what should we do?
For
getting admission to the Fund one has to apply to The Accountant
General (A&E) in FORM A vide G.O. (P) No.
94/2012/Fin. 07-02- 2012.The Head of Office has to send a statement
showing particulars of Government servants. The GENERAL PROVIDENT FUND
account number is allotted to each subscriber by the Accountant General with a
‘Prefix’ indicating the department of the subscriber in the case of full-time
employees. The Account Number once allotted will be operative till quitting
service despite change of Department/District.In the case of part-time
Contingent Employees, the prefix will be "CNT" with no Department
prefix.
5. For getting admission to the Fund where we have submit application?
The
receipt of Applications for Admission to GENERAL PROVIDENT FUND and allotment
of account numbers have been centralised. Therefore, all applications for
admission to GENERAL PROVIDENT FUND and allotment of account numbers are
to be forwarded to :
The Accountant General (A&E), Kerala,
PB No.5607,
MG Road,
Thiruvananthapuram 695 039.
6.
What are the
accounting procedures?
The
Drawing and Disbursing Officers in the State Government prepare the staff pay
bills along with GENERAL PROVIDENT FUND recovery schedules in respect of
the subscribers to the Fund under their payment control and submit the same
to the Treasury Officers for payment. After making payment the
Treasury Officer forward the vouchers along with the Schedule of Payment
to the Accountant General. Likewise, the bills preferred by the Gazetted
Officers are also forwarded to the Accountant General. From the
GENERAL PROVIDENT FUND schedules attached with the salary vouchers and
GENERAL PROVIDENT FUND payment vouchers the Accountant General posts the
remittances/withdrawals into the accounts of the subscribers concerned. The
account maintained in respect of a subscriber shows the particulars of
subscriptions, refunds, dearness allowance and pay revision arrears
credited to the Fund, interest allowed and withdrawals made there from
during the year.
7.
What is the Rate
of Subscription?
The amount of subscription is fixed by
the subscriber himself. However, it cannot
be less than 6% of the basic pay and not more than the basic pay in the case of
full-time employees and it cannot be less than 3% of the emoluments and not more
than the emoluments in the case of part-time contingent employees. The minimum
subscription is determined on the basic pay drawn on 31st March of the preceding
financial year.
be less than 6% of the basic pay and not more than the basic pay in the case of
full-time employees and it cannot be less than 3% of the emoluments and not more
than the emoluments in the case of part-time contingent employees. The minimum
subscription is determined on the basic pay drawn on 31st March of the preceding
financial year.
8.
Can the rate
of Contribution be changed?
The rate of subscription
can be reduced once and enhanced twice during the course of a financial year.
9. What are
the other Conditions for Subscription?
The subscriber shall subscribe monthly to the
Fund, except during:
1. Period of
suspension.
2. Last three months of
service before retirement.
A subscriber on reinstatement after a
period of suspension is allowed to pay in lump or in installments any sum
not exceeding the maximum amount of arrear subscriptions permissible for that
period. A subscriber may at his option choose not to subscribe during
leave without allowances or leave on half-pay. A subscriber may stop
subscribing to the Fund at any time during the last one year of service
immediately preceding the date of his retirement.
10. Interest on the Fund?
Interest at such
rate as prescribed from time to time by the Government of India and adopted by Government of Kerala is credited to the
subscribers’ account on the last day of every financial year.
11.What are the
loans and advances?
A.Temporary Advance.
B.Non-Refundable
Advance
C.Final
Withdrawal (Closure of the Account)
12.What are the
conditions of Temporary Advance?
A
temporary advance is granted to a subscriber from the amount standing to
his credit in the Fund by the departmental officers for specified
purposes. The advance can be drawn to the extent of the monetary
limits prescribed in the delegation of financial powers of the respective
departments subject to a maximum of 75% of the balance at credit or (3a-b)/4
(a = balance at credit, b = amount of consolidated advance outstanding) whichever
is less. In the case of part-time contingent employees, it shall not be
in excess of 16 months' pay or half the amount at credit of the subscriber
in the fund, whichever is less. The sanctions for temporary advances are
noted in the subscribers’ accounts.
13.In which form
a Temporary Advance should be applied?
Temporary
advance is to be applied in Form B.
14.What are the Conditions
for Sanction of Temporary Advance?
- At least a gap of six months between the drawal of two temporary Advances
- At least four months gap between a temporary advance and non-refundable advance taken for the same purpose
- Not to be sanctioned during the last three months of service.
- Not to be sanctioned in the month in which the subscriber proceeds on leave preparatory to retirement.
- Not to be sanctioned after a subscriber elects not to subscribe to the Fund.
- Not to be sanctioned during leave without allowances if he is not subscribing to the Fund during that period.·
15.How the Recovery
of Temporary Advance is effected?
1. The advances are
recoverable from the subscriber in such number of equal monthlyinstallments as
the sanctioning authority may direct, but such number shall not be less
than 12 unless the subscriber so elects or not more than 36. In the case of
part-time contingent employees, the number of instalments in normal cases
shall not be less than 15 unless the subscriber so elects for not more
than 30.
2.
When there is an advance running and a second advance is sanctioned, the
balance of the previous advance not recovered shall be added to the advance
so sanctioned and the subsequent installments for recovery of advances shall
be fixed with reference to the consolidated amount.
3.
The recovery shall commence with the issue of pay for the month following
the
month
in which the advance was drawn.
4.
A subscriber may at his option repay two or more instalments in a month.
16. Who is
competent to sanction a Non-Refundable Advance?
The
Head of Department is competent to sanction non-refundable advance up to
75% of the balance at credit. The quantum of NRA that can be sanctioned by
various other administrative authorities is specified in the relevant
delegation of financial powers of the respective departments. Non-Refundable
Advance is to be applied in Form B1
17.What are the Conditions
for Sanction of Non-Refundable Advances?
1. It
may be sanctioned at any time for specified purposes after completion of 10
years of service (including broken periods of service, leave without allowances
(LWA), suspension, military and war service which are reckoned for the purpose
of pension, pensionable ervice under Government of India/other State
Governments/aided educational institutions if the PF deposits and
interest thereon during the service have been transferred and credited to
the Fund) or within 10 years of the date of retirement.
2. It
may not be sanctioned
(i) during the last three months of service
(ii) after exercising option under Rule 30 (c) which
permits the subscriber to close the
account
before retirement
(iii) after submitting the closure application.
3. Only
one withdrawal may be allowed for the same purpose.
4.
When another withdrawal is sanctioned for the purpose of treatment of
the same person
within a period of six months of the previous withdrawal, it should be
specified
in the sanction that the treatment is for the illness on a different occasion.
5. Advances
for education can be permitted for each year for different children.
6.
When both husband and wife are subscribers to the Fund, withdrawal
can be made for
the
education, marriage of the same child by both.
7.
When an advance for marriage is sanctioned, the date of marriage is to be
specified.
(Amount cannot be drawn before three months of the date of marriage).
8. Advance
for marriage can be allowed for a second or subsequent marriage
of son/daughter.
9.
Advance is allowed for the marriage of a female relative dependent
of the subscriber if
he has no daughter.
10.
Advance for construction of house even permitted for repayment of
loan taken for
house building from Co-operative
Societies or similar agencies.
11.
Advance can be drawn during the period of suspension also.
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