History of GPF
The General Provident Fund (GPF) was first introduced in India in 1881 at the time of British rule to provide a retirement benefit to government employees. The scheme was initially introduced only for employees who work as military personnel, but it was later extended to all government employees. But in 1985, GPF was merged with an already presenting act named Contributory Provident Fund and named together as General Provident Fund. Since then in GPF both the employee and employer made contributions to the fund. In the new GPF, all government employees, irrespective of their date of joining, were brought under a uniform scheme.
GPF Full Form
GPF stands for General Provident Fund. People working as permanent employees in Private and Government companies will get to know about Provident Fund. But there are many types of Provident Funds. Now we are going to learn about General provident Fund which is given to employees who work in Government sectors in India. It is a retirement savings scheme for employees who work in government sectors in India. GPF is a defined contribution scheme. In GPF both the employee and the employer (the company in which the employee is working) contribute to the fund during the employee’s working years. When the employee retired or resigned from his job then he can claim the Provident Fund amount. The GPF offers attractive interest rates and the employees can withdraw the amount partially and can apply for loans.