EPFO board to take up CITES on July 25: Meet to ratify key provisions; CBT to discuss automatic transfers, simplified withdrawals

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will hold its board meeting on July 25 to ratify key provisions under the recently introduced Centralised IT Enabled Services (CITES) project, paving the way for its implementation.

A senior government official told ET that the 240th meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) will consider administrative matters, including ratification of some provisions under CITES. The centralised IT platform is expected to significantly improve services for more than 70 million active EPFO subscribers and over 8 million pensioners.

The official agenda for the meeting is yet to be circulated. The CBT, chaired by the labour and employment minister, is the EPFO's highest decision-making body. Among the proposals expected to come before the board are simplified rules for partial provident fund (PF) withdrawals, automatic PF transfer when employees change jobs and easier access to member information.


Under CITES, the EPFO has consolidated 13 complex partial withdrawal rules into three categories-essential needs, housing needs and special circumstances. The system will also allow subscribers to withdraw up to 75% of their total PF balance.

At present, employees changing jobs must obtain approvals from both employers and the EPFO office, besides submitting a separate claim to transfer their service history along with their PF balance. With the rollout of CITES, transfer cases will be initiated and settled automatically.