25K employees withdraw from PF after lockdown in Haryana

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, September 29

To meet financial emergency following the Covid-induced lockdown, as many as 25,000 employees in the private sector and contractual and outsourced workers of government departments in Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Kaithal, Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar and Sonepat districts have withdrawn around Rs 49.96 crore from their Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) accounts in the past five months.

After imposing the lockdown, the Centre had announced that an individual could withdraw an amount either equal to three-month basic salary and dearness allowance or 75 per cent of credit balance in the account, whichever was lower, as non-refundable advance.

“We have settled every application related to Covid advance within three days of receipt. At least 25,000 employees have withdrawn money,” said Amit Singla, Regional PF Commissioner, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, Karnal.

“A cut in salary following the lockdown led to a financial crisis, leaving me with no option but to withdraw from my PF. I had earlier planned to withdraw this amount for the wedding of my sister,” said a private sector employee.

A contractual employee said the post-lockdown period had thrown up several challenges, forcing him to withdraw money to meet expenses. Another employee said he did not get salary for two months, due to which he had to apply for withdrawal. “When I did not get salary for April and May, I had to withdraw from my PF account,” he said.