Labour ministry issues pension commutation under EPFO from Jan 1

The labour ministry has issued a notice soon to restore pension commutation, or improve partial withdrawal, under the Employees’ Pension Scheme of the Employees’ Provident Find Organisation (EPFO) from January 1, 2020.
After 10 years of the withdrawal of the provision, the move comes following a decision at a recent meeting of the EPFO’s central board of trustees and it will benefit around 630,000 pensioners. According to a an official source, these pensioners had opted for commutation of their pension and received a lump sum amount at the time of retirement from their pension accumulations or fund before 2009, when the provision for commutation of pension was withdrawn by the EPFO.

“The labour ministry has issued a notification to implement the EPFO’s decision to restore commutation, or advance part-withdrawal, under the Employees’ Pension Scheme,” said a source. Under the commutation, onethird of the monthly pension used to be cut for the next 15 years and the reduced amount was given in lump sum. After 15 years, pensioners were entitled to get the full pension.