Non-refundable Covid advance no longer available under EPFO

Retirement fund body the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has officially put an end to non-refundable Covid advance introduced in 2020 to help EPFO subscribers tide over the financial crunch during the outbreak of the pandemic.

"As Covid-19 is no more a pandemic, the competent authority has decided to discontinue the said advance with immediate effect," EPFO said in a circular dated June 12, 2024.

"This will be applicable to the exempted trusts also and accordingly may be intimated to all the Trusts coming under respective jurisdiction," it added.

EPFO had introduced the facility during the first wave of the pandemic and even allowed a second advance on May 31, 2021 during the second wave.

Under this, EPFO subscribers could avail non-refundable advance not exceeding the basic wages and dearness allowances for three months, or up to 75% of the amount standing to a member's credit in the EPF account, whichever was less.

ET had reported in December 2023 that EPFO had unofficially put an end to Covid advance and the decision was communicated to all its field offices in an internal meeting.

Over 22 million-or more than one-third-of EPFO's total subscribers had availed of the Covid advance in the three fiscal years starting from 2020-21, amounting to ₹48,075.75 crore, as per the EPFO's draft annual report for 2022-23.

According to the report, the retirement fund body disbursed ₹17,106.17 crore in 2020-21, benefiting 6.92 million beneficiaries, ₹19,126.29 crore in 2021-22 to 9.16 million beneficiaries, and ₹11,843.23 crore to 6.20 million beneficiaries in 2022-23.

The provision for Covid advance, which came into effect on March 28, 2020, saw 33 beneficiaries availing the facility in the four days till the end of FY20 (March 31, 2020), amounting to ₹0.06 crore.

EPFO has over 60 million subscribers and manages a corpus of more than ₹20 lakh crore.