The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is a social security body that required a mandatory contribution from the salary of an individual that every organisation with more than 20 employees has to deduct. Earlier this year, the EPFO maintained the interest rate on provident fund deposits at 8.5 per cent for 2020-21, which is the same as the last fiscal year of 2019-20. Contributions made towards any provident fund accounts qualify for a deduction in taxable income under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. The government revises the interest rates on these provident fund accounts from time to time.
There are many ways to check your provident fund balance. The first way to do so is through the official EFPO website, epfindia.gov.in.
- Visit the website mentioned above.
- Click on the e-passbook link, which can be on the top-right corner of the portal.
- You will be redirected to the EPF passbook page, with the link being passbook.epfindia.gov.in. Log in by entering your username and password. Note that the username is also sometimes referred to as a Universal Account Number (UAN). The UAN is an identification number that is mentioned in the monthly salary slip of every employee.
- Once you have logged in, you have to select the details of the concerned employment. For example, if someone has worked in three different organisations, they will have three different member IDs to choose from. Select the member ID that suits you.
- After a member ID has been chosen, you will be able to view the EPF e-passbook or EPF passbook. The passbook will show you the balance in the EPF account.
The second way to check your EPF balance is through SMS.
- Send a message to 7738299899 from the registered mobile number.
- Type in “EPFOHO UAN” correctly. Note that this facility is available to users in 10 languages – English (the default language), Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam.
- If you want to receive the SMS in any of the language options besides English, the first three characters of the preferred language need to be added after the UAN. For example, to receive the SMS in Telugu, your SMS should read: “EPFOHO UAN TEL”.
Another way to check your EPF balance is through a missed call.
Give a missed call to the number 011-22901406 from the registered mobile number. If the UAN of the member is seeded with either your bank account number, Aadhaar number, or PAN (Permanent Account Number), you will receive the details of the last contribution and PF balance. But if you want to make use of this facility, your mobile number must be activated with UAN at the unified portal. If you give a missed call from the registered mobile number at 011-22901406, you will automatically get disconnected after two rings. This method to check PF balance is freely available.
