New Delhi: Retirement fund body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has extended the date for filing applications for a higher pension till June 26, 2023, the Union labour ministry has notified.
The deadline extension was announced just one day before the original deadline for the submission of applications.
"EPFO has made arrangements for obtaining Applications for Validation of Option/Joint Option from pensioners/members as per the Supreme Court order dated November 4, 2022. To facilitate this process, online facility has been made available. More than 12 lakh applications have been received till date. The online facility was to remain available only till May 3, 2023," the labour ministry said in a statement.
In order to provide a larger window of opportunity and in order to enable all eligible persons to file their applications, "the timeline for filing applications would now be till 26th June," the statement said.
The retirement fund body further stated that the decision was taken after it received several representations from various quarters seeking an extension of time.
The timeline is being extended to facilitate and provide ample opportunity to the pensioners/members so as to ease out any difficulty being faced by them, the statement added.
"This has been decided after sympathetically considering the various demands received from employees, employers and their associations," it stated.
Meanwhile, in March, the retirement fund body fixed an 8.15 per cent rate of interest on employees’ provident fund (EPF) deposits for 2022-23.
In March 2022, the EPFO had lowered the interest on EPF for 2021-22 to an over four-decade low of 8.1 per cent for its about five crore subscribers, from 8.5 per cent in 2020-21. This was the lowest since 1977-78, when the EPF interest rate stood at 8 per cent.
In March 2020, EPFO had lowered the interest rate on provident fund deposits to a seven-year low of 8.5 per cent for 2019-20, from 8.65 per cent provided for 2018-19.