Are you a salaried employee? If you answered yes to that, chances are, your employer has opened an Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) account for you. Employee and employer contributions are made to this account year after year, while the PF interest is calculated on the monthly closing balance and credited annually. This way, you have a sizable corpus to rely on when you retire.
There has been some news about the percentage of PF interest being credited and when it will happen for employees in 2023. Has the PF interest been credited for FY23 for you? Let’s find out.
The PF interest is typically credited to EPFO accounts by the end of each financial year. However, this year, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) initiated the PF interest credit process earlier than usual — almost like a surprise Diwali gift for salaried employees nationwide.
According to Bhupender Yadav, the Union Cabinet Minister of Labour and Employment, the PF interest for over 24 crore accounts had been credited by 10 November this year. The EPFO is in the process of crediting the PF interest for other accounts in the coming days. So, if you are wondering when your PF interest will be credited, you can expect to see the amount in your EPF account soon enough. That said, the EPFO has also clarified that there may be a slight delay in the interest being reflected across all EPFO accounts.
The rate of interest to be credited on EPFO account balances is decided by the EPFO’s Central Board of Trustees (CBT) every year. The PF interest rate for FY23 has been set at 8.15% per annum, the highest it has been in more than 40 years. This is a significant boost from the PF interest rate for the previous financial year, which was 7.59% annually.
You can simply check if your PF interest has been credited by looking into your EPFO account balance. This is possible via different channels, as outlined below.
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The interest is calculated on the closing balance in the account at the end of each month and is then added together and credited at the end of the financial year. Let’s look at an example to understand how PF interest is calculated.
Say the sum of your basic salary and dearness allowance is Rs. 40,000 per month. In this case, the total monthly contribution to your EPFO account will be as follows.
Now that you know the monthly contribution to your PF account, you must apply the PF interest rate to the closing balance each month. For FY23, this is 8.15% per annum or 0.679% per month. Applying this, we get the following:
This way, you can calculate the PF interest for each month. The total interest will be credited to your account by the end of the year. Thereafter, the opening balance for the first month of the next financial year will be the closing balance at the end of this year plus the interest credited. This allows you to earn interest on interest via compounding.
This should give you more clarity about how you can check your EPFO account balance. Your EPF savings can help you build your retirement fund if you are a salaried employee. So, keep your EPF investments intact and refrain from premature withdrawals. This way, your PF interest will accrue over the years and give you the benefit of compounding.
While your EPF corpus may be a good place to start saving up for retirement, you must also diversify your portfolio with other assets to meet different life goals. Whether short-term or long-term, investing with a simple swipe of your phone's screen is easy. Fi also offers a Peer-to-Peer investment feature called Jump! Jump can help you earn up to 9% p.a on your investment. But if you want to save up for a short-term goal & earn interest on it, select our super-flexible Smart Deposit. If you're looking for higher/stable returns, opt for a Fixed Deposit.
The interest on your EPF account balance is calculated monthly. Your annual PF interest is the sum of the interest earned each month. To get this, multiply the closing balance each month's end by the current annual PF interest rate, and divide this by 12.
The PF interest is typically credited to investors’ accounts by the end of the relevant financial year. However, for FY23, the Indian government has already begun the process of PF interest credit.
The interest earned on your EPF investments depends on the balance in your account at the end of each month during the year. The prevailing PF interest rate is applied to the monthly closing balance to arrive at the interest for each month.
If the employee contributions exceed Rs. 2.5 lakhs during the year, the PF interest on the excess contributions will be taxable as per the Income Tax Act. This threshold is increased to Rs. 5 lakhs for government employees whose employer does not contribute to the PF account.
PF interest is usually credited towards the end of the financial year, but it may change on policies laid out by the EPFO and may change from time to time.
