EPFO restores passbook access, says migration still under way

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has restored its passbook portal following a scheduled maintenance and system upgrade, allowing members to once again access their provident fund account statements.

The portal had been taken offline as part of a major database consolidation and software migration aimed at improving the efficiency, security and reliability of EPFO's digital services.

A notice on the portal states that transaction records for recently processed accounting years are now available, while data for earlier years is still being migrated and will be reflected over the next few days.

"The migration is an automated process, and no action is required from members," the notice said.

Although member and employer services have largely resumed, EPFO said claims and other service requests could continue to face delays of up to two weeks as additional verification and validation checks are completed.

The portal has resumed operations ahead of the scheduled credit of the 8.25 per cent annual interest for FY2025-26, which EPFO is expected to begin depositing into subscribers' accounts from 15 July.

The organisation has also revised the process for activating Universal Account Numbers (UANs). Members will now have to activate their UANs through the UMANG mobile application using Aadhaar-based Face Authentication Technology (FAT), as the facility is no longer available on the Unified Member Portal.

Separately, the newly notified Employees' Provident Fund Scheme, 2026, has introduced revised rules governing partial withdrawals, effective June 29.

Under the new provisions, EPFO members must maintain a minimum balance of 25 per cent of their eligible EPF corpus before making a partial withdrawal. The amount available for withdrawal will be calculated only after setting aside this mandatory balance.

The requirement applies to both employee and employer contributions. For instance, if an eligible EPF balance is Rs 1 lakh, at least Rs 25,000 must remain in the account, leaving up to Rs 75,000 available for withdrawal, subject to the scheme's conditions.

With IANS inputs