EPF Interest To Be Credited Soon: Here’s What You May Not Know About It

EPF Interest To Be Credited Soon: Here’s What You May Not Know About ItThe interest of 8.55 percent accrued on Employee’s Provident Fund (EPF) for the fiscal 2017-18 will be credited soon. The interest rate recently notified by the government is lowest since 2012-13 fiscal. EPF is a mandatory contribution that every company, which has more than 20 employees, has to deduct from the salary of its employees. An employee contributes 12 per cent of his salary towards the EPF kitty, while an employer pays another 12 per cent, out of which 8.33 per cent is invested in the Employee’s Pension Scheme (EPS) while the balance 3.67 per cent is invested in EPF. Both EPS and EPF are run by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

Here are 10 things you may not know about EPF contributions, EPF interest rate, EPF balance:

1) Interest on EPF keeps getting accumulated. It can be claimed on retirement, resignation or death of employee.

2) If you want to construct a house, go for higher education, marriage or are critically ill, partial withdrawals from EPF accounts are allowed.3) Interest rate on EPF contributions is decided every quarter.
4) The employees can make EPF contributions at a higher rate. However, in such cases an employer is not under any obligation to pay a higher rate of interest.

5) EPF contributions are payable on the maximum wage ceiling of Rs. 15,000 by employee and employer.

6) A Universal Account number or UAN is generated for every EPF contributor. The UAN acts as an umbrella for multiple member IDs allotted to the same individual by different establishments.

7) An EPFO member is required to be registered on epfindia.gov.in – member portal – to file the transfer claim online. The detailed process flow for the registration is available at the link available on the homepage of EPFO website. This can be accessed through the link – For Employees > Online Transfer Claim Portal (OTCP) > Detailed Instructions > Process flow for registration on Member Portal or at the URL http://memberclaims.epfoservices.in.

8) You need to link your Aadhaar card number with the activated UAN for online EPF claim submission.

9) EPFO services are now available on the UMANG app, the one-stop shop for government services.

10) You can also check your EPF balance via SMS and missed call facility of the EPFO.