economy

Finance Ministry Ratifies 8.25% EPF Interest Rate for 2025-26; UPI Withdrawal Feature Expected Soon

Published on: 18 Jun 2026, 04:51 PM

The finance ministry has approved an 8.25% interest rate on provident fund deposits for the financial year 2025-26, benefiting over 7.8 crore active subscribers of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), a government official said on Thursday.

The rate, recommended by the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) in March, remains unchanged from the previous year. The CBT, EPFO's top decision-making body, typically proposes interest rates annually around February-March, after which they are forwarded to the finance ministry for ratification.

The official stated that the Ministry of Labour and Employment is expected to issue a formal notification regarding the interest rate later this month.

In a separate development, the labour ministry is likely to launch EPFO 2.0—an upgraded digital platform—by the end of June. This revamped system will allow subscribers to withdraw up to 75% of their EPF corpus directly to their bank accounts via UPI (Unified Payments Interface) or through ATMs. The UPI facility will be accessible through the BHIM app, with existing transaction safeguards applicable.

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