EPFO maintained interest rate on provident fund deposits at 8.5 per cent for 2020-21.Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) is a mandatory contribution from the salary of an individual that every organization with more than 20 employees has to deduct.
Earlier this year, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) maintained the interest rateon provident fund deposits at 8.5 per cent for 2020-21, the same as last fiscal 2019-20.
Contributions made towards provident fund accounts qualify for deduction in taxable income under the Section 80C of Income Tax Act.
Interest rates on these provident fund accounts are revised by the government from time to time.Firstly, the EPF member should log on to the EPFO's official website - epfindia.gov.in.Click on the e-passbook link which is available on the top right side of the portalThe user will be redirected to the EPF passbook page - passbook.epfindia.gov.in.
Log in to the account by entering username - also known as UAN or Universal Account Number, and the password.
The UAN is an identification number mentioned in the monthly salary slip of every employee.Once logged in, the details on the concerned employment have to be selected.
For example, someone who has worked in three different organisations will have three different member IDs to choose from.
Select the member ID.After a member ID is selected, the user can view the EPF e-passbook or EPF passbook.
The passbook indicates the balance in the EPF account.How to check EPF balance through SMS:To check the balance through text message, the member can send an SMS to 7738299899 from his/her registered mobile number.
The member has to type "EPFOHO UAN" correctly.
The facility is available in 10 languages - English (default), Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, and Bengali.
For receiving the SMS in any of the languages other than English, the first three characters of the preferred language need to be added after the UAN.
For example, to receive the SMS in Tamil, you should send it as: "EPFOHO UAN TAM" to 7738299899.How to check EPF balance through Missed call:EPFO members can check their balance by giving a missed call at 011-22901406 from their registered mobile number.
In case the UAN of the member is seeded with any one of the Bank account number, Aadhaar, and PAN (Permanent Account Number), the member will receive the details of the last contribution and PF balance.
However, in order to avail of this facility, the mobile number must be activated with UAN at the unified portal.
Giving a missed call from the registered mobile number at 011-22901406 automatically gets disconnected after two rings.
This service to check PF balance is available free of cost.How to check EPF balance through the Umang app:Open the Umang (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) app and click on EPFO.
The member will be directed to a page that shows employee-centric services.
Click on 'employee-centric services', which will direct the user to the page.
Then, click on 'view passbook' and enter the UAN and one-time password (OTP), which the user will receive on the registered mobile number.
After this, the member will be able to check the EPF balance.