A recent media report has found that nearly 8 million subscribers of the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) dipped into their crucial retirement fund and withdrew as much as Rs 30,000 crore in under four months starting April which was the lockdown period announced by the government across the nation to curb rising coronavirus cases.
The massive withdrawals from the EPFO, which manages Rs 10 lakh crore the retirement corpus of nearly 60 million salaried workers in India, is likely to come under pressure w.r.t earnings in Financial Year 2021, the report said.
The report went on to say that the withdrawals between April and the third week of June were much more than what usually occurs in the period.
The nationwide shutdown due to the pandemic and subsequent job losses, salary cuts and medical expenses could be a reason behind the phenomenal withdrawals, the report added quoting EPFO officials.