The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) may allow its subscribers to withdraw a portion of their accumulated corpus through ATMs by January 2026, sources told Moneycontrol on Wednesday.
The Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the apex decision-making body of the EPFO, is likely to give approval for the ATM-withdrawal facility in its upcoming board meeting, scheduled to be held in October’s second week, the sources said.
"We’ve learnt that the IT infrastructure of the EPFO is ready to allow for such transactions," a member of the CBT told Moneycontrol. "There will be a withdrawal limit from ATMs, but this has to be discussed," the person added.
As of today, the total corpus of EPFO is over Rs 28 lakh crore, and the total contributing members are around 78 million. For perspective, in 2014, the figures stood at Rs 7.4 lakh crore and 33 million, respectively.
"ATM facility is seen as a necessity as the government is aiming to give more access to the EPFO members for accessing their accumulated corpus," a senior official from the labour ministry said. "The ministry has spoken to banks as well as the RBI to roll out the feature," the person added.
It's likely the EPFO would issue a special card to its members, which would allow them to withdraw a part of their corpus from ATMs, sources said.
Earlier this year, the EPFO raised the automatic claim settlement amount from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh in order to ease the accessibility of funds for subscribers. Under the process, the automated system uses a set of digital checks and algorithms to verify the claim's eligibility, instead of the claim being manually reviewed by an EPFO officer. The entire process is system-driven and is based on a member's KYC details.
Experts say that allowing withdrawals of EPFO corpus through ATMs would make access to funds much more convenient for members, particularly in times of urgency, as at present, withdrawals often involve procedural delays and paperwork.
"That said, whether the EPFO is equipped to handle such transactions will depend on the robustness of its digital infrastructure and integration with the banking system. While EPFO has made significant strides in digitisation in recent years, rolling out a seamless, fraud-proof ATM withdrawal facility at scale will require careful planning, strong safeguards, and coordination with banks and payment networks," noted Sanket Jain, Partner, Pioneer Legal.
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