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In a large betterment aimed astatine improving easiness of entree and flexibility for implicit 7 crore subscribers, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) committee connected Monday approved liberalised partial withdrawal rules, allowing members to retreat up to 100 per cent of their EPF balance.The Central Board of Trustees (CBT), headed by Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, announced a bid of cardinal decisions during its meeting, including simplification of withdrawal provisions, instauration of the Vishwas Scheme to trim litigation, and a integer translation program nether EPFO 3.0, PTI reported.According to a Labour Ministry statement, 13 analyzable provisions for partial withdrawals person been merged into a single, streamlined model categorised nether 3 heads — Essential Needs (illness, education, marriage), Housing Needs, and Special Circumstances.Members volition present beryllium capable to retreat up to 100 per cent of their eligible provident money balance, including some worker and leader contributions. Withdrawal limits for acquisition and matrimony person been liberalised, allowing up to 10 times for acquisition and 5 times for marriage, compared to the earlier combined headdress of 3 partial withdrawals.To heighten accessibility, the minimum work request for each types of withdrawals has been uniformly reduced to 12 months.
Under the Special Circumstances category, members volition nary longer beryllium required to specify reasons for withdrawal, removing a large origin of assertion rejections and grievances.In a cardinal safeguard, 25 per cent of the member’s relationship contributions volition present beryllium earmarked arsenic a minimum equilibrium to guarantee continued accumulation of status savings. This volition let members to payment from EPFO’s precocious involvement complaint of 8.25% per annum and compound returns for semipermanent corpus building.The rationalised withdrawal rules are expected to pave the mode for 100 per cent auto-settlement of claims without immoderate documentation, ensuring easiness of surviving for subscribers. Additionally, the play for premature last colony of EPF has been accrued from 2 months to 12 months, portion last pension withdrawal volition present beryllium allowed aft 36 months alternatively of two.The CBT besides approved the Vishwas Scheme to code long-pending litigations arising from penal damages connected delayed PF remittances.
As of May 2025, penal damages worthy Rs 2,406 crore were outstanding, with implicit 6,000 cases pending crossed assorted forums, including the Supreme Court and High Courts.Under the caller scheme, penal damages volition beryllium reduced to a level complaint of 1 per cent per month, with graded rates of 0.25 per cent for defaults up to 2 months and 0.50 per cent for defaults up to 4 months. The strategy volition stay operational for six months, extendable by different six months, and covers ongoing, finalised, and pre-adjudication cases nether Section 14B.
All pending cases volition basal abated upon compliance nether the scheme.To amended pensioner convenience, the Board approved an MoU with India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to supply doorstep Digital Life Certificate (DLC) services to EPS’95 pensioners astatine nary cost. The Rs 50 per certificate complaint volition beryllium afloat borne by EPFO. This inaugural volition particularly payment pensioners successful distant and agrarian areas, enabling home-based certificate submission and ensuring uninterrupted pension disbursal.As portion of EPFO 3.0, the committee approved a broad member-centric integer translation framework. The caller hybrid plan volition integrate halfway banking solutions with cloud-native, API-first, microservices-based systems covering relationship management, ERP, compliance, and lawsuit experience.This translation aims to alteration faster, automated assertion settlements, instant withdrawals, multilingual self-service, and seamless payroll-linked contributions — reinforcing EPFO’s committedness to transparency, efficiency, and technology-driven governance.Additionally, the Central Board approved the assignment of 4 money managers to grip EPFO’s indebtedness portfolio for 5 years. The selected firms are SBI Funds Management Limited, HDFC AMC Limited, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Limited, and UTI AMC Limited. The move, recommended by the Selection and Investment Committees, is expected to fortify hazard diversification and guarantee prudent absorption of provident money investments successful enactment with semipermanent objectives.Labour Minister Mandaviya besides inaugurated a bid of integer initiatives aimed astatine enhancing transparency, efficiency, and idiosyncratic acquisition successful work delivery, reinforcing EPFO’s extremity of ensuring easiness of surviving for members and pensioners alike
