Union Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya Chaired 238th Meeting of CBT of EPF in New Delhi

In October 2025, Union Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Ministry of Labour & Employment (MoL&E) chaired the 238th meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) in New Delhi, Delhi.

• During the meeting, the CBT undertook major decisions including: simplification and liberalization of EPF partial withdrawal provisions; launch of ‘Vishwas Scheme’ ; and Employees’ Provident Fund Office (EPFO)-Indian Post Payment Bank (IPPB) for doorstep Digital Life Certificate (DLC)services, among others.

Key Dignitaries: Union Minister of State (MoS) Shobha Karadlaje, MoL&E and Vice-Chairperson of CBT; Ramesh Krishnamurthi, Central Provident Fund Commissioner (CPFC) were also present at the event.

Key Approvals:

Simplification of EPF Partial Withdrawal Rules:

Streamlining: The CBT approved the consolidation of 13 partial withdrawal provisions into three streamlined categories: Essential Needs (illness, education, marriage), Housing Needs, and Special Circumstances.

Withdrawal Limit: As per the new rules, members will now be able to withdraw a maximum 100% of the eligible balance (75%) in the Provident Fund (PF) including the share of employee and employer.

•  EPF members can now withdraw under Special Circumstances without specifying reasons, unlike earlier requirements.
• The CBT increased EPF withdrawal allowances, permitting 10 education and 5 marriage withdrawals, up from the previous combined limit of 3.

Service Requirement: The minimum service period for all EPF partial withdrawals is now uniformly reduced to 12 months.

Minimum Balance: The CBT clarified that 25% of EPF contributions must be maintained as a minimum balance, ensuring a secure retirement corpus for members.

Auto-Settlement: The EPF scheme now provides 100% automatic settlement of partial withdrawal claims.

Settlement Period: EPFO extended premature EPF settlement from 2 to 12 months and final pension withdrawal from 2 to 36 months.

Launch of Vishwas Scheme:

Scheme: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has launched the ‘Vishwas Scheme’ to resolve long-standing disputes over delayed Provident Fund (PF) payments.

Pending Litigation: As of May 2025, EPFO’s outstanding penal damages totaled Rs.2,406 crore across 6,000+ pending cases, with historically high penalty rates (17–37% before 2008 and 5–25% before 2024) contributing to widespread litigation.

Key Features:

• Penalty Rates: Under the Vishwas Scheme, penal damages are capped at 1% per month, with a graded rate of 0.25% for delays up to 2 months and 0.50% for delays up to 4 months.
• Time Period: The new scheme will remain operational for a time period of 6 months and can be extended by another 6 months.
• Coverage & Compliance: The Vishwas Scheme covers ongoing, finalized but unpaid, and pre-adjudication cases under Section 14B of the EPF Act, 1952, with all pending cases automatically abated upon compliance.

EPFO-IPPB Partnership:

Partnership: The CBT has also approved the signing of Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) between EPFO and India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to provide doorstep Digital Life Certificate (DLC) Services to EPS’95 pensioners.

Aim: To improve ease of living for elderly pensioners, ensure timely pension continuity, and enhance accuracy under the Centralised Pension Payment System (CPPS).

Cost: The doorstep DLC services will be provided at a cost of Rs 50 per certificate.

EPFO 3.0 Framework:

Overview: The CBT approved EPFO 3.0, a comprehensive member-centric digital transformation framework which aims to modernize PF services.

Features: The hybrid design of new framework integrates Core Banking Solution with cloud-native, Application Programming Interface (API)-1st, micro services-based modules for account management, ERP, compliance and seamless customer experience.

Implementation: This newly approved framework will be implemented in a phased-manner, ensuring secure, scalable and uninterrupted services.

Portfolio Managers:

Fund Managers: The CBT approved four fund managers to handle EPFO’s debt portfolio for five years, following Selection Committee recommendations and Investment Committee endorsement.

Objective: To protect and enhance returns on members’ PF savings in line with the EPFO’s long-term investment objectives.

Key Digital Initiatives of EPFO:

Revamped ECR System: 

Purpose: During the meeting, the CBT approved the revamped Electronic Challan-cum-Return (ECR) under the Centralised Information Technology (IT)-Enabled System (CITES) project to modernize EPFO’s digital ecosystem.

Simplification: The new ECR module simplifies employer contributions with a 4-step process, boosting automation, real-time monitoring, and data integration to reduce grievances.

Re-engineered User Management Module:

Module Upgrade: The new CITES module improves system security and accessibility with enhanced authentication and an intuitive user interface for EPFO officers and staff.

New Office Setup: The revamped module enables setting up new EPFO offices within the system, replacing the workarounds used since 2017 for monitoring establishments.

E-Office Upgrade:

The e-Office platform ((from version 6 to 7) enhances workflow automation, document management, and tracking, enabling faster processing of member service cases such as pension on higher wages, Appendix-E, special Voluntary Deferred Retirement(VDR), and demographic corrections.

SPARROW:

The CBT has inaugurated the Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW), a more efficient, transparent, and paperless system for managing Annual Performance Appraisal Reports (APARs) of EPFO’s officers and staff.

Key Progress Made by Indian in Social Security:

PM-VRBY: On August 15 2025, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi announced the launch of a major employment scheme ‘PM Viksit Bharat Rozgar (PM-VRBY)’ worth around Rs 1 lakh crore, designed to support 1st –time private sector employees.

• Financial Assistance: Under this scheme, GoI will provide a financial assistance of Rs 15,000 per month to newly employed youngsters.
• Key Target: The scheme is expected to generate over 3.5 crore new jobs, including 1.92 crore 1st –time employees, over a period of 2 years (from August 2025 to July 2027).
• Implementing Agency: The scheme is currently being implemented by the EPFO, MoL&E.
• Key Progress: CBT has informed that for the month of August 2025, the scheme is expected to benefit 79,098 establishments under Part-B (for employers) and around 6 lakh 1st time employees under Part-A (for employees). Since the inception of scheme, over 16.78 lakh Universal Account Numbers (UANs) have been allotted using Face Authentication Technology (FAT).

Global Recognition : Union Labour Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya was awarded the outstanding achievements in Social Security 2025 at the World Social Security Forum held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in recognition of India’s efforts expanding social security coverage to 64.3% of its population (940 million people) compared to 19% in 2015.

Digital Reforms: Launch of Passbook Lite on member portal which enables the members to easily access passbook, online Annexure-K which provides transparent information regarding transfer of accounts and FAT-enabled UAN activation through Unified Mobile Application for New-Age Governance (UMANG) Application (App) for faster and transparent services.

About Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO):
Central Provident Fund Commissioner (CPFC)- Ramesh Krishnamurthi
Headquarters- New Delhi, Delhi
Established- 1952