Provident Fund: Want to withdraw PF? EPFO Subscribers must know these terms and conditions before applying

Employee Provident Fund or EPF is a government-run pension scheme aimed at benefit of the salaried employees registered with the EPFO. For FY18 that ends on 31st March 2019 investment on EPF would fetch 8.65 per cent return against 8.55 per cent in previous fiscal year. However, if required, a EPFO registered employee can withdraw fully or partially his or her PF under few circumstances. As per the EPFO official website epfindia.gov.in, here are the certain conditions under which a person can withdraw partially or fully his or her PF from the retirement fund body EPFO:

1] Marriage

As per the EPFO website, if an EPFO registered employee has completed seven years of his or her services, he or she can withdraw up to half of his or her PF with interest in case of self marriage, daughter's or son's marriage, brother's or sister's marriage under certain conditions. While withdrawing partially from the PF or taking advance from your PF, you must note that one can do such partial withdrawals for maximum three times in one's entire work period.

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2] Education for children

The retirement fund body EPFO allows three such partial withdrawals for a salaried persons for the post-matriculation studies of his or her children (as per the EPFO website epfindia.gov.in). However, to avail this benefit from the EPFO, one must have completed seven years of service, says EPFO website.

3] Purchase/construction of property

If an employee has completed five years of service, the retirement fund body EPFO allows them partial withdrawal from the PF for buying or constructing a property or flat under certain conditions. As per the EPFO website, the sum allowed for such withdrawal is limited to the minimum of 36 months of basic salary along with DA (dearness allowance), the total of employee and employer shares, or the net cost of such purchase or construction.

For purchasing a piece of land for constructing home there, the amount allowed is minimum of 24 months basis salary along with DA, total of employer and employee's share, or total cost of purchase, says EPFO website. However, in such case, the property has to be registered in the name of employee, or his wife or jointly registered in the name of an employee and his spouse, declares EPFO.

4] Home loan repayment

The EPFO registered employee is allowed to fishout money from the PF corpus for repayment of home loan under certain conditions. However, to avail such benefit provided by the EPFO, one has to complete minimum ten years of his or her services. According to the EPFO website, the amount permitted in such withdrawal is limited to the minimum of 36 months of basic salary and DA, the total of employer and employee shares, or the total interest and outstanding principal.

However, an employee can withdraw 100 per cent of his or her PF, if he or she is unemployed for more than two month.