Facing widespread criticism over its revised withdrawal framework, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has defended the decision to mandate a minimum 25% balance retention in provident fund accounts, calling it a “prudent and balanced” step to protect long-term retirement savings.

Central Provident Fund Commissioner and EPFO CEO Ramesh Krishnamurthi said the move was aimed at simplifying access while preventing members from exhausting their entire savings before retirement.

“The idea was to make it easy for people to access their PF money in times of need, but also protect their corpus for long-term social security,” he told CNBC-TV18.

25% PF corpus to remain locked — EPFO says it’s for “future protection”

Under the revised rules, members can withdraw up to 75% of their

See Full Page