Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme

CGEGIS explained: Rs. 120, Rs. 60 or Rs. 30 a month by group, the 70:30 savings and insurance split, and what is paid at retirement and on death in service.

Updated 15 August 2026

The Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme (CGEGIS) is the compulsory group insurance-cum-savings scheme that produces the fixed monthly deduction of Rs. 120, Rs. 60 or Rs. 30 on a central government payslip. The Department of Expenditure notified it by Office Memorandum F.15(3)/78-WIP dated 31 October 1980, and it came into force on 1 January 1982. Every rupee subscribed is split two ways: 70% builds a Savings Fund returned with compound interest when service ends, and 30% buys a fixed insurance cover paid to the family on death in service.

The subscription and the cover are the same today as they were on 1 January 1990, when Office Memorandum F.7(5)-EV/89 last revised them. A Group A officer pays Rs. 120 a month for Rs. 1,20,000 of cover, a Group B employee Rs. 60 for Rs. 60,000, and a Group C employee Rs. 30 for Rs. 30,000. Thirty-six years of unrevised rates is the single fact that explains why the scheme is at once the cheapest and the least useful insurance a central government employee holds.

The scheme covers the classified civil posts and excludes a long list of others. Contract staff, deputationists from a state government or a public sector undertaking, casual labour, part-time and ad hoc employees, locally recruited staff in missions abroad, and anyone recruited after the age of 50 are all outside it. Membership is admitted on 1 January alone, which means a recruit who joins on any other day carries insurance-only cover until the following January.

This article sets out the subscription and cover by group, the 70:30 apportionment and the period before 1988 when it was 68.75:31.25, the exclusions in paragraph 4 of the scheme, the January admission rule and the interim premium of Rs. 4.50 for every Rs. 15,000 of cover, the effect of promotion and reversion, recovery during extraordinary leave and suspension, the quarterly Table of Benefits and the 7.1% interest it is worked out at, what is paid at retirement and on death, the nomination rules, the tax treatment, the 7th Central Pay Commission recommendation the Cabinet rejected on 29 June 2016, and where the demand for a revision stands before the 8th Central Pay Commission. The salary-by-post pages, such as MTS salary and Section Officer salary, show the CGEGIS line inside a worked payslip; this page is where the line is explained.

Subscription and cover by group

A Group A employee subscribes Rs. 120 a month for Rs. 1,20,000 of insurance cover, a Group B employee Rs. 60 for Rs. 60,000, and a Group C employee Rs. 30 for Rs. 30,000. The scheme works in units of Rs. 15: a subscription of Rs. 15 a month secures Rs. 15,000 of cover, and each group subscribes a fixed multiple of that unit. The rates were fixed with effect from 1 January 1990 by Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum F.7(5)-EV/89 and no order has revised them since.

Group	Units	Monthly subscription	Insurance cover	7th CPC pay levels
A	8	Rs. 120	Rs. 1,20,000	Level 10 and above
B	4	Rs. 60	Rs. 60,000	Level 6 to 9
C	2	Rs. 30	Rs. 30,000	Level 1 to 5
D (merged into C)	1	Rs. 15	Rs. 15,000	Erstwhile Group D

The group is the classification of the post, not the pay level directly. Central civil posts are classified as Group A, B or C under the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965, and the Department of Personnel and Training re-classified them on the basis of grade pay by S.O. 946(E) dated 9 April 2009, which is the order that produces the level mapping in the table above. Group D was abolished on the 6th Central Pay Commission recommendations and its posts were merged into Group C, so the Rs. 15 unit now survives mainly as the base row of the Table of Benefits and in the arithmetic of the other three rows.

The classification of the post also decides the cover of an employee under the National Pension System or the Unified Pension Scheme on exactly the same terms as an employee under the Old Pension Scheme. CGEGIS predates the 2004 pension divide and takes no notice of it.

Rs. 30 a month for Rs. 30,000 of cover is the figure to hold on to. A Group C employee at Level 1 with an entry-cell basic pay of Rs. 18,000 pays 0.17% of basic pay for cover worth about 1.7 months of it. The premium is negligible and so, measured against a modern salary, is the benefit.

The Insurance Fund and the Savings Fund

The single monthly subscription is credited to two separate funds in the ratio of 3:7, with 30% going to the Insurance Fund and 70% to the Savings Fund. The Insurance Fund pays the fixed group cover of Rs. 1,20,000, Rs. 60,000 or Rs. 30,000 to the nominee on death in service. The Savings Fund accumulates with interest compounded quarterly and is paid to the member when service ends, or to the nominee along with the insurance amount if the member dies.

The distinction decides what comes back. Of a Group C subscription of Rs. 30 a month, Rs. 21 is savings and Rs. 9 is premium. The Rs. 21 is returned with interest; the Rs. 9 has bought a year of cover and is not returned, exactly as with any term policy. Over a 35-year career a Group C employee subscribes Rs. 12,600 in total, of which Rs. 8,820 is the savings principal and Rs. 3,780 is spent premium.

The 70:30 ratio has one break in it that matters for reading the older rows of the Table of Benefits. From 1 January 1982 to 31 December 1987 the split was 68.75% to the Savings Fund and 31.25% to the Insurance Fund; the present 70:30 ratio applies from 1 January 1988. An employee who entered in 1983 therefore has an accumulation built on two different apportionments, which is one reason the Department of Expenditure publishes a ready table by month of entry rather than a formula.

Who is covered and who is excluded

All central government employees who entered service after 1 November 1980 are compulsorily covered, with effect from the commencement of the scheme on 1 January 1982. Employees already in service on 1 November 1980 were given the option to join or stay out, exercisable by 31 January 1981, with further opportunities offered on specified dates up to 1986.

Paragraph 4 of the scheme excludes six classes outright: persons employed on contract, persons on deputation from a state government, a public sector undertaking or another autonomous organisation, staff recruited locally in Indian missions abroad, casual labourers, part-time employees, and ad hoc employees. Two further bars operate on the individual rather than the class. Anyone recruited to central government service after attaining the age of 50 is not covered at all, which keeps late lateral entrants and short-tenure appointees out of a scheme whose insurance element is priced on a full career. Re-employed defence personnel who still carry extended cover under the armed forces group insurance scheme cannot become members until that cover expires.

The exclusions are read strictly, and the deputation bar is the one most often misread. It excludes an officer coming into central service on deputation from a state government or a public sector undertaking, who remains covered by the lending organisation’s own scheme. It does not touch a central government employee who goes out on deputation to another organisation: that employee remains a member, and the subscription continues to be recovered.

The 1 January admission rule

Membership is admitted only on 1 January of a year, so an employee who joins central government service on or after 2 January becomes a full member in both funds only on the following 1 January. The rule is administrative rather than actuarial: the scheme runs an annual membership year, and a mid-year entrant cannot be slotted into a table of accumulations built by month of entry until the next anniversary comes round.

The recruit is not left uninsured in the meantime. Under paragraph 6 of the scheme, from the date of appointment to 31 December of the year of joining, the employee is given insurance cover only, at a premium of Rs. 4.50 a month for every Rs. 15,000 of cover. That premium is the Insurance Fund share of the Rs. 15 unit and nothing else, which is why it works out to Rs. 36 a month for a Group A entrant carrying Rs. 1,20,000 of cover, Rs. 18 for Group B and Rs. 9 for Group C. Nothing is credited to the Savings Fund in that period, and nothing from it appears in the accumulation later.

Group	Interim monthly premium	Cover during the interim period	Full subscription from the next 1 January
A	Rs. 36	Rs. 1,20,000	Rs. 120
B	Rs. 18	Rs. 60,000	Rs. 60
C	Rs. 9	Rs. 30,000	Rs. 30

An employee who joins on 3 January 2026 therefore pays the interim premium for almost twelve months and starts accumulating savings only on 1 January 2027, while an employee who joins on 1 January 2026 is a full member from day one. The difference is a year of Savings Fund accumulation on an identical career, and it is decided by the joining date alone. The point matters on probation appointments and on last pay certificate transfers, where the accounts office has to establish the date of continuous membership before it can quote an accumulation.

Promotion, reversion and the effective date

On promotion to a higher group the subscription and the cover rise from the 1 January following the promotion, not from the date of promotion itself. An employee promoted from Group C to Group B on 15 June 2026 continues to pay Rs. 30 for Rs. 30,000 of cover until 31 December 2026, and pays Rs. 60 for Rs. 60,000 from 1 January 2027. The delay follows from the same annual membership cycle that governs admission.

Reversion works only one way. Once a member has been admitted to a higher group the subscription continues at that level even if the member later reverts to a post in a lower group, and the higher cover continues with it. The scheme does not step the subscription back down, so a member who was briefly Group B stays a Rs. 60 subscriber with Rs. 60,000 of cover for the rest of service.

A transfer to another ministry or office does not disturb any of this. The Controller General of Accounts master circular No. 9(3)/2024/TA/45 dated 17 February 2026 requires the transfer order to state the group of membership and the date of continuous membership, precisely so that the receiving Pay and Accounts Office can carry the accumulation forward without a break.

Recovery during leave, suspension and the last month of service

The subscription is recovered irrespective of whether the member is on duty, on leave or under suspension, and it is payable up to and including the month in which the member retires, dies, resigns or is removed from service. There is no provision to stop subscribing, and no provision to draw the Savings Fund while still in service.

Where no pay is drawn, the subscription becomes an arrear rather than a lapse. On extraordinary leave the subscription due for the months without pay is recovered in not more than three instalments after the member rejoins duty, with interest. If the member dies during such a period, the unrecovered subscription is deducted from the amount paid to the nominee, so the insurance cover is never lost for non-payment during leave. Under suspension the recovery continues from the subsistence allowance.

The rule that the subscription runs to the end of the month of cessation is what makes the Table of Benefits readable: the accumulation is always quoted to the end of a whole month of membership, never to a part-month.

Interest and the quarterly Table of Benefits

The Savings Fund earns interest at the rate notified for the General Provident Fund, compounded quarterly, which is 7.1% a year for the quarter 1 July to 30 September 2026. The Department of Economic Affairs notified that rate by Resolution No. 5(3)-B(PD)/2023 dated 3 July 2026, and the rate has stood at 7.1% since the first quarter of 2020-21, the longest unchanged run in the scheme’s history.

No employee is expected to compute the accumulation. Because the amount depends on the month of entry, on the 68.75:31.25 apportionment before 1988, and on every quarterly rate since, the Department of Expenditure issues a ready Table of Benefits showing the accumulated Savings Fund per member for each month of entry. The tables are worked out by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority on the rate notified for the quarter, and the Department issues them quarterly. The current order is Office Memorandum No. 7(1)/EV/2023 dated 6 August 2026, covering 1 July to 30 September 2026 at 7.1%.

Two tables are issued each quarter, and the difference between them is a 1990 option rather than an entry period. The first covers members who subscribed Rs. 10 a month from 1 January 1982 to 31 December 1989 and moved to Rs. 15 a month from 1 January 1990 when the rates were revised. The second covers members who opted out of the revised rate and continued to subscribe at Rs. 10 a unit. An accounts office reads the row for the month of entry from the table for the quarter in which service ends, and multiplies it by the number of units the member subscribes.

The quarterly cycle itself dates from 1 January 2017, recorded in the Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum dated 17 March 2017. Before that the table was issued annually, which had become unworkable once the Department of Economic Affairs moved from annual to quarterly notification of small savings and provident fund rates.

What is paid when service ends

On superannuation, voluntary retirement, resignation, removal or dismissal, the member is paid the Savings Fund accumulation with interest to the end of the month of cessation, read from the current Table of Benefits. Nothing is paid from the Insurance Fund, because the cover ceases with service and the premium share has been consumed year by year.

The payment is made by the Pay and Accounts Office on a bill that shows the Insurance Fund and Savings Fund entitlements separately, under the accounting procedure in the Controller General of Accounts master circular No. 9(3)/2024/TA/45 dated 17 February 2026. Transactions are booked under the major head 8011, Insurance and Pension Funds.

The Government removed the main cause of delay in 2017. Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum dated 17 March 2017 directs that where the service of a retiring employee has been verified, the Savings Fund accumulation is to be paid without awaiting confirmation of the deduction of each monthly subscription. The earlier practice of reconciling every month of a 30-year subscription history before releasing a few thousand rupees routinely held up payment past the date of superannuation.

The amount is modest and should be planned as such. It sits alongside the pension, the retirement gratuity, the General Provident Fund balance and leave encashment in the retirement settlement, and it is by a wide margin the smallest of the five.

What is paid on death in service

On death in service the nominee receives the full insurance cover for the group, Rs. 1,20,000, Rs. 60,000 or Rs. 30,000, plus the accumulated Savings Fund with interest to the end of the month of death. The insurance amount is paid in full regardless of how long the member has subscribed: a Group B employee who dies four months into full membership carries the same Rs. 60,000 cover as one who has subscribed for thirty years.

Death during the interim period before admission is the one case that pays out on one side only. An employee who joined on or after 2 January and dies before the following 1 January is covered for the full insurance amount, because the interim premium under paragraph 6 buys the whole cover, but no Savings Fund amount is payable because none was accumulated. The accounts office also deducts any subscription arrears from an unpaid period of extraordinary leave before releasing the amount.

The master circular requires the Pay and Accounts Office to pass death claims expeditiously, ahead of ordinary cessation claims. The CGEGIS amount is separate from the death gratuity, the family pension and the ex gratia lump sum, and it is usually the first of them to reach the family because it needs no service verification beyond the group of membership.

Nomination and payment where there is no nomination

A member is required to file a nomination in Form 7 or Form 8 of the scheme, the correct form depending on whether the member has a family as defined in the scheme, and the nomination is pasted in the service book. The head of office maintains a group-wise register of members in Form 9 and verifies each year that recoveries have been made at the right rate for the right group.

Where no valid nomination subsists, payment is made to the widow or widower and the minor children first, then to the other members of the family, and failing them to the legal heirs on production of a succession certificate. The absence of a nomination delays the payment rather than defeating the claim, but the delay is real: a succession certificate takes months, against days for a nominee’s claim. A nomination should be revised on marriage, on the birth of a child and on the death of a nominee, in the same pass as the pension and gratuity nominations, since the scheme has its own forms and a nomination filed under the pension rules does not carry across.

Tax treatment

The CGEGIS subscription qualifies for deduction under Section 80C only in the old tax regime, and the new regime gives it no relief at all. The subscription is a sum deducted from salary by the Government in accordance with the conditions of service, to make provision for the employee’s wife or children, and so falls under Section 80C(2)(v) of the Income-tax Act 1961, within the overall ceiling of Rs. 1.5 lakh. That clause carries its own limit of one-fifth of salary, which never binds on a deduction of Rs. 1,440 a year at the Group A rate. The subscription is not shown as a separate deduction on the payslip, so it has to be claimed as part of the Section 80C basket alongside the General Provident Fund subscription and the rest.

The new tax regime is the default for the tax year 2026-27, the first year under the Income-tax Act 2025, and it allows no Section 80C deduction. For the large majority of central government employees who are now in the new regime, the CGEGIS deduction reduces take-home pay and produces no tax benefit whatever. Only an employee who has opted for the old regime, which the income tax for government employees article sets out in full, gets anything back on it.

On the payout side, the insurance amount received by a nominee on the death of the member is a sum received under a life insurance cover and is not taxable in the nominee’s hands. The Savings Fund payment is largely a return of the member’s own subscriptions, which is not income at all. The interest element within it is the one point the orders do not settle: no provision of the Income-tax Act names the CGEGIS Savings Fund as an exempt receipt, and no Central Board of Direct Taxes circular addresses it, so the treatment rests on the general character of the receipt rather than on a specific exemption. The amounts involved are small enough that the question has never been litigated to a reported decision.

The 7th CPC recommendation the Cabinet rejected

The 7th Central Pay Commission recommended raising the cover to Rs. 50 lakh, Rs. 25 lakh and Rs. 15 lakh, and the Cabinet rejected it on 29 June 2016. The Commission found the 1990 cover inadequate against 2016 salaries and proposed a proportionate rise in both the subscription and the cover, together with a change in the apportionment from 70:30 to 75:25 as an interim measure pending a detailed review.

Category	Recommended subscription	Recommended cover	Cover in force
Level 10 and above	Rs. 5,000	Rs. 50,00,000	Rs. 1,20,000
Level 6 to 9	Rs. 2,500	Rs. 25,00,000	Rs. 60,000
Level 1 to 5	Rs. 1,500	Rs. 15,00,000	Rs. 30,000

The Cabinet decision of 29 June 2016 on the 7th Central Pay Commission report declined the enhancement, directed that the existing rates continue, and asked the Ministry of Finance to work out a customised group insurance scheme for central government employees with a low premium and a high risk cover. The objection was to the premium rather than to the cover: a subscription of Rs. 5,000 a month is higher than an open-market term policy of comparable value for a healthy employee in the same age band, which staff federations pointed out at the time.

The figures in the table above are a recommendation that was never implemented. They are not an entitlement, they are not a cover any employee holds, and a family planning around Rs. 50 lakh of CGEGIS cover is planning around a number that does not exist. The cover in force is Rs. 1,20,000, Rs. 60,000 or Rs. 30,000, and it has been since 1 January 1990.

Where the revision stands

No revised scheme has been notified in the ten years since the Cabinet asked the Ministry of Finance to design one. The demand has been pressed through three channels since, and none has produced an order.

The 110th report on pensioners’ grievances, dealing with the impact of pension adalats and the Centralised Pension Grievance Redress and Monitoring System, recorded that the monthly deduction and the insurance amount had remained unchanged since 1990 and that the cover was too small to match the cost of living. The Indian Railways Technical Supervisors Association took that finding to the Secretary (Expenditure) by a memorandum dated 23 April 2022, asking for a revision of the coverage and the subscription. The Department of Expenditure has issued no order in response.

The terms of reference of the 8th Central Pay Commission do not name the scheme. Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025, which constituted the Commission under Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai with 18 months to report, lists emoluments, the bonus and incentive schemes, the rationalisation of allowances, and the death-cum-retirement gratuity of employees both within and outside the National Pension System. Neither CGEGIS nor group insurance appears in any clause. Clause (a), which covers pay, allowances and other benefits, is wide enough for the Commission to examine the scheme on a reference from the Government or on a staff-side memorandum, and the staff side has raised it, but no term of reference directs it to and no interim report has addressed it.

Until an order issues, the operative position is the one set on 1 January 1990. Any figure quoted for a future CGEGIS cover, whether Rs. 15 lakh or Rs. 50 lakh, is a demand or a rejected recommendation rather than an entitlement.

CGEGIS against the other terminal benefits

CGEGIS is the smallest of the terminal payments a central government employee receives, and the only one with an insurance element. Placing it against the others is the quickest way to see what it is for.

Benefit	What it is	Funded by	Rough scale
CGEGIS Savings Fund	Accumulation of the 70% savings share with interest	The employee, at Rs. 120, Rs. 60 or Rs. 30 a month	Thousands to a low lakh
CGEGIS Insurance Fund	Fixed cover on death in service	The employee, at the 30% premium share	Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 1,20,000
Retirement gratuity	Lump sum on qualifying service	The Government	Up to Rs. 25 lakh
General Provident Fund	The employee’s own provident fund	The employee, at 6% of emoluments or more	Tens of lakh
Leave encashment	Cash for unused earned leave, up to 300 days	The Government	A few lakh

The value of CGEGIS was never the savings. It is a fixed cover bought for a premium of Rs. 9 to Rs. 36 a month, which is why the scheme has survived unrevised for so long: nobody objects to the deduction, and the Insurance Fund remains solvent precisely because the cover is small. The cost of leaving it unrevised falls on the family of an employee who dies in service and receives Rs. 30,000 against a salary the household had been living on.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the CGEGIS deduction on a central government payslip?

It is the compulsory monthly subscription to the Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme, 1980, notified by the Department of Expenditure under OM F.15(3)/78-WIP dated 31 October 1980. A Group A employee pays Rs. 120 a month, Group B Rs. 60 and Group C Rs. 30. Of every rupee, 70% goes to a Savings Fund returned with interest on cessation of service, and 30% buys the group insurance cover paid to the nominee on death in service.

How much insurance cover does CGEGIS give?

Rs. 1,20,000 for Group A, Rs. 60,000 for Group B and Rs. 30,000 for Group C. The amount is paid to the nominee on death in service, along with the accumulated Savings Fund. These figures were fixed with effect from 1 January 1990 by Department of Expenditure OM F.7(5)-EV/89 and have not been revised since.

Is the CGEGIS money returned on retirement?

The Savings Fund portion is returned, and the insurance portion is not. On superannuation, voluntary retirement or resignation the member receives the accumulation of the 70% savings share with compound interest, read from the Department of Expenditure quarterly Table of Benefits. The 30% credited to the Insurance Fund has bought cover for each year of service and is not refundable.

Why is the CGEGIS cover only Rs. 30,000?

Because the rates were last revised with effect from 1 January 1990 and no order has changed them since. The 7th Central Pay Commission recommended cover of Rs. 50 lakh, Rs. 25 lakh and Rs. 15 lakh against subscriptions of Rs. 5,000, Rs. 2,500 and Rs. 1,500. The Cabinet on 29 June 2016 declined the higher subscription, kept the 1990 rates in force, and asked the Ministry of Finance to design a low-premium, high-cover replacement, which has not been notified.

When does CGEGIS membership begin for a new recruit?

Members are admitted only on 1 January. An employee who joins on or after 2 January is enrolled in both funds from the following 1 January. From the date of appointment to 31 December of the year of joining the employee has insurance cover only, at a premium of Rs. 4.50 a month for every Rs. 15,000 of cover under paragraph 6 of the scheme, which works out to Rs. 36 for Group A, Rs. 18 for Group B and Rs. 9 for Group C, with no Savings Fund accumulation in that period.

Who is excluded from CGEGIS?

Contract employees, persons on deputation from a state government, a public sector undertaking or an autonomous body, locally recruited staff in Indian missions abroad, casual labourers, part-time employees and ad hoc employees are outside the scheme. So is anyone recruited to central government service after attaining the age of 50. Re-employed defence personnel carrying extended cover under the armed forces group insurance scheme cannot join until that cover expires.

What is the CGEGIS Savings Fund interest rate?

7.1% a year, compounded quarterly, for the quarter 1 July to 30 September 2026. The rate follows the General Provident Fund rate notified by the Department of Economic Affairs, most recently by Resolution No. 5(3)-B(PD)/2023 dated 3 July 2026, and it has stood at 7.1% since the first quarter of 2020-21.

What does the CGEGIS Table of Benefits show?

The accumulated Savings Fund per member for each month of entry, so that an accounts office can read off the amount payable without recomputing 30 years of quarterly interest. The Department of Expenditure issues it quarterly, the tables being worked out by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. Two tables are issued: one for members on the revised subscription of Rs. 15 a unit from 1 January 1990, and one for members who opted out of that revision and continued at Rs. 10.

Does the CGEGIS subscription continue during extraordinary leave or suspension?

Yes. The subscription is recovered irrespective of whether the member is on duty, on leave or under suspension, and it is payable up to and including the month in which the member retires, dies or is removed from service. Where no pay is drawn, as on extraordinary leave, the arrears are recovered with interest in not more than three instalments after the member rejoins duty, and where the member dies in that period the arrears are deducted from the amount paid to the nominee.

Does CGEGIS change on promotion?

The subscription rises to the higher group rate from the 1 January following the promotion, not from the date of promotion. On reversion to a lower group the subscription is not reduced: once admitted to a higher group the member continues to subscribe at that rate for the rest of service, and draws the higher cover with it.

Who receives the CGEGIS amount if there is no nomination?

Payment is made to the widow or widower and minor children first, then to other members of the family, and failing them to the legal heirs on production of a succession certificate. A member is required to file a nomination in Form 7 or Form 8 under the scheme, which is pasted in the service book, and the absence of a valid nomination delays payment rather than defeating the claim.

Is the CGEGIS deduction tax-deductible?

Under the old tax regime it falls within the Section 80C ceiling of Rs. 1.5 lakh, as a sum deducted from salary by the Government to make provision for the employee’s wife or children under Section 80C(2)(v) of the Income-tax Act 1961, subject to a limit of one-fifth of salary that never binds at Rs. 120 a month. The new regime, the default for the tax year 2026-27 under the Income-tax Act 2025, allows no Section 80C deduction, so the subscription gives no tax relief there.

Will the 8th Central Pay Commission revise CGEGIS?

The terms of reference do not say so. The Resolution constituting the 8th Central Pay Commission, F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025, names pay, allowances, bonus and death-cum-retirement gratuity, and does not mention CGEGIS or group insurance. Clause (a) covers emoluments and other benefits broadly enough for the Commission to take the scheme up, and the staff side has asked it to, but no term of reference directs it to.

How does CGEGIS differ from gratuity and the General Provident Fund?

CGEGIS is the only one of the three that is part insurance and the only one funded entirely by a fixed monthly deduction unrelated to pay. Retirement gratuity is paid by the Government on the strength of qualifying service and capped at Rs. 25 lakh, and the General Provident Fund is the employee’s own subscription of at least 6% of emoluments. The CGEGIS Savings Fund is built from 70% of Rs. 120, Rs. 60 or Rs. 30 a month, so it is the smallest of the three by a wide margin.

Does CGEGIS apply to employees under the National Pension System?

Yes. The scheme turns on the classification of the post as Group A, B or C, not on the pension scheme the employee is under, so an employee recruited on or after 1 January 2004 and covered by the National Pension System or the Unified Pension Scheme subscribes on the same terms as an Old Pension Scheme employee and draws the same cover.

External references

References

Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme, 1980, circulated by Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, Office Memorandum No. F.15(3)/78-WIP dated 31 October 1980, in force from 1 January 1982.
Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. F.7(5)-EV/89, revising the rates of subscription and insurance cover with effect from 1 January 1990.
Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 7(1)/EV/2023 dated 6 August 2026 (CGEGIS Tables of Benefits for the Savings Fund, 1 July 2026 to 30 September 2026, at 7.1% a year compounded quarterly), and the corresponding order dated 11 May 2026 for the quarter 1 April to 30 June 2026.
Department of Economic Affairs Resolution No. 5(3)-B(PD)/2023 dated 3 July 2026, notifying the interest rate of 7.1% a year for the quarter 1 July to 30 September 2026.
Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum dated 17 March 2017, providing for the quarterly issue of the CGEGIS Table of Benefits from 1 January 2017 and for payment of the Savings Fund accumulation to a retiring employee without awaiting confirmation of the deduction of each monthly subscription.
Controller General of Accounts master circular No. 9(3)/2024/TA/45 dated 17 February 2026, on the accounting procedure for transactions under the Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme, 1980.
Department of Personnel and Training notification S.O. 946(E) dated 9 April 2009, classifying central civil posts as Group A, B and C on the basis of grade pay under the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965.
Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission (November 2015), on the Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme (recommended subscription of Rs. 5,000, Rs. 2,500 and Rs. 1,500 for cover of Rs. 50 lakh, Rs. 25 lakh and Rs. 15 lakh, and a 75:25 savings-to-insurance ratio).
Cabinet decision of 29 June 2016 on the 7th Central Pay Commission recommendations (existing CGEGIS rates to continue; the Ministry of Finance to work out a customised low-premium, high-cover group insurance scheme).
Resolution F. No. 01-01/2025-E.III(A) dated 3 November 2025, constituting the 8th Central Pay Commission and setting out its terms of reference.
Income-tax Act 1961, Section 80C(2)(v), and the Income-tax Act 2025 for the tax year 2026-27.