In 2017-18, this rate was fixed at 8.55 percent. In 2016-17, 8.65 percent interest was given to the members of EPFO. In view of the Corona epidemic, EPFO had allowed withdrawal of retirement fund as non-refundable advance.
The Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) can release the interest amount for the financial year 2020-21 to the account holders around Diwali. This information has been given in a media report. According to the report, about 6 crore account holders of the country will benefit from the interest amount. In view of the festive season, EPFO can take this step.
This step of EPFO will give big relief to the salary earners. A lump sum money will come in the hands of the account holders. EPFO has not changed the interest rates for the financial year 2020-21 and has kept it fixed at 8.5 per cent. This proposal of EPFO is yet to be approved by the Finance Ministry. This proposal is waiting for approval for the last 6 months.
PF interest rate
In view of the Kovid epidemic, the EPFO cut interest rates and it went down to a seven-year low of 8.5% in March 2019-20. In 2018-19, the interest rate of EPFO was 8.65 percent. In 2017-18, this rate was fixed at 8.55 percent. In 2016-17, 8.65 percent interest was given to the members of EPFO. In view of the Corona epidemic, EPFO had allowed withdrawal of retirement fund as non-refundable advance.
The government made a provision in March 2020 under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) and allowed the EPF member to withdraw three months’ amount in advance. According to the provision, the employee was allowed to withdraw three months’ basic pay and DA or 75 percent of the Provident Fund, whichever is less, as advance.
In a statement, the Finance Ministry said, in order to provide relief to the employees in the second wave of Corona, EPFO has allowed its member to take a second non-refundable advance. In view of the effect of Corona, this provision was implemented in March 2020 under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. During Corona, people who lost their jobs or whose financial condition deteriorated, those people carried out their work by withdrawing PF money. Now slowly the economy is coming back on track and on this basis the contribution of the member in EPFO is also increasing.
How to check pf balance
- You can check PF balance through passbook by visiting the official website of EPFO. You visit the EPFO website epfindia.gov.in. Here login after filling Universal Account Number, Password and Captcha. Now the EPF account will be opened and here click on the member ID and go to the passbook page. Through this you can check balance.
- You can also take the help of missed call to know how much money is in PF account. For this, you have to give a missed call on 011-22901406 from the registered mobile number. After this a message will come on your registered mobile from EPFO. PF number, name, date of birth and PF balance will be written in the message. With this you can know the balance of the account.
- This work can also be done through SMS. For this, send a message from your registered mobile number to EPFO’s number 7738299899. You have to send EPFOHO UAN ENG in the message. You can get this information in many languages.
- You can also check PF balance through mobile app. For this, you can go to the government application UMANG, on which you can do work related to PF balance, claim etc. In this, you do not even need a password etc. and you can check the balance in a minute through Otopi.
