The Central government has approved 8.65 per cent interest rate on the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) deposits for 2016-17, officials said on Friday.

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) trustees had approved this rate of interest on the Provident Fund in December last year. The Finance Ministry gave its approval to the interest rate earlier this month.

In another related development, the government also relaxed EPF rules to allow members avail advance without tedious paperwork in case of medical exigencies etc.

"EPF members will now only be required to submit a self-declaration for the advance in case of illness of members/dependents. Differently-abled members will also get advance on the basis of self-declaration," the Labour and Employment Ministry said in a release on Friday.

Earlier, members were required to submit medical certificates and other supporting documents to avail advances under paragraph 68-J or under paragraph 68-N of EPF Scheme 1952.

"Ministry of Labour and Employment has amended Paragraph 68-J and Paragraph 68-N of Employees' Provident Fund Scheme, 1952 and it will come into force from the date of its publication in the official Gazette," the release said.
 

According to it, a member would only be required to submit a self-declaration, which has already been included in the composite claim form, to avail advance under the EPF scheme in case of illness of members/dependents and also in case of differently-abled members.

"This is in continuation of initiatives taken by EPFO as part of next phase of its e-governance reforms with a view to make the services of EPFO available to its stakeholder in an efficient and transparent manner," it said.

EPFO has since implemented Universal Account Number (UAN) for its subscribers. It is now possible for members, who have seeded their UAN with Aadhar Number and bank account details, to submit claim forms directly to EPFO without the attestation of employers.