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 The Employee Provident Fund (EPF), Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) and Public

Provident Fund (PPF) are some of the popular products to invest for the retirement

years.

In the past few months, radical chanes have been introduced in these schemes.

!et us have a loo" at them.

1) PF portability: Every time you #oin a new company, you were iven a new PF

number. Then you had the option of movin your funds to the new account.

$hether you did this or not a%ected the ta&ability of your PF deposits. 'ot any

more. our PF accounts are now oin to be portable. The Prime inister 'arendra

odi is oin to launch the much*awaited +niversal PF ccount 'umber (+')

website to enable PF portability on -ctober /. The +' will be portable throuhout

the wor"in career of an employee. $ith the +' in place, wor"ers in the orani0ed

sector need not apply for transfer of PF claim in case of #ob*chane. This means, the

PF subscriber will not et a new number on #oinin a new 1rm. Instead the

employee will et an I2 lin"ed to +'. So, this mechanism will help in smoothenin

PF transfer claims. The new website is e&pected to provide an individual

personali0ed lo*in mechanism to help in tas"s li"e viewin updated PF amount,transfer claims and updatin 34.

4urrently, the EPF- is in the process of lin"in the +' of its 56 million subscribers

with their ban" accounts, Permanent ccount 'umber (P'), adhar and other

identi1cation details.

2) Bank account and PF portability: The retirement fund body has as"ed

companies to provide ban" account numbers of their employer members by

-ctober 7. It has also as"ed for the IFS4 or Indian Financial System 4ode number

for easy transfer of PF payment. The IFS4 helps identify the branch where theaccount is based. This helps transfer money easily. The ban" account numbers with

IFS4 codes will be lin"ed to the +niversal PF ccount 'umber (+'). This will help in

portability of PF accounts.

3) Higher PF wage ceiling: The retirement fund body Employee Provident Fund

-rani0ation (EPF-) has raised the salary limit for maintainin a PF account to 8s

7,666. Earlier, the limit was 8s /,766 per month. This means, any orani0ed sector

employee earnin up to 8s 7,666*a*month have to compulsorily hold an EPF

account with the overnment. For those earnin more than 8s 7,666, it is a

voluntary option. This is to ensure that low*wae earners have a su9cient "itty to

help them in their retirement. This new measure is e&pected to brin in 76 la"h new

PF subscribers, accordin to the EPF-.

:; of an employee<s basic salary oes to the PF account and is payable bac" to

him=her toether with interest once he=she leaves the company. The employer too

pays an e>ual sum ? :; of the basic salary. -ut of this, @.AA; oes into the

pension scheme and A./B; into the EPF.

s of now, only orani0ed sector employees are covered under the social security

scheme. They amount to about @; of the total wor"force. This still leaves the

ma#ority of India<s wor"ers in the unorani0ed sector without su9cient retirement

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help.

4) Minimum monthly penion: -nce the EPF- subscriber dies, his or her family

ets an amount on a monthly basis. The overnment has raised the minimum

monthly pension distributed to 8s ,666 per month for the 1nancial year :65*:67.

 This move will bene1t about :@ la"h pensioners, especially widows, some of whom

et a paltry sum of 8s 76*:66 a month.

!) "nurance limit hiked: a&imum sum assured under Employee 2eposit !in"ed

Scheme, CB/ (E2!I) has been hi"ed to 8s A la"hs plus :6; ad hoc bene1t over the

prescribed amount. This means in case of the death of the subscriber under EPF-,

his family is entitled to et 8s A./ la"hs instead of the current 8s .7/ la"hs.

ll employers to whom the Employee Provident Fund and iscellaneous Provision

ct applies, have to mandatorily subscribe to the E2!I scheme to provide life

insurance bene1t to their employees.

 The above A chanes have come into e%ect from September , :65

#) PF interet rate: $hen you invest in a provident fund, you earn an interest.

 The overnment 1&es this rate on a yearly basis. For the year :65*7, the interest

rate on provident fund deposits has been retained at @.B7;. This means, the nearly

76 million PF subscribers will earn @.B7; on their deposit amount this year.

$) %a& on PF withdrawal: If an employee withdraws his PF accumulation before

1ve years of completin service, the entire amount withdrawn will be ta&able for

that year. Dowever, if you transferred your PF every time you chaned you #ob, your

total tenure of wor" will be calculated. For e&ample, if you wor"ed for a year at

company and for four years at company , and you transferred your PF, then atotal wor"*period of 1ve years will be calculated.