Summary of this article
EPF withdrawals through ATMs and UPI are expected to begin before March 2026.
Bank accounts and EPF will be linked for easier ATM and card-based access.
Zero documentation for partial withdrawals from EPF corpus under the new rules are aimed for subscriber convenience.
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will soon offer provident fund withdrawals through ATMs and Unified Payment Interface (UPI). Union Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, in the EPFO’s Central Board of Trustees (CBT) meeting in April this year, said that several reforms would be introduced under the EPFO 3.0 version by mid-year. Although the mid-year period has passed, the 3.0 version is expected to begin sometime before March 2026, the minister said on Monday in an interview with ABP News. The EPFO 3.0 version aims to offer a provident fund withdrawal facility from ATMs, EPF integration with UPI transactions, increase partial withdrawal frequency, auto settlement, and more to overall offer convenience to subscribers.
The minister said that the subscriber will soon have the facility to withdraw their EPF funds from the ATMs and through UPI. The idea is to make the withdrawal process easier. He said that the PF account and bank account of subscribers will be linked together, which will enable the EPF to be linked to debit cards and UPI, allowing withdrawals to be made through ATMs just like those from a bank account.
Currently, subscribers must apply for advances, complete the form either online or offline, and their claims are settled, which often get delayed due to various reasons.
Although lately the requirement of documentation, cheque and passbook copy has been done away with, there are still operational issues, leaving subscriber in a dilemma whether they would be able to get their funds on time or not.
The minister emphasised bringing “ease to the process” and “ease of living” for subscribers through these changes and the recent announcements.
In the October 2025 meeting, CBT announced some significant changes in the EPF withdrawal rules, such as permitting partial withdrawal up to 75 per cent of the accumulated EPF corpus. It reduced the minimum service years to one year to be eligible to take advances and a 12-month waiting period for full withdrawal.
It also streamlined the categories of partial withdrawals by reducing them from the existing 13 categories to only three.
EPFO also increased the withdrawal frequency for education and marriage purposes. Subscribers can now withdraw up to 10 times for education and five times for marriage, for which one could withdraw only three times for both purposes combined. Under the new rules, members don’t need to give a reason for partial withdrawal for special reasons, like natural calamity, closure of establishments, etc. Zero documentation for partial withdrawals would also add to the convenience.
These changes have been approved but are yet to be implemented. Hopefully, these changes will also be put into service along with the EPFO 3.0 implementation.
However, considering EPFO’s operational efficiency, experts suggest that while the new rules have been approved with the purpose that subscriber can use their funds for immediate cash needs, EPFO also need to upgrade its services or the complaints will increase.
