Central Civil Services Rules 2025 – Unified Pension Scheme under NPS

Central Civil Services Rules 2025 – Unified Pension Scheme under NPS

MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS
(Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare)
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 2nd September, 2025

G.S.R. 599(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to article 309 and clause (5) of article 148 of the Constitution and after consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India in relation to persons serving in the Indian Audit and Accounts Department, the President hereby makes the following rules regulating the methods of implementation of the Unified Pension Scheme as an option under the National Pension System for the employees of the Central Government who are covered under the National Pension System, namely:

CHAPTER I

PRELIMINARY

1. Short title and commencement. – (1) These rules may be called the Central Civil Services (Implementation of the Unified Pension Scheme under the National Pension System) Rules, 2025.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. Application. – Save as otherwise provided in these rules, these rules shall apply to the government servants, including civilian government servants in the Defence Services, appointed substantively to civil services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union on or after the 1st day of January, 2004 and opts for the Unified Pension Scheme as an option under the National Pension System, but shall not apply to,-

(a) Railway servants;
(b) persons in casual and daily rated employment;
(c) persons paid from contingencies;
(d) members of the All India Services;
(e) persons locally recruited for services in diplomatic, consular or other Indian establishments in foreign countries;

(f) persons employed on contract;
(g) persons whose terms and conditions of service are regulated by or under the provisions of the Constitution or any other law for the time being in force;
(h) persons to whom the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021 apply in accordance with any special or general order issued by the government; and
(i) persons to whom the Central Civil Services (Implementation of National Pension System) Rules, 2021 apply and who have not opted for Unified Pension Scheme.

3. Definitions. – (1) In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires, –

(a) “accredited bank” in relation to a ministry or department or Union territory, means the Reserve Bank or any bank which is appointed to transact business of the government pertaining to that ministry or department or Union territory and is officially recognised for transfer of funds to the Trustee Bank;
(b) “Act” means the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 2013 (23 of 2013);
(c) “admissible payout” means the amount payable to a UPS subscriber for life, in such proportion and in such manner as specified under the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Operationalisation of Unified Pension Scheme under National Pension System) Regulations, 2025;
(d) “Authority” means the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority established under sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 2013 (23 of 2013);
(e) “Benchmark Corpus” means a corpus as specified under the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Operationalisation of Unified Pension Scheme under National Pension System) Regulations, 2025;
(f) “central recordkeeping agency” means an agency registered under section 27 of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 2013 (23 of 2013) to perform the functions of recordkeeping, accounting, administration and customer service for subscribers to schemes;
(g) “Cheque Drawing and Disbursing Officer” means a drawing and disbursing officer functioning under a ministry or department (including the Central Public Works department, Forest department and departments in which the provisions of the Central Public Works Account Code are authorised to be followed) or a Union territory, who is authorised to withdraw money for specified types of payments against an assignment account opened in his favour in a specified branch of an accredited bank;
(h) “default pattern” means such choice of pension fund(s) and of investment pattern(s), as may be determined by the Authority in respect of an individual corpus under the Unified Pension Scheme, from time to time;
(i) “Defence Services” means the services under the Government of India in the Ministry of Defence and in the Defence Accounts department under the control of the Ministry of Defence paid out of the Defence Services Estimates and not permanently subject to the Air Force Act, 1950 (45 of 1950) or the Army Act, 1950 (46 of 1950) or the Navy Act, 1957 (62 of 1957);
(j) “Drawing and Disbursing Officer” means a Head of Office and also any other Gazetted Officer so designated by a department of the Central Government, a Head of Department or an Administrator, to draw bills and make payments on behalf of the Central Government. The term shall also include a Head of Department or an Administrator where he himself discharges such function;
(k) “emoluments” means the emoluments as specified in rule 5;
(l) “foreign service” means the service in which a government servant receives his pay with the sanction of the government from any source other than the Consolidated Fund of India or the Consolidated Fund of a State or the Consolidated Fund of a Union territory
(m) “family payout” means the monthly amount payable to the legally wedded spouse of a deceased subscriber and computed as per regulations;
(n) “government” means the Central Government;
(o) “Head of Department” means an officer as defined in the Delegation of Financial Powers Rules, 2024, and includes such other officer to whom the President may, by order, specify as Head of Department;
(p) “Head of Office” means an Officer as defined in the Delegation of Financial Powers Rules, 2024, and includes such other officer to whom the government may, by order, specify as Head of Office;
(q) “individual corpus” means the net asset value of units outstanding in the individual Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) of a subscriber tagged with the Unified Pension Scheme account;
(r) “legally wedded spouse” means the spouse of a subscriber whose name appears as such in the service records as on the date of superannuation or voluntary retirement or retirement under the Fundamental Rule 56(j) (which is not treated as penalty under the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965, as may be applicable, and who is surviving the deceased subscriber;
(s) “local fund administered by government” means the fund administered by a body which, by law or rule having the force of law, comes under the control of the government and over whose expenditure the government retains complete and direct control;
(t) “National Pension System” means the contributory pension system referred to in section 20 of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 2013 (23 of 2013) whereby contributions from a subscriber are collected and accumulated in an individual pension account using a system of points of presence, a central recordkeeping agency and pension funds as may be specified by regulations by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority;
(u) “Pay and Accounts Officer” means an officer, whatever his official designation, who maintains the accounts of a ministry, department or office of the Central Government or Union territory and includes an AccountantGeneral, who is entrusted with the functions of maintaining the accounts or part of accounts of the Central Government or Union territory;
(v) “Pension fund” means an intermediary which has been granted a certificate of registration under sub-section (3) of section 27 of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 2013 (23 of 2013) by the Authority as a pension fund for receiving contributions, accumulating them and making payments to the subscriber in the manner as may be specified by regulations;
(w) “Permanent Retirement Account Number” means a unique identification number allotted to each Unified Pension Scheme subscriber by the central recordkeeping agency;
(x) “qualifying service” means the period of service in respect of a UPS subscriber, as determined in the manner specified under regulation.
(y) “regulations” means the regulations notified by the Authority for operationalising the Unified Pension Scheme under the National Pension System;
(z) “schedule” means the schedules appended to the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Operationalisation of Unified Pension Scheme under National Pension System) Regulations, 2025;
(aa) “switch facility” means a one-time facility available to Unified Pension Scheme subscriber under these rules;
(ab) “Trustee Bank” means a banking company as defined in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (10 of 1949);
(ac) “Unified Pension Scheme (UPS)” means the option available to employees of the Central Government, who are covered under the National Pension System, in terms of the UPS Notification;
(ad) “UPS Notification” means the notification published in the Gazette of India bearing number F. No. FX1/3/2024-PR, dated the 24th January 2025, as issued by the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance;
(ae) “UPS Payout Order” means an authorisation issued by the Pay and Accounts Officer to the National Pension System Trust containing such details as provided under regulation 20 of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Operationalisation of Unified Pension Scheme under National Pension System) Regulations, 2025;
(af) “UPS subscriber”, for the purpose of these rules, shall means a Central Government employee who opts for and is enrolled under the Unified Pension Scheme in accordance with the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Operationalisation of Unified Pension Scheme under National Pension System) Regulations, 2025.

(2) Words and expressions used herein and not defined but defined in the Central Civil Services (Implementation of the National Pension System) Rules, 2021, the Fundamental Rules,1922, the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 2013 (23 of 2013) or the Pension Fund Regulatory and the Development Authority Regulations have the same meanings respectively assigned to them in those Act or rules or regulations

To Read more Download Central Civil Services Rules 2025 – Unified Pension Scheme under NPS PDF