New Delhi: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will credit around ₹1.44 lakh crore as annual interest at the rate of 8.25 per cent to nearly 34 crore member accounts by July 15, following the implementation of the Centralised IT Enabled Services (CITES) project.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment said the interest for the financial year 2025-26 will be processed automatically under the new system and verified by field authorities before being credited to members’ provident fund accounts. Members will be able to view the updated interest in their EPF passbooks by July 15.
The ministry said the new timeline marks a significant improvement, as interest credits were previously completed only by October or November.
The faster processing has been made possible after EPFO migrated its entire database to a centralised platform under the CITES project. Earlier, member services were linked to individual regional offices. Under the new system, service requests can now be processed from any authorised EPFO office across the country.
The upgraded digital platform also provides members with a single interface to access provident fund balances, membership details, claim status, pensionable service records and benefits availed, improving transparency and ease of access.
As part of the EPFO 2.0 reform initiative, the auto-settlement limit for fully KYC-verified claims has been increased from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh, allowing eligible claims to be processed faster without manual intervention.
The ministry also announced that interest on final PF settlements will now be calculated up to the date of payment authorisation instead of the last day of the previous month. This change will enable members to earn additional interest for the intervening period before settlement.
Another major reform allows EPFO members to seek assistance from any provident fund office in the country, replacing the earlier system that restricted them to the regional office where their account was registered.
