What is the Seva Nidhi (Corpus Fund)?
Every Agniveer's package includes a compulsory monthly contribution into the Agniveer Corpus Fund, matched rupee-for-rupee by the government. What you receive on completing your 4-year term — the Seva Nidhi — is built from these combined contributions plus accrued interest. This is separate from your monthly salary and from the ₹48 lakh non-contributory life insurance cover you carry during service.
The exact contribution structure
Per the Ministry of Defence's official Terms & Conditions for the Agnipath Scheme, the Customised Package and corpus contribution work like this:
| Year | Monthly package | 30% to Corpus Fund |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | ₹30,000 (+ allowances) | ₹9,000 |
| Year 2 | ₹33,000 (+ allowances) | ₹9,900 |
| Year 3 | ₹36,500 (+ allowances) | ₹10,950 |
| Year 4 | ₹40,000 (+ allowances) | ₹12,000 |
The government matches your contribution 1:1, month by month. At the end of 4 years, your own contribution totals roughly ₹5.02 lakh, matched by an equal government contribution — around ₹10.04 lakh combined before interest. The commonly-cited final payout figure of ~₹11.71 lakh (including accrued interest) appears consistently in government press communication, though the official Terms & Conditions document itself doesn't spell out the exact interest rate or compounding mechanism used to get from ₹10.04 lakh to ₹11.71 lakh.
Because the official interest mechanics aren't published, a fixed number can only ever be an approximation. Our Seva Nidhi Calculator lets you estimate your own year-by-year payout with an adjustable interest rate, rather than relying on one generic headline figure.
Is the Seva Nidhi taxed?
The Seva Nidhi payout itself is fully exempt from Income Tax, stated explicitly in the official scheme document. Separately, Section 80CCH of the Income Tax Act (introduced in Budget 2023) governs deductions on the contributions themselves during your service:
- Old tax regime: both your own contribution and the government's matching contribution are deductible from taxable income.
- New tax regime: only the government's contribution is deductible — your own contribution doesn't get the deduction.
What if you exit early, or don't complete 4 years?
The rules change significantly depending on how your service ends:
- Voluntary early exit: you receive only your own contribution plus interest — no government matching contribution.
- Selected into the Regular Cadre (up to 25% of a batch, per current policy): you receive only your own contribution plus interest at that point, since you're continuing service rather than exiting — full ESM benefits accrue later, at your eventual retirement from the regular cadre.
- Death on duty (categorised Y/Z): ₹48 lakh insurance + ₹44 lakh ex-gratia + full pay for the unserved portion of the 4 years + the full accumulated Seva Nidhi balance including the government's matching share.
- Death not on duty (Category X): ₹48 lakh insurance + accumulated Seva Nidhi balance, without the ex-gratia payment.
What Seva Nidhi does not include
Agniveers are exempt from AFPPF (Armed Forces Provident Fund) contributions and are not eligible for AGIF (Army Group Insurance Fund) — the ₹48 lakh cover during service and the Seva Nidhi corpus are the primary financial safety nets, structured differently from a regular soldier's pension and provident fund entitlements.
Frequently asked questions
Can I withdraw my Seva Nidhi before completing 4 years?
The official terms describe the corpus as payable on discharge — voluntary early exit changes what you receive (see above) but isn't a mid-service withdrawal facility.
What's the actual interest rate used?
Not published in the official Terms & Conditions document we reviewed. Use our calculator to model different rate assumptions rather than relying on a single fixed figure.
Does Seva Nidhi count as income for loan or eligibility purposes elsewhere?
Not addressed in the official scheme document — check with the specific institution or scheme in question.