New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) In a significant development before Diwali, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in a meeting on Monday decided to allow withdrawal of up to 100 per cent of the ‘eligible balance’ in the PF account, including employee and employer share.

The decision was taken at the Central Board of Trustees’ (CBT) 238th meeting held in the national capital. The move will help more than seven crore subscribers, allowing up to 100 per cent EPF withdrawal.

Earlier, the complete withdrawal was only allowed in case of unemployment or retirement. A member was allowed to withdraw 75 per cent of the PF balance after 1 month of being jobless and the remaining 25 per cent after 2 months.

On retirement, however, the full balance was allowed to be withdrawn without any limit.

The CBT, headed by Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, took several path-breaking decisions during its meeting.

In the case of partial withdrawal for land purchase, purchase or construction of a new house or EMI repayment, EPF members were allowed to withdraw up to 90 per cent of their corpus lying in their EPF account.

Notably, to enhance ease of living of EPF members, the CBT decided to simplify the partial withdrawal provisions of 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 EPFO also decided to liberalise withdrawal limits. Education withdrawals are allowed up to 10 times and marriage up to 5 times (from existing limit of total of 3 partial withdrawals for marriage and education in all).

Also, requirement of minimum service has been uniformly reduced to only 12 months for all partial withdrawals.

A provision has been made for earmarking 25 per cent of the contributions in the members’ account as ‘Minimum Balance’ to be maintained by the member at all times, the labour ministry said in a statement after the board meeting.

—IANS

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