Money In Your EPF Account Set To Earn Higher Return: Key Things To Know

NDTV Profit Team

22 Feb 2019, 12:50 PM IST

EPF rate hike: The proposed revision in the EPF interest rate marks the first increase in three years

Your EPF or employees' provident fund corpus is set to earn a higher return. The Ministry of Labour & Employment has said the Central Board of Trustees - which is the apex policy-making body for EPFO or Employees' Provident Fund Organisation - has recommended an interest rate of 8.65 per cent for the current financial year. This marks an upwards revision from the EPF interest rate of 8.55 per cent for 2017-18, which was the lowest in five years. Once approved by the Ministry of Finance, the move will lead to a higher return on EPFO contributions for the financial year ending March 31.

Here are five things to know about the hike in EPF (Employees' Provident Fund) interest rate:

1. The proposed revision in the interest rate applicable to EPF marks the first increase in three years.

2. For the financial year 2017-18, the money in EPF accounts earned interest at the rate of 8.55 per cent.

3. The provident fund body had last set the the EPF interest rate at 8.65 per cent in 2016-17, lowering it from 8.8 per cent in the previous year (2015-16).

4. The decision to hike the EPF interest rate was unanimous among members of the CBT, the government has said.

5. The interest rate will be credited to the subscribers' accounts after an approval by the Ministry of Finance.

How to check your EPF balance

Retirement fund body EPFO today provides multiple ways for its subscribers to check their provident fund balance. These include an online service and an SMS service, among others.

SMS

In order to check one's EPF balance through SMS, the subscriber is required to send "EPFOHO UAN" in an SMS to 7738299899 from his or her registered mobile number.

The facility works on the mobile number registered with EPFO, according to the Employees' Provident Fund website - epfindia.gov.in. EPFO sends details such as last PF contribution, balance details and KYC (Know Your Customer) information to the subscriber via SMS, according to the EPF website.

Online

The EPF subscriber can also check the balance by accessing the "e-passbook" section on the EPFO website epfindia.gov.in. Clicking on e-passbook leads the user to the passbook.epfindia.gov.in page, where the user is required to provide his or her details such as username (UAN or Universal Account Number) and password.

This takes the user to another page where the user has to select the member ID.

The number of member IDs in a subscriber's account depends on the number of organisations the individual has worked in. Once the member ID is selected, the user can view the e-passbook and know the balance in his or her EPF account. (Here are other ways to check EPF balance in your account)

(With agency inputs)