Are you a salaried Employee? Do you contribute a portion of your monthly salary towards Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF)? Are you aware that your employer also contributes a matching amount towards your EPF account? Do you know about the various components of your employer’s PF contribution? Are you aware of ‘how interest is calculated on your monthly subscriptions to Provident Fund?
I was in need of the EPF statement to resolve all the above queries and answer them in a simple and easy to understand manner. Since I am a self employed individual, I can’t contribute to Employees provident Fund and do not have online access to EPF UAN (Universal Account Number) member portal. (You can view or download your EPF statement online @ EPFO’s UAN Member Portal)
Many thanks to one of my good friends for sharing his latest employees’ provident fund statement and that has helped me in preparing this post. Before analyzing the EPF statement and how EPF’s interest is calculated, let us first understand the various components of EPF.
Latest Update (Budget 2021) : Interest on EPF Contributions above Rs 2.5 lakh is Taxable | Budget 2021
What are the Components of my Employees Provident Fund (EPF account)?
If you take out your monthly pay-slip and check, you can understand that every month 12% of your “salary” is contributed towards EPF account. Your total monthly contribution is routed towards Employees’ Provident Fund.
Your employer also contributes 12% of the salary to your EPF a/c. But your employer’s monthly contribution is routed towards various components of PF.
Out of this 12% of your employer’s monthly contribution, 8.33% goes towards EPS (Employees Pension Scheme) and only 3.67% is invested in Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF). So, you contribute 12% of your basic salary and your employer contributes 3.6% of your basic salary towards EPF deposits.
What are the new amendments made to EPF & EPS schemes?
Below are the amendments/changes made to EPFO’s EPS scheme in August 2014. (EPFO is Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation)
Kindly note that the above figures are for minimum contributions. Check your pay-slip or EPF statement to know about your employer’s and your contribution percentages.
Understanding the components/sections in EPF online Statement:
Before explaining to you about the calculation of interest on EPF deposits, let us understand few relevant points regarding the interest calculation.
Let us now understand how the interest is calculated on EPF deposits. Let us consider the same EPF statement as the one given above. My friend had joined in his first job in a Private Limited company in September 2012. His company contributes 8.33% of his Basic salary as “EPF deposit” (Rs 239 pm) every month and 3.67% towards the EPS scheme (Rs 541 pm). (The 12% is subject to minimum of Rs 6,500 in 2012-13). His contribution was 12% of Rs 6,500 which was Rs 780 pm.
Let me put all these figures in MS excel and calculate the total interest earned on EPF deposits from September 2012 to end of March 2013.
Let me now explain about the calculation part. In the month of September 2012 the interest amount was zero because the available EPF balance was zero in the month of August 2012.
In Oct 2012, Rs 7.2 was the interest earned for September’s monthly contribution. We need to consider September month end balance (Rs 1019) and EPF applicable interest rate ( it is 8.5% in 2012-2014) divided by 12 months (we are calculating monthly interest amount). We need to repeat these calculations till March 2013. The total accumulated interest was Rs 152 and was credited on 31/Mar/2013 (as shown in EPF statement).
The total interest amount of Rs 152 was added to April month’s balance, along with the monthly deposits. Even after the recent amendments to minimum contribution amount, the interest calculation procedure has not changed.
So, suggest you to try these calculations based on your monthly Provident Fund deposits and understand how is interest calculated on your Provident Fund Account. (Leave your query if you need any assistance).
Latest news (March 2021) : EPF interest rate for 2020-21. The Central Board recommends 8.50 % rate of interest to its subscribers for the year 2020-21. EPFO notifies 8.5% as interest Rate on EPF for the year 2020-21.
The previous FYs EPF interest rates are as below;
This post was last modified on July 10, 2023 6:13 pm
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Dear Sreekanth,
You have covered the complete topic very well. Kudos to you, for that.
I have an additional query for you. This relates to final withdrawal within 36 months of resigning from the last job, and not picking up any job thereafter, and thus no contributions during this period. However, interest is accrued and credited, as per rules. Now, once the balance amount is withdrawn fully, how will the interest on the amount be calculated in the paying year? This is with keeping the fact in mind that the agreed rate of interest by the government is declared much later after the end of the financial year. And, if the payment of interest is done based on the rate of interest of the previous FY, then does one get arrears later in case the interest is increased for the following year. Also, what happens in case rate of interest decreases? Since the account gets closed in EPF books, how is the individual contacted in both these cases?
I will be thankful, if you can address this issue.
With best wishes,
Lt Col Ranvir Singh
To all the Accenture folks who are facing the "REJECTED AA EMP REQUEST" issue, let me inform you why this actually happened. So, if your basic salary is below Rs. 15000, you are eligible for the Pension Scheme/EPS. Under this, the Employer Contribution of 12% is split into two parts - 3.67% for the PF part and the remaining 8.33% for the EPS part. So, what actually happened that Accenture credited the entire 12% in the employer PF part. So now, EPFO is rectifying the mistake made by the company. But the process that they are following is incorrect. Incorrect HOW you ask? Well, they are deducting the amount TWICE and then later crediting just ONCE.
You might have noticed that the PF entry for certain months is missing from your passbook and then there is REJECTED AA EMP REQUEST debit. By doing this, they have basically deducted the amount twice. So even when they are crediting the amount by splitting it in Employer PF and EPS part, the sum total for Employer PF contribution would still be negative.
Now comes the question of what can be done? Well to be honest, not much. I have raised atleast 20 grievances on their portal and they give the same explanation and then close it. On escalation, the head branch of EPFO gave me the reason that due to Covid there is a shortage of staff, so they'll look into it later. It's been almost an year and there is no progress.
Looks like Accenture has done mistakes/errors. A lot of people from Accenture are having negative epf balance.
Wanted to get update from you guys, did you receive your money back or not ?
Dear all,
I have got multiple below mentioned entries in my PF passbook and a huge amount has been debited from my PF account what could be the possible reason? Appreciate your assistance.
OB Adjustment- ( OTHER_APPENDIX_E )- AUTO ADJ
TRRNO MMYYY:42015 REJECTED AA
EMP REQUEST
Thanks,
Sandip
Dear Sandip,
As per comments from other readers (who have faced similar issue) -
" I raised a grievance in Grievance portal. I got a reply that records are updated for FY end reconciliation activities and will get corrected at end of FY audit. So hopefully in few months we should know...."
You may also submit a grievance request to the EPFO via this link and/or check with your employer as well on this..
Dear all,
I have got multiple below mentioned entries in my PF passbook and a huge amount has been debited from my PF account what could be the possible reason? Appreciate your assistance.
OB Adjustment- ( OTHER_APPENDIX_E )- AUTO ADJ
TRRNO #~# REJECTED AA
EMP REQUEST
Thanks,
Sandip
Hi,
How was this EPF amount deduction issue resolved?
Thank you
I was working for company one for 5 years and was on break then. After 1 year i joined another company two. i was working for company one till April 2018. ( After 36 months (April 2021) this will get inactive and will fetch no interest)
If i transfer epf from company one to company two , will i continue to get interest
(after completing 36 months in April 2021) since i will be transferring to account which is active (company two).
Dear Alex,
You may kindly go through below article and revert if you need any more assistance :
Why should you Withdraw Old EPF Account Balance? | In-operative EPF A/c Timeline
Hi Sreekanth,
I left Accenture on January 13th. I see the negative values under "OB Adjustment- ( OTHER_INTEREST )- INT AMT AUTO ADJ TRRNO #~#3101703015098 MMYYY:32017 REJECTED AA EMP REQUEST" now. I just dropped in a Grievance to both Accenture and EPFO. How long does it takes to resolve this? I have 18520 been deducted from my account.
Did you get any reply ? I am facing similar issue, I also left Accenture.
Hi Lokesh, I'm seeing same issue since 1 year and still it is not resolved.
I left Accenture in 2018 same is with me that in statement showing ob adjustment, can you tell me is there any solution for this till now.
Even i have faced this same issue. I did raise the grievance. But no response received. Nearly 15 k amount is deducted. Please somebody suggest what to be done.
My contribution to EPF is 3858 but my employer contribute 550 + 1250 (EPF + EPS)
Why is the difference.
Dear Avinash,
Did you check with your employer?
Yes, but no use.
Actually it's a School, does this change anything as they are contributing same for all the teachers i.e (550+1250) even if their contribution is 1800 or more, like few teachers contribute 6000 and more but employer contribution is fixed.
Hi All,
Even i faced the same issue. Around 28k got deducted from my previous employer(Accenture) PF balance with these OB adjustments. And this happend when i created a transfer PF request and that too got rejected by field office due to the reason that ECR revision is pending and father's name mismatch. Do anyone have any idea about ECR revision and? Did anyone got their deducted amount back. Kindly help what to do next!!
Hey Supriya, this happened to me as well when I created a PF transfer and withdrawal request with my previous employer Accenture. My withdrawal request was rejected stating that ECR revision is in process. I googled about ECR. It is electronic challan cum return. I think it is something related to adjustments.
Same issue faced by me. Around 23k got deducted from Accenture PF account (previous employer) and my PF transfer rejected due to same ECR and father's name mismatch issue. I have sent a mail to Accenture regarding the ECR revision as I think that is their fault and waiting for their response. Parallelly, I have registered a grievance to EPFO for the deduction showing in the passbook and waiting for their response as well.
According to me, this is not related to the transfer, as I can see from the posts here, many people who are facing the issue did not initiate the transfer yet. The date of deduction showing in my passbook is 3rd August, 2020 which I think is the same date for many of us. I think it is an issue between PF office and Accenture and nothing can be done from our side. But for record purpose, we can contact Accenture and can raise a grievance to the PF office.
Hey Suman, there was a deduction from my PF account between 3rd and 4th of August. And on 4th September I received half of the deducted amount into my account. Can you check your passbook again to see if the same happened with you as well? I think the revision activity takes place every month around 3rd or 4th. Im expecting my remaining amount to be credited this october 3rd or 4th.
What can we do ?? How can we get money back?
Hi Bhagya, there is nothing we can do from our side. The adjustments are internal activities between the employer(Accenture) and EPF office. Over 50k has been deducted from my account on 3rd of August. When I raised a grievance to the PF office and Accenture, they said I will get my amount back. But, they didnt tell me when I'll be getting it back. However, I got half of the lost amount credited to my PF account on 4th of September. Can you check your PF account and let me know if the same happened with you?
Hi Mounika,
No amount is credited to my account . And there is no response from Accenture and EPFO grievance is closed with comment necessary action to be taken. Am unable to understand what else to be done :(
Is you problem solved ? I am facing similar issue. Please guide me
Hi Mounika,
I am facing the same issue but as you said you have got half of the money, please check again your passbook.
They have deducted the amount for FY 15-16 and credited the the same by dividing into 3 category Employee, Employer and Pension BUT when you check your passbook for FY15-16 dates preciously you will see they have removed all of your amount for FY15-16. So we have yet to receive full amount not the half.
Hey Aditya, I am taking into consideration the balance amount which is present at the top of the passbook page in my PF account and adding it to the Pension component. I had the note of the balance which I had previously before Aug3rd. Now, when I see, almost half of the lost amount has been added up in September leaving the rest of the lost amount unpaid. I raised a total PF withdrawal request before August 3rd. That's when I took note of the amount in my PF account. I am just comparing my balance before deduction(i.e., before Aug3) and after deduction on the whole.