Banking on your provident fund savings for critical contingencies will now become far simpler with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) introducing a single page composite form for such withdrawals before retirement age.
Over eight crore Employees’ Provident Fund account holders will no longer be required to submit evidential documents for withdrawing PF for availing housing loans, grant of advances in case of factory closure, marriage, higher education of children, among other things.
“To add further convenience, these forms (different form for various advances and withdrawals) now have been further simplified and replaced with a single page Composite Claim Form (Aadhar). This new Composite Claim Form (Aadhar), can be submitted without the attestation of employers,” EPFO said in statement.
This shall be construed as ‘self-certification’ for the said partial withdrawals, for which no document would be required to be submitted to the EPFO offices, it said.However, in case PF is being withdrawn for medical purposes, a doctor’s certificate will still be required.
If Aadhar Number as well as your Bank Account Number happen to be linked to UAN / Universal Account Number; apart from which Employer has done the verification of “Know Your Customer” then Employees themselves can withdraw money from their EPFO account.
Under the Para 68B of the EPF Scheme, the “New Declaration Form” required to be appended with Form No 31 for housing loan/purchase of site/house/flat or for construction/addition, alteration in existing house/repayment of housing loan is discontinued
Similarly, under Para 68H, for grant of advances in case of closure of factories, no document would be required to be submitted by the subscriber.
Under the Para 68K, for the marriage advance & for availing advance for post-matriculation education of children, no document, including marriage card, would be required to be submitted by the subscribers.
Also under Para 68L, for advance in abnormal condition, the member may self-certify that his property has been damaged. No document would be required to be submitted by the subscriber.
With EPF in place, it is always a brighter side for an employee as Employee Provident Fund happens to be not only your Retirement Savings but with it comes a number of advantages such as Tax Benefits / Tax Deductions.
