Budget 2018: Women take home more with PF tweak (Article on TOI) To incentivise women to take up employment in the formal sector, the finance minister proposed an amendment to the Employees' Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, to reduce their contribution to 8% for the first three years against the existing 12%. This will effectively mean a higher take-home pay for them. There will be no change in the employer's contribution. The flip side: their compulsory savings will come down. Also, the government will contribute 12% of wages of new employees in EPF for all sectors for the next three years, Arun Jaitley said. The move is aimed at boosting job creation. Currently, an employee contributes 12% of his/her basic salary as the statutory monthly contribution to EPF and a matching contribution is made by the employer. With the existing contribution of 1.16% towards EPFO subscribers' basic wages, the government bears an annual burden of around Rs 6, 750 crore. The current 8.65% interest rate on EPF deposits was lowered during the last fiscal, from 8.8% in 2015-16. According to EPFO, 36.8 lakh new members in the age group of 18-25 years were added as of November 2017. For more details visit our website www.emkayconsultancy.in Source: (TOI) EMKAY CONSULTANCY SERVICES (ESTT 1985) LABOUR LAW CONSULTANT