The EPFO’s central board of trustees, headed by labour and employment minister Mansukh Mandaviya, has also made it mandatory to maintain a minimum balance of 25% of the PF corpus at all times.
Till now, the scheme provided for withdrawal of all funds after two months of continuous unemployment, and there was no condition of maintaining a minimum balance.
“25% of the total PF account balance will be maintained lifelong, and the remaining (75%) can be withdrawn through six transactions in a year,” Mandaviya said on Tuesday.
The new scheme, amended at a board of trustees’ meeting on Monday, will offer timely access to funds, while ensuring a minimum corpus to dip into for its subscribers when finally settling their account, the minister said.
The 25% rule has been framed keeping in mind that 87% of all members had less than Rs 1 lakh in their PF account at the time of settlement.”The subscribers can also transfer their corpus to the pension account,” Mandaviya said.The labour ministry is of the view that the amendment will enable the around 300 million EPFO members to enjoy a high rate of interest offered by the EPFO (presently 8.25% per annum) along with compounding benefits to accumulate a high value retirement corpus.
as a Reliable and Trusted News SourceThis rationalisation enhances ease of access while ensuring members maintain a sufficient retirement corpus, it said.