Government likely to relax EPFO withdrawal rules: Report
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New Delhi: The Centre is mulling over changes to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) rules to ease withdrawal limits, Moneycontrol reported.
Currently EPFO members are allowed to withdraw savings only when reaching the retirement age of 58 or in the event of remaining unemployed for more than two months.
However, partial withdrawals are allowed under specific conditions.
Officials are considering changes to ease withdrawal limits in the event of members want money for housing, marriage and education.
Moneycontrol reported citing two officials that the Centre has not set timeline for bringing about the changes but it is reported it will take place within a year.
‘We don’t want to put restrictions for the members, it’s their money they should have the freedom to manage their fund according their needs,’ one official was quoted as saying.
When it comes to marriage, a member having seven years of service can currently withdraw up to 50% of their own contribution and the interest accrued. This applies to the own marriage and that of a sibling or child.
Completing three years of service, a member can withdraw up to 90% of the total accumulated balance for housing purpose; however, the property must be in the name of the member, their spouse or jointly owned.
A member having a minimum of seven years of service can withdraw up to 50% of their contribution with interest for education, particularly for post-matriculation education of children.
Moneycontrol previously reported that the government was considering to allow EPFO members to withdraw the entire corpus, or a part of it, once every 10 years.