7th Pay Commission latest news today: No salary hike, but Central Government Employees get this gift

General Provident Fund (GPF): The Union government has increased the rate of interest for General Provident Fund (GPF) and other related schemes by 0.4 percentage points to 8 per cent for the October-December quarter. With the hike, the GPF rate has come in line with that for Public Provident Fund. The PPF rate was also hiked recently by the Centre. 

The interest rate on GPF was 7.6 per cent for the July-September quarter of 2018-19. "... During the year 2018-2019, accumulations at the credit of subscribers to the General Provident Fund and other similar funds shall carry interest at the rate of 8 per cent with effect from October 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018," PTI reported a Department of Economic Affairs' notification as saying. 

The interest rate would apply on Provident Funds of central government employees, railways and defence forces.

Last month, the government announced that the interest on small savings, including NSC and PPF, will be hiked by up to 0.4 percentage point for the October-December quarter, to align it with rising deposit rates in the banks.

GPF vs PPF

While the PPF account is available for all citizens, including minors, the General Provident Fund account is a provident fund account available only for the government employees. The government employee becomes a member of the fund by contributing a certain percentage of his/her salary to the account. (With agency inputs)