HYDERBAD: The Hyderabad office of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is receiving a flood of applications for withdrawal of Provident Fund money ever since the Central government has given a special exemption for this purpose during lockdown. Significantly, most of the applicants happen to be from the IT sector.

"About 57,445 employees within the limits of Greater Hyderabad applied to withdraw their Provident Fund (PF) amid COVID-19 crisis," said Employees Provident Fund Commissioner VK Sharma.

The commissioner said that there are 11,000 companies in Telangana that are covered under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. For employees working in these firms, the Centre has been directly paying their PF money besides the employer share, Sharma said. Till now, employees from 4,805 companies have applied for withdrawal of their PF.

For those below a monthly salary of Rs 15,000 and working in a firm with less than 100 staff strength, the Centre is directly making the payments of both the member’s PF contribution and the employer share, the commissioner said.

PF Commissioner, in-charge of Hyderabad, Chandrasekhar, asserted that the provident fund amounts of these applicants will be credited into their respective bank accounts within three working days from the date of application. Around 80,647 employees have so far applied for PF across the state, he said adding that EPFO had already disbursed PF amounts to the tune of Rs. 258 crores.

Interestingly, most of those who applied for the PF withdrawals are employees of the IT sector, Chandrasekhar said.

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