Rate, ceiling and corpus

EPF interest rate, contribution split and calculator

ईपीएफ ब्याज दर और कैलकुलेटर

Last reviewed: 11 November 2026

EPF interest is a declared annual rate, credited on a monthly running balance. The latest declared rate is 8.25% for FY 2025-26. The contribution that earns that interest is not the whole of both 12% shares, because pension and insurance are taken out first. The calculator above applies those rules and gives a rupee figure. The default it shows is November 2026, PF wages of ₹25,000, one year, opening balance zero, contributions limited to the statutory ceiling, in the 12% class: monthly EPF inflow ₹3,917, interest ₹3,415, closing EPF balance ₹50,419. The interest in that run is labelled as the last declared rate, for illustration, because FY 2026-27 and FY 2027-28 have not been declared.

The latest declared rate

Paragraph 42 of the EPF Scheme, 2026 — the successor to paragraph 60 of the 1952 Scheme — says the Commissioner credits interest at the rate determined by the Central Government in consultation with the Central Board. The rate is for a financial year, April to March. It is not a rate the member chooses, and it is not announced in advance for years that have not been decided.

For FY 2025-26 the rate is 8.25%. The order is EPFO Order No. INV-11/2/2021-INV/E-41960/2519 dated 1 July 2026, citing Ministry of Labour and Employment letter No. R-11018/01/2023-SS-II (e:146079) dated 17 June 2026, to credit 8.25% under paragraph 60(1) of the 1952 Scheme as it then stood. Akashvani reported the order on 1 July 2026. The previous two years were also 8.25%: FY 2024-25 by EPFO circular No. INV-11/2/2021-INV dated 26 May 2025, citing the ministry letter of 22 May 2025, with PIB Release ID 2234502 recording that the rate had been declared at 8.25%; and FY 2023-24 by ministry letter No. R-11018/2023-SS-II dated 24 May 2024, after the Central Board recommendation in PIB Release ID 2004768 (10 February 2024).

Do not describe FY 2026-27, or any later year, as already declared at 8.25%. The calculator reuses 8.25% in those years only with the words “last declared rate, for illustration”.

How interest is calculated

Paragraph 42 credits interest on a monthly running balance, from the last day of each year, in four movements. The closing balance of the previous year, less sums withdrawn in the current year, earns interest for twelve months. Sums withdrawn during the year earn interest from the start of the year up to the last day of the month before the withdrawal. Sums credited during the year earn interest from the first day of the month after the credit, through to the end of the year. The total is rounded to the nearest rupee, and 50 paise or more becomes the next higher rupee. The same rounding applies to each month’s contribution under paragraph 18(5).

A credit in April therefore earns eleven months. May earns ten. March earns none in that year, because the following month is already the next financial year. The sum of months for twelve equal credits from April to March is 11+10+…+0 = 66. Divided by 12, that is 5.5 months of interest on one month’s credit. At 8.25%, interest on a flat ₹1,000 a month for one such year, opening balance zero, is ₹1,000 × 0.0825 × 66 / 12 = ₹453.75, which rounds to ₹454.

The calculator follows that method. It treats the opening balance you type as the balance brought into the first financial year of the projection, so that balance earns twelve months in that year. It does not model a withdrawal in the middle of a year, a missing month, or a late credit. If your passbook has any of those, the passbook is the record and the calculator is only an explanation of the rule.

Official rate table

The historical table published by EPFO on 24 July 2023 lists every declared rate from 1952-53 through 2022-23. Years in that PDF which are easy to misquote include 1978-79, described with an extra 0.5% bonus for members who did not withdraw in the two preceding years, 2000-01, with 12% for April to June 2001 and 11% thereafter on the monthly running balance, and 2004-05, described as 9% plus a 0.5% Golden Jubilee bonus. The rows below are the recent years used by the calculator, with the order that supports each one. The full run from 1952-53 is in that PDF, not retyped here.

The EPFO PDF of 24 July 2023 is the source for 2011-12 through 2022-23. Later rows are the ministry letters and EPFO orders named in the last column.

The 12% split, EPS and EDLI

Paragraph 18(2) sets the employer’s contribution at 12% of wages and the employee’s contribution at the same amount. A 10% rate applies to classes of establishments notified by the Central Government. EPFO’s contribution-rate note has long listed certain industries and small establishments in that 10% class, including, among others, jute, beedi, brick, coir and guar gum factories and establishments with fewer than 20 employees. Use 12% unless you know the establishment is in a notified 10% class. The calculator has a switch for that class. At the ₹25,000 ceiling in the 10% class, employee EPF is ₹2,500, EPS stays ₹2,083 because the pension percentage did not change, and employer EPF is ₹417. The monthly EPF inflow is ₹2,917, not ₹3,917.

Of the employer’s statutory percentage, 8.33% of wages up to the ceiling is diverted to the Employees’ Pension Scheme. Only the remainder is employer EPF. EDLI is a further 0.5% of wages up to the ceiling, paid by the employer only. The employee does not contribute to EDLI. EDLI is excluded from the EPF corpus the calculator reports. Adding it back in would overstate the passbook balance.

Wage ceiling: ₹15,000, then ₹25,000 from September 2026

Paragraph 18(3) says contributions are subject to the wage ceiling notified from time to time. Where monthly wages exceed the ceiling, both shares are limited to the ceiling, unless a higher-wage route applies. PIB Release ID 2314111 (23 September 2026) says the ceiling, last raised to ₹15,000 a month in September 2014, was revised to ₹25,000 a month by a gazette notification dated 17 September 2026, with the key changes effective from September 2026. For employees whose contributions were restricted to the old ceiling, the monthly contribution wage becomes ₹25,000 or actual wages, whichever is lower. The maximum EPS contribution is calculated at 8.33% of ₹25,000 instead of 8.33% of ₹15,000.

Wages of ₹40,000 in August 2026, limited to the ceiling, produce the same ₹2,350 inflow as wages of ₹15,000. Wages of ₹40,000 in November 2026, limited to the ceiling, produce the same ₹3,917 as wages of ₹25,000. The ceiling, not the payslip gross, is the cap.

The calculator and the worked examples

Two full-year results are the checks the calculator is built to reproduce.

Financial year 2025-26, start in April 2025, PF wages ₹25,000 but the ceiling still ₹15,000, opening balance zero, 12% class, contributions limited to the ceiling. Every month the EPF inflow is ₹2,350. There are twelve such months. Declared rate 8.25%. Interest is ₹2,350 × 8.25% × (11+10+…+0) / 12 = ₹1,066.31, which rounds to ₹1,066. Contributions in the year are ₹28,200. Closing EPF balance is ₹29,266. EPS diverted in the year is ₹15,000. EDLI is ₹900. Neither EPS nor EDLI is inside the ₹29,266.

One year starting November 2026, PF wages ₹25,000, opening balance zero, ceiling, 12% class. The first month, and every month in that year, is on the ₹25,000 ceiling, so the inflow is ₹3,917. Employee EPF over the twelve months is ₹36,000. Employer EPF is ₹11,004. EPS diverted is ₹24,996. EDLI excluded is ₹1,500. The twelve months cross two financial years. FY 2026-27 (November to March) is credited ₹269. FY 2027-28 (April to October, with twelve months of interest on the balance brought into that year, and interest only for the months the new credits have been in) is credited ₹3,146. Both years use 8.25% as the last declared rate, for illustration, not as a declared rate. Total interest ₹3,415. Closing EPF balance ₹50,419.

Set the calculator’s first month to April 2025 to see the ₹29,266 case, or leave it on November 2026 to see the ₹50,419 case. Changing “contributions calculated on” to actual wages removes the ceiling cap on the employee and employer percentages, while EPS and EDLI stay capped. At ₹40,000 in November 2026 on actual wages, employee EPF is ₹4,800, EPS is still ₹2,083, employer EPF is ₹2,717 and the monthly inflow is ₹7,517. That is the higher-wage route, not the default statutory cap.

Higher wages and the 10% class

Paragraph 19 allows an employee to opt for an additional voluntary contribution on wages above the ceiling. The employer is under no obligation to match it. Administrative charges apply on those wages. Either side may reduce or stop the additional contribution. The calculator’s “actual PF wages” switch is the case where both the employee and the employer percentages are applied to the wages you typed, which is the right model only when that is truly how the establishment contributes. It is not a way to inflate a statutory-ceiling job.

Paragraph 18(3) also points at a higher-wage pension route in its proviso. The calculator does not invent a pension projection. It reports the EPS amount diverted at 8.33% up to the ceiling, and it keeps that amount out of the EPF closing balance. Pension service and the pension wage are a different account. They matter when you read a passbook, because the employer line looks “short” by exactly the EPS diversion.

Interest on a balance you already hold is often larger than interest on the new year’s credits. That is what the twelve-month rule does. It is also why leaving a balance in the fund, or transferring it to the current member ID, is a different decision from a paragraph 46 withdrawal, which takes money out and, under paragraph 42, shortens the interest on the amount withdrawn. The withdrawal page applies the 25% minimum and section 192A. This page only builds the corpus those rules later draw on.