The wait for receiving interest on deposits for crores of subscribers of the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) has finally ended as the Employees' Provident Fund (EPFO) is processing the interest payment on provident funds for FY26, Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Wednesday.
The minister further said that members can check the updated amount online by July 15.
Earlier, the EPFO portal was not available for many days; however, according to the minister, the online access of provident fund accounts has been enabled with the implementation of 2.01 CITES (centralised IT-enabled services) by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
The main objective of the CITES project is to improve the facilities of EPFO, increase its operational efficiency, and provide transparent, uninterrupted services to the members.
"Annual interest for FY26 at the rate of 8.25 per cent to 34 crore member accounts, estimated at over Rs 1.44 lakh crore, will be auto-processed and then verified by Field Authorities before being credited to the member account balances. Members will be able to view the interest credit in their passbook by July 15," the minister said. Last month, the government approved the 8.25 per cent interest payment on provident funds.
According to the minister, earlier, the interest payment process was carried out in October-November after government approval.
What Changes Are Being Made in the EPFO Portal
The Minister explained that before CTES, EPFO had a decentralised structure with separate databases in each field office. Now, EPFO has migrated the entire database of member records to a new centralised database.
With the improved systems, members can avail services from any authorised location across the country, just like banking services, without the need for customers to visit a specific bank branch.
Members can now access a unified digital interface to view their details, PF balances, claim status, pensionable service records and available benefits. This ensures transparency and accessibility to information about their PF accounts and claim submissions.
Claim payments are processed through a centralised structure and sent through fast electronic funds transfer channels. This ensures that settlement funds are credited directly to the members’ bank accounts in a secure, efficient and timely manner.
Withdrawal Rules Revised
Under the revised rules, interest on the final PF settlement will be calculated till the date of sanction of payment. Earlier, interest was calculated only till the last day of the previous month.
Also, the 13 categories for partial withdrawal have been categorised into three categories, namely essential needs (such as illness, education and marriage), household needs and special circumstances. This has simplified the withdrawal process and made it easier for members to understand.
Members can now withdraw up to 75 per cent of the total provident fund balance.
In case of a change of job, members do not need to apply for the conversion of Aadhaar-linked UAN-based member accounts containing provident fund savings. The conversion cases will be initiated and resolved automatically.
Under the centralised pension payment system, pension claims processed at any zonal office can be paid from any bank account across the country. In the earlier system, pensioners could only receive their pension through the branch office to which their Pension Payment Order (PPO) was linked.