Lockdown income-loss forces workers to lay hands on Provident Fund savings
Mumbai/IBNS: As many as 6,50,000 people have withdrawn money from their Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) savings to fulfill the income loss due to extended Covid-19 lockdown, said a media report.
The numbers are alarming as 30,000 to 35,000 people are withdrawing money from their provident fund accounts on an average working day in April, said a Mint report.
The new rules passed to facilitate withdrawal to tide over the income crisis due to Covid-19 lockdown has helped more people access their savings.
According to data from retirement fund manager Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Rs 2,700 crore has been already withdrawn in the lockdown period, said the report.
According to an official, employees from both small firms and blue-chip companies are withdrawing money from their retirement fund corpus directly under EPFO and the corpus managed by the PF trusts of companies, the report stated.
The Union government has allowed its employees to withdraw 75 per cent of their PF savings, or three months basic wages and dearness allowance, whichever is lower in the new facilitating rules to compensate the income loss due to lockdown.
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