The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Monday simplified and liberalised various sections of its retirement fund scheme, in a bid to tackle delayed repayment of Provident Fund (PF) dues.
The changes were made in the 238th meeting of the EPFO's Central Board of Trustees (CBT) to increase employees' retirement security.
Chaired the 238th meeting of Central Board of Trustees of EPFO.
— Dr Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) October 13, 2025
Under the leadership of PM Shri @NarendraModi ji, we are ensuring ease of living for members and ease of doing business for employers.
Key decision taken 👇
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From streamlined partial withdrawal rules to a new minimum balance amount, here are 5 important changes to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Scheme you need to know about:
1) The EPF Scheme once had 13 complicated provisions for partial withdrawals, which have been merged into a single rule with three sub-categories: Essential Needs (illness, education, marriage), Housing Needs, and Special Circumstances.
2) The EPF Scheme now lets members withdraw upto 100 per cent of their (eligible) Provident Pund (PF) balance—including both employee and employer contributions. Education-related withdrawals can now be made 10 times, while marriage-related ones can be made for 5 times—unlike before, when only 3 withdrawals could be made for both purposes.
3) 25 per cent of EPF contributions must now be maintained as a minimum balance to preserve members' retirement corpus, and its high interest rate of 8.25 per cent per annum.
4) The minimum service period needed to be eligible for a partial PF withdrawal has been reduced to 12 months.
5) Members can now withdraw funds under 'Special Circumstances' without having to prove their reason for doing so, which will make the process faster.
The CBT meeting also introduced the Vishwas Scheme, which reduces the penalty for delayed repayment of PF dues.
For delayed PF repayments before 2024, the penalty was from 5-25 per cent per annum, whereas for those before 2008, it varied from 17-37 per cent per annum. The penalty rate will now be reduced to a flat rate of 1 per cent per month, except for a graded rate of 0.25 per cent for dues up to 2 months, and 0.50 per cent for dues up to 4 months.
As of May 2025, outstanding penal damages stand at Rs 2,406 crores, with over 6000 cases pending across High Courts, CGITs and the Supreme Court. Nearly 21,000 cases are also pending under EPFO's e-portal, as per an Indian Express report.
