Good news, the inactive EPF accounts will now start getting interest. Also the interest will be paid since Mar month of this year. This will start once the govt issues the notification regarding this. Since 2011, the EPF accounts which were not active for 3 yrs before inoperative EPF accounts and they stopped getting the interest.
Now Inoperative EPF accounts will earn interest
However now the rules are changed and if someone wants to keep the money in EPF account, they can do so. The EPF account will keep earning the interest decided by EPFO from time to time. This year itself the news was out that the inoperative accounts will get interest. However the notification news has come just now yesterday.
As per the EPF officials, Around 42,000 crore has been lying in inoperative EPF accounts and they will get interest @8.8% now.
“The inoperative EPF accounts are not being paid interest since 2011. As per the instructions given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, we decided to start paying interest on those accounts to make them operative,” Mr. Dattatreya said on Monday.
As per this latest development, now after you leave your job, and do not join somewhere else, you can leave the EPF account to keep earning the interest. Given that the EPF interest is upwards of 8%, it’s a good place to park the money.