EPFO to Auto-Settle Small Balances Up to Rs 1,000, Know the rest

EPFO: The Central Board of Trustees of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has approved a major reform concerning inoperative accounts. The Board has decided to initiate a pilot project aimed at automatically settling claims for EPFO accounts that have unclaimed balances of Rs 1,000 or less. The goal is to facilitate the automatic settlement of accounts with small, long-standing amounts, thereby relieving members from the burden of repeated applications and paperwork.

What is the plan?

The initial phase of this pilot project will encompass over 1.33 lakh inoperative EPFO accounts, totaling around ₹5.68 crore in balance. The funds from these accounts will be directly credited to the members’ bank accounts that are linked to Aadhaar and EPFO, eliminating the need for new claims or extra documentation.

According to the board, this initiative aims to speed up the distribution of long-overdue funds to members, minimize procedural delays, and enhance EPFO’s service delivery. Depending on the outcomes of the pilot project, there are intentions to extend it to inoperative accounts with larger balances.

EPF will receive an interest rate of 8.25% for the second consecutive year. The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has opted to keep the interest rate on Employees Provident Fund (EPF) at 8.25% for the fiscal year 2025-26. This decision was made on Monday, March 2, 2026.

Notably, this marks the second year in a row that the interest rate remains unchanged. Previously, in February 2025, EPFO also maintained the interest rate at 8.25% for 2024-25. In the fiscal year 2023-24, EPFO had slightly raised the interest rate from 8.15% to 8.25%. Prior to that, in 2022-23, the interest rate stood at 8.15%.

Looking back a bit, in March 2022, the EPFO ​​reduced the interest rate for 2021-22 to 8.10%, the lowest level in nearly four decades. At that time, the EPFO ​​had over 70 million subscribers. Previously, the interest rate in 2020-21 was 8.5%. The 8.10% interest rate for 2020-21 was the lowest since 1977-78, when the interest rate was 8%.