Understanding Provident Fund Exemption: When Can Employers Offer Deductions?

Exemption for Provident Fund Deduction
An employer can grant an exemption to an employee for deduction on the Provident Fund under certain conditions. Please let me know if you need any further assistance.

Exemption from EPF for a particular employee is not possible. If the employer has better schemes than those offered by EPFO, then the establishment may be exempted from EPF. At the same time, if the employee concerned is a new employee (joined sometime after 1st Sept 2014) who had no existing PF account, then he can be excluded from PF provided his salary is more than Rs 15,000. An existing member cannot be excluded from PF.

Why should an employee choose to be out of EPF?
When no other agency, bank, or entity is offering an interest rate higher than what is provided by EPFO, why should an employee express a desire to opt out of EPF?

Hi, Wherever possible, for higher basic categories, limit the PF contribution to Rs. 15,000/- basis instead of the actual basic. It is very common in many organizations for employees to express willingness to receive their salary without any statutory deductions. The reason is that their take-home salary on a monthly basis will be slightly higher without any deductions.

Another reason is that it has become increasingly common in IT/ITES sectors to include Employer PF in CTC, resulting in a maximum of Rs. 3,600/- going towards PF, thereby impacting their take-home salary. This is the reason for their request to be exempt from PF.

In general, most employees tend to focus on their current monthly payout rather than saving for the future.