Can I partially withdraw money from my provident fund to purchase a house?
Deepak Mondal, Kolkata
In recent months, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has relaxed the rules to use PF to pay for home loan EMIs or to buy a house or land. This option, however, comes with caveats. For instance, earlier, members of the EPFO could withdraw PF to pay for home loans, buy houses, or land, however, they could only do so after they had contributed for five years and only 36 months worth of accumulation could be withdrawn. Now that requirement has been relaxed to three years.
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However, the money cannot be withdrawn and will not be given to the subscriber and instead be paid to the government authority or housing agency or to a lender. You will need to be a member of a cooperative society or society registered for housing purpose which has at least ten members. As you plan to buy a property, you can withdraw the amount if you have completed five years of service.
