Is CGEGIS the same as CGHS?

No. CGEGIS is a group insurance and savings scheme, while CGHS is the central government health scheme with its own monthly contribution.

Do NPS employees pay CGEGIS?

Yes. CGEGIS is separate from pension, so regular central government employees pay it whether they are under the old pension scheme, NPS or UPS.

Can I opt out of CGEGIS?

No. Membership is compulsory for regular central government employees recruited before the age of 50.

Why did my CGEGIS deduction go up?

You were probably promoted to a higher group. The higher deduction, for example ₹60 instead of ₹30, starts from the 1 January after the promotion.

CGEGIS: the group insurance deduction on your pay slip

Updated 11 October 2026

CGEGIS, the Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme, 1980, is the small monthly deduction on every central government pay slip. Group A pays ₹120 a month for insurance cover of ₹1,20,000, Group B ₹60 for ₹60,000 and Group C ₹30 for ₹30,000. Of each payment, 30% buys the insurance and 70% goes into a savings fund that is returned with interest when you leave service.

Rates and cover

Group	Usual pay levels	Monthly deduction	Insurance cover	Insurance part (30%)	Savings part (70%)
A	10 and above	₹120	₹1,20,000	₹36	₹84
B	6 to 9	₹60	₹60,000	₹18	₹42
C	1 to 5	₹30	₹30,000	₹9	₹21

The deduction appears as CGEGIS or GIS on your pay slip. The rates have stayed the same since 1990. The old Group D rate of ₹15 for ₹15,000 cover no longer matters for new staff, since Group D posts were merged into Group C after the 6th CPC. Your group follows the classification of your post. The 70:30 split between savings and insurance has applied since 1 January 1988; before that, 68.75% went to savings.

How the scheme works

Who is covered: it has been compulsory for regular central government employees since 1 January 1982, whatever their pension scheme. Casual, contract, part-time and ad hoc staff, and people recruited after the age of 50, are not covered.
Joining: new employees become members on the 1 January after they join. Until then they get insurance-only cover for a small premium of ₹5 a month for every ₹15,000 of cover.
Promotion: if you move to a higher group, the higher deduction starts from the next 1 January.
Deduction: taken every month, including during leave and suspension, up to the month you retire. Dues for months of extraordinary leave are recovered later with interest.
No loans: you cannot withdraw from or borrow against either fund.

What you get on death or retirement

Death in service: your nominee gets the full insurance cover for your group plus your savings fund balance with interest. If death happens before you became a full member, only the insurance amount is paid.
Retirement or resignation: you get the savings fund balance with interest.

Interest is compounded quarterly. The Department of Expenditure's tables of benefits for July to September 2026 (OM of 6 August 2026) use 7.1% a year, and new tables are issued every quarter on the Department of Expenditure website.

Reading the table of benefits

The table gives the savings value of one unit of subscription (₹15 a month from 1990) for each year of entry and month of exit. Group C pays 2 units, Group B 4 units and Group A 8 units, so multiply the table value by your number of units.

Worked example. A Group B employee has been a member since 1 January 1996 and retires in September 2026. The July to September 2026 table shows ₹17,079.33 for entry in 1996 and exit in September 2026.
Savings fund payout: 4 units × ₹17,079.33 = ₹68,317.32.
What went into savings: ₹42 a month × 369 months (January 1996 to September 2026) = ₹15,498. Interest over three decades did the rest.
Had the employee died in service that month, the family would have received ₹60,000 + ₹68,317.32 = ₹1,28,317.32.

Nomination and claims

You make a CGEGIS nomination when you join, and it is kept in your service book. Update it after marriage, divorce or the death of a nominee, because it decides who receives the insurance and savings amounts. When you retire, resign or die in service, your office works out the savings amount from the table in force in the month you leave service and processes the payment through the pay and accounts office. If your family ever has to claim, they should approach the head of office where you last worked.

Why the cover is so low, and what may change

The cover has not kept up with salaries: ₹1,20,000 is roughly one month's gross pay for a Group A officer just joining at Level 10 in an X city, and much less than that for senior officers. The 7th CPC proposed deductions of ₹5,000, ₹2,500 and ₹1,500 a month for cover of ₹50 lakh, ₹25 lakh and ₹15 lakh, but the Cabinet rejected the hike in 2016 because the deductions would have cut take-home pay sharply, kept the old rates and asked the Finance Ministry to design a low-premium, high-cover scheme instead. Staff associations have reportedly asked the 8th Pay Commission for much higher cover; nothing has been decided. Until then, treat CGEGIS as a small savings scheme rather than real life insurance, and plan family protection separately. Your other pay slip deductions are explained in salary slip components, and the health scheme in CGHS.