GPF Advance Limit Enhanced upto 12 Months of Pay

GPF Advance Limit Enhanced upto 12 Months of Pay

No 3/212017 -P&PW (F)(i)

Ministry of Personnel, PG & Pensions

Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare

Desk-F

3rdFloor, Lok Nayak Bhavan,

Khan Market, New Delhi-11 0003

Dated 7th March, 2017.

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject : Amendment to the provisions of General Provident Fund (Central Service )Rules 1960- liberalization of provisions for drawal of advance from the Fund by the subscribers – regarding.

The General Provident Fund (Central Service )Rules came into force in 1960. Rule 12 of the said rules provide for drawal of advance by the subscribers, to be sanctioned by the competent authority for reasons indicated in the Rules. Some amendments have been made from time to time to address the concerns raised by the subscribers. However, the provisions, largely. remain restrictive. There is a felt need to liberalize provisions, raise limits and simplify the procedure.

2. The provisions in the. rules have now been reviewed and it has been decided to permit the subscriber to prefer an advance from General Provident Fund (Central Service) Rules 1960 for the following purposes:
Subject:

(i) Illness of self, family members or dependents,

(ii) Education of family members or dependent of the subscriber. Education will include primary, secondary and higher education, covering all streams and educational institutions,

(iii) Obligatory Expenses viz. betrothal; marriage, funerals, or other ceremonies,

(iv) Cost of Legal proceedings,

(v) Cost of defence,

(vi) Purchase of consumer durables,

(vii) Pilgrimage and visiting places of eminence. This will include any travel and . tourism related activities.

3. It has been decided to enhance the limit of advance upto 12 months of pay or three-fourth of the amount at credit, whichever is less. Amount of advance will be recoverable in a maximum of 60 instalments. The advance may be sanctioned by the declared Head of Office . .

4. The declared Head of Department is competent to sanction an advance from the fund for reasons not covered above.

5 Maximum time limit of fifteen days is being prescribed for sanction and payment of an advance from the Fund. In case of emergencies like illness etc., the time limit maybe restricted to seven days.

6. In all the above cases of advance, no documentary proof is required to be furnished by the subscriber. A simple declaration by the subscriber explaining the reasons for advance would be sufficient.

7. Necessary amendment to the GPF(Central Service)Rules 1960, giving effect to the above provisions will be issued in due course.

8. In so far as persons serving in Indian Audit and Accounts Department are concerned, these orders issue in consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

9. This issues with approval of Department of Expenditure, vide their ID No. 4(1)/EV/2017 dated 28.02.2017.

10. Hindi version of this OM will follow

(Sujasha Choudhury)

Director

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TDS Payment on Superannuation Fund and Provident Fund w.e.f. 01.06.2015

TDS ON PAYMENT OF ACCUMULATED BALANCE UNDER RECOGNISED PROVIDENT FUND AND CONTRIBUTION FROM APPROVED SUPERANNUATION FUND

The trustees of a Recognized Provident Fund, or any person authorized by the regulations of the Fund to make payment of accumulated balances due to employees, shall in cases where sub-rule(1) of Rule 9 of Part A of the Fourth Schedule to the Act applies, at the time when the accumulated balance due to an employee is paid, make therefrom the deduction specified in Rule 10 of Part A of the Fourth Schedule to the Act.

The accumulated balance is treated as income chargeable under the head “Salaries”.

Where any contribution made by an employer, including interest on such contributions, if any, in an approved Superannuation Fund is paid to the employee, tax on the amount so paid shall be deducted by the trustees of the Fund to the extent provided in Rule 6 of Part B of the Fourth Schedule to the Act. TDS should be at the average rate of tax at which, the employee was liable to be taxed during the preceding three years or during the period, if that period is less than three years, when he was member of the fund.

The deductor shall remain liable to deduct tax on any sum paid on account of returned contributions (including interest, if any) even if a fund or part of a fund ceases to be an approved Superannuation fund.

As per section 192A of the Act, w. e. f. 01.06.2015 the trustees of the EPF Scheme 1952 framed under section 5 of the EPF & Misc.

Provisions Act, 1952 or any person authorized under the scheme to make payment of accumulated balance due to employees, shall, in a case where the accumulated balance due to an employee participating in a recognized provident fund is includible in his total income owing to the provisions of Rule 8 of Part A of Fourth Schedule not being applicable at the time of payment of accumulated balance due to the employee, deduct income tax thereon @ 10% if the amount of such payment or aggregate of such payment exceeds Rs 50,000/-. In case the employee does not provide his/her PAN No., then the deduction will have to be made at maximum marginal rate.

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Provident Fund Interest Rate rising to 8.75% for Fin. 2013-14.

Retirement fund body EPFO on Monday decided to increase the rate of interest on Provident Fund deposits to 8.75% for 2013-14, a move that will benefit about 5 crore subscribers.

"We have decided to recommend to the government 8.75% rate of interest for 2013-14 to its subscribers," labour minister Oscar Fernandes told reporters after a meeting of the EPFO trustees.

The Central Board of Trustees, which is the apex decision-making body of the Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), met on Monday and approved the interest rate.

According to sources, the body had surplus funds, which enabled the interest rate to be increased from 8.5% in the previous financial year (2012-13).

The EPFO's recommendation will be vetted by the finance ministry. Once the ministry approves the decision, the interest would be credited to the accounts of subscribers.

According to sources, the decision to enhance the rate was taken in view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The EPFO is estimated to have an income of Rs 20,796.96 crore in the current financial year.

Payment of interest at the rate of 8.5% to subscribers would have required Rs 20,740 crore and left a surplus of Rs 56.96 crore, according to earlier projections.

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TDS on Provident Fund and Superannuation Fund for Asstt. Year 2014-15

The trustees of a Recognized Provident Fund, or any person authorized by the regulations of the Fund to make payment of accumulated balances due to employees, shall in cases where sub-rule(1) of Rule 9 of Part A of the Fourth Schedule to the Act applies, at the time when the accumulated balance due to an employee is paid, make therefrom the deduction specified in Rule 10 of Part A of the Fourth Schedule to the Act. The accumulated balance is treated as income chargeable under the head “Salaries”.

Where any contribution made by an employer, including interest on such contributions, if any, in an approved Superannuation Fund is paid to the employee, tax on the amount so paid shall be deducted by the trustees of the Fund to the extent provided in Rule 6 of Part B of the Fourth Schedule to the Act. TDS should be at the average rate of tax at which, the employee was liable to be taxed during the preceding three years or during the period, if that period is less than three years, when he was member of the fund.

The deductor shall remain liable to deduct tax on any sum paid on account of returned contributions (including interest, if any) even if a fund or part of a fund ceases to be an approved Superannuation fund.

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TDS on Payment of Accumulated Balance Under Recognised Provident Fund and Contribution from Approved Superannuation Fund

TDS on Payment of Accumulated Balance Under Recognised Provident Fund and Contribution from Approved Superannuation Fund:

The trustees of a Recognized Provident Fund, or any person authorized by the regulations of the Fund to make payment of accumulated balances due to employees, shall in cases where sub-rule(l) of Rule 9 of Part A of the Fourth Schedule to the Act applies, at the time when the accumulated balance due to an employee is paid, make therefrom the deduction specified in Rule 10 of Part A of the Fourth Schedule to the Act.

The accumulated balance is treated as income chargeable under the head "Salaries"

Where any contribution made by an employer, including interest on such contributions, if any, in an approved Superannuation Fund is paid to the employee, tax on the amount so paid shall be deducted by the trustees of the Fund to the extent provided in Rule 6 of Part B of the Fourth Schedule to the Act. TDS should be at the average rate of tax, the employee was liable to be taxed during the preceding three years or during the period, if that period is less than three years, when he was member of the fund.

The deductor shall remain liable to deduct tax on any sum paid on account of returned contributions (including interest, if any) even if a fund or part of a fund ceases to be an approved Superannuation fund.

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Know about Online Transfer P.F.

Friends, with the competition of computerization of 117 of the 120 provident fund offices across the country, PF account holders who have sought a transfer can now track the progress of their applications online.

The step, officials in the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) say, is aimed as much at user convenience as to infuse transparency in the working of the organization.

The facility was started last week and officials says that though the transfer deadline is a month, “unofficially” they are looking at a time windows of one week within which effort will be to complete the transfer. The system of electronic transfer of PF money was put in place from January-2011, which is when the deadline was brought down to one month from a year the it used to take earlier.

Ø An employee seeking transfer of PF money will have to fill Form 13.

Ø After the form is submitted, the regional office will sent it to the other office- if the two employers are in different cities-for verification.

Ø The second office will then transfer the money to the new account after which the new employer will be informed.

Ø If the two employers are in the same city the money will be electronically transferred from one account to another.

For online tracking of the application statue the applicants can visit the EPFO and click on the “Know your claims status link”. The Status will be available when the applicant furnish the PF Account Number and the P.F. Office.

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