The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is a statutory body and the largest social security institution in the world, operating under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India. It was established on March 4, 1952, to provide a mandatory retirement savings and social security net for the organised sector workforce. Its origin lies in the Employees' Provident Funds Ordinance, 1951, which was later replaced by the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.
The EPFO administers three major social security schemes, which are managed by the Central Board of Trustees (EPF), a tripartite body representing the government, employers, and employees. The core mechanism involves a mandatory contribution, where both the employer and the employee contribute 12% of the employee's basic wages. This contribution is split: the employee's entire 12% goes into the provident fund, while the employer's 12% is divided, with 8.33% allocated to the pension scheme and 3.67% to the provident fund. A key related concept is the Universal Account Number (UAN), launched on October 1, 2014, which ensures the portability of the provident fund account across different employers.
The legal framework governing the EPFO has recently undergone a major change: the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, has been replaced by the Code on Social Security, 2020, which was passed on September 28, 2020. Under this new Code, the three schemes have also been superseded: the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 1952, the Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995, and the Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976, have been replaced by the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 2026, the Employees' Pension Scheme, 2026, and the Employees' Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme, 2026, respectively. While the core benefits and contribution rates remain largely the same, the new framework introduces procedural changes like mandatory Aadhaar/UAN-linked digital compliance and extends social security coverage to gig workers and platform workers for the first time.