New Delhi, Jan 22, 2026, 07:40 IST
- EPFO plans UPI-based provident fund withdrawals via the BHIM app by April, with an initial cap of Rs 25,000 per transaction
- A wider EPFO 3.0 tech overhaul is being readied, including a new portal and a core-banking style backend
- Officials say the revamp will add regional-language support and aim to reduce dependence on local EPFO offices
India’s Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is preparing to let members withdraw provident fund money using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) from April, with an initial cap of Rs 25,000 per transaction, the Indian Express reported, citing a senior government official. UPI is India’s instant payments network; the withdrawal option would run through BHIM, the government-backed UPI app, the report said. (The Indian Express)
The timing matters because EPFO sits on a vast pool of household savings and serves as a fallback in emergencies, not just retirement. Officials say it has nearly 8 crore active members and manages a corpus of around Rs 28 lakh crore, and that the next upgrade is aimed at making services faster and easier to use for workers across organised and unorganised sectors. (India Today)
The UPI withdrawal push is also being tied into a broader digital overhaul branded “EPFO 3.0”, which would include a new portal and a shift toward a core banking solution — the central system banks use to run accounts and transactions — to make services more portable across offices. A senior official told the Indian Express the backend is being redesigned to handle expansion over the next decade, alongside broader social security coverage expected under the labour codes. (The Indian Express)
Under the UPI proposal, members would be shown their balance split between what is eligible for withdrawal and a minimum 25% balance that must be kept aside. The official told the Indian Express that “anything instantaneous is prone to misuse”, and that the Rs 25,000 cap is meant to limit that risk.
The same official said EPFO is building the system with C-DAC, the government’s technology agency, and NPCI, which runs UPI, with State Bank of India involved for payment coordination. The initial plan is for BHIM to credit money directly into a member’s UPI-linked bank account.
The rollout has had to absorb recent changes in EPFO’s own withdrawal framework. Those changes include allowing members to withdraw 75% of the corpus while earmarking 25% as a minimum balance, and a streamlined set of withdrawal categories that replaces a longer list of provisions, the official said.
EPFO is also in the final stages of readying a tender to select an agency to implement, operate and maintain the IT platform behind its social security schemes, according to the Indian Express. The tender is “broadly prepared” and in financial vetting, the report said, adding that Wipro, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services were shortlisted after an earlier expression of interest. (The Indian Express)
One component EPFO is leaning on is language access. Bhashini, an Indian government-backed platform, describes itself as an AI-powered language translation service aimed at bridging language and digital divides, a tool EPFO officials have said could be used to push information in regional languages. (Gov)
The overhaul is being pitched as more than a website refresh. Financial Express reported that officials expect EPFO 3.0 to move the organisation toward a more centralised, bank-like system of operations and that the UPI-linked facility is expected to be rolled out by April, while EPFO 2.0 is in its final stages with only a few modules left. (The Financial Express)
But the move toward instant withdrawals will test EPFO’s controls and plumbing. Limits on transaction size and the number of withdrawals permitted, plus how strictly the minimum-balance rule is enforced, could shape how widely members use UPI for withdrawals, while software issues or fraud concerns could slow the timeline.
Union labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya, announcing a separate set of EPFO reforms in late December, said EPFO holds a fund corpus of “₹28 lakh crore” and offers “8.25% annual interest”, adding that workers’ money with EPFO “carries the guarantee of the Government of India.” (Press Information Bureau)
