The board of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), on Monday, approved full withdrawal of the 75% of the provident fund kitty for education, marriage and medical purposes besides liberalizing the criteria for partial withdrawals, a move aimed at enhancing the ease of living for over 70 million EPFO subscribers.
However, 25% of the contributions in the members’ account has been earmarked as minimum balance to be maintained by the member at all times to ensure a decent retirement corpus for its subscribers.
The decision was taken at the 238th meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of EPFO chaired by the labour and employment minister Mansukh Mandaviya. CBT is the apex decision making body of the EPFO.
“To enhance the ease of living of EPF members, the CBT decided to simplify the partial withdrawal provisions of the EPF Scheme by merging 13 complex provisions into a single, streamlined rule categorised into three types, namely, essential needs (illness, education, marriage), housing needs and special circumstances,” the ministry of labour and employment said in a statement issued after the meeting.
As per the statement, members will be able to withdraw up to 100% of the eligible balance in the provident fund including employee and employer share.
Further, withdrawal limits have been liberalized with education withdrawals allowed up to 10 times and marriage up to 5 times as against the existing limit of a total of three partial withdrawals for marriage and education.
Besides, the requirement of minimum service has been uniformly reduced to only 12 months for all partial withdrawals and no reasons will be asked to withdraw under ‘special circumstances’ category.
Earlier, under ‘special circumstances,’ the member was required to clarify the reasons for partial withdrawals viz. natural calamity, lockouts or closure of establishments, continuous un-employment, outbreak of epidemic etc. “This often led to rejection of claims and consequent grievances. Now, the member can apply without assigning any reasons under this category,” it said.
Besides, CBT has also approved the extension of period for availing premature final settlement of EPF from the existing two months to 12 months and final pension withdrawal from two months to 36 months to ensure decent retirement saving for EPFO subscribers.
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However, 25% of the contributions in the members’ account has been earmarked as minimum balance to be maintained by the member at all times to ensure a decent retirement corpus for its subscribers.
The decision was taken at the 238th meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of EPFO chaired by the labour and employment minister Mansukh Mandaviya. CBT is the apex decision making body of the EPFO.
“To enhance the ease of living of EPF members, the CBT decided to simplify the partial withdrawal provisions of the EPF Scheme by merging 13 complex provisions into a single, streamlined rule categorised into three types, namely, essential needs (illness, education, marriage), housing needs and special circumstances,” the ministry of labour and employment said in a statement issued after the meeting.
As per the statement, members will be able to withdraw up to 100% of the eligible balance in the provident fund including employee and employer share.
Further, withdrawal limits have been liberalized with education withdrawals allowed up to 10 times and marriage up to 5 times as against the existing limit of a total of three partial withdrawals for marriage and education.
Besides, the requirement of minimum service has been uniformly reduced to only 12 months for all partial withdrawals and no reasons will be asked to withdraw under ‘special circumstances’ category.
Earlier, under ‘special circumstances,’ the member was required to clarify the reasons for partial withdrawals viz. natural calamity, lockouts or closure of establishments, continuous un-employment, outbreak of epidemic etc. “This often led to rejection of claims and consequent grievances. Now, the member can apply without assigning any reasons under this category,” it said.
Besides, CBT has also approved the extension of period for availing premature final settlement of EPF from the existing two months to 12 months and final pension withdrawal from two months to 36 months to ensure decent retirement saving for EPFO subscribers.
Other decisions
The board has also approved the ‘Vishwas Scheme’ to reduce litigation through rationalised penal damages, a comprehensive member-centric digital transformation framework, EPFO 3.0, to modernize provident fund services, EPFO’s tie-up with the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to provide doorstep Digital Life Certificate (DLC) services to EPS’95 pensioners at a cost of Rs 50 per certificate, fully borne by EPFO and appointment of four fund managers to manage the debt portfolio of EPFO.Update on Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana (PM-VBRY)
According to EPFO, the Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana (PMVBRY), launched on August 15, is expected to benefit 79,098 establishments under part B (for employers) and around 0.6 million first time employees under Part A (for employees) of the employment linked scheme.Add 
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