EPF on ₹25,000 Basic: ₹3,917 a Month Into Your PF

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Rules checked on 11 October 2026 against Ministry of Labour and Employment notification S.O. 5109(E) (Gazette of India, 17 September 2026) and EPFO's wage-ceiling FAQs (September 2026, questions 7 to 13, 21, 26 to 29, 37 and 38). The 50% wage rule is from the Ministry's labour code FAQs (30 December 2025 and 16 March 2026). Interest is 8.25%, the rate for 2025-26 that EPFO notified on 1 July 2026. Every figure on this page was recomputed by hand on 11 October 2026 (docs/calc-tests) and matches the calculator.

Short answer

On PF wages (basic plus DA) of ₹25,000 a month, ₹3,000 is cut from your salary. Your employer pays another ₹3,000. ₹2,083 of that goes to the pension scheme (EPS) and ₹917 to your EPF account. So ₹3,917 a month reaches your EPF balance, and the employer also pays ₹125 for EDLI cover and ₹125 in admin charges. Before 17 September 2026 the ceiling was ₹15,000. If your contributions were capped there, take-home falls by ₹1,200 a month and your balance grows ₹1,567 a month faster. In the first year that adds up to ₹48,798 in the account at 8.25%.

Where the ₹6,000 goes each month

Both sides pay 12% of PF wages. Yours goes straight to your EPF account. Your employer's 12% is split: 8.33% of wages up to the ceiling goes to EPS, the pension scheme, and only the remaining 3.67% lands in your EPF account. The employer also pays 0.5% for EDLI life cover and 0.5% as EPFO's admin charge. Neither of those reaches your balance.

Per month	Old ₹15,000 cap	₹25,000 ceiling	Where it goes
Your 12%	₹1,800	₹3,000	Your EPF account, cut from salary
Employer to EPS (8.33%)	₹1,250	₹2,083	Pension, not your balance
Employer to EPF (3.67%)	₹550	₹917	Your EPF account
Into your EPF balance	₹2,350	₹3,917	Earns 8.25%
EDLI (0.5%)	₹75	₹125	Life cover, paid by employer
Admin (0.5%)	₹75	₹125	EPFO's running cost

These are EPFO's own figures for ₹25,000 wages from the October 2026 wage month (FAQ question 13). 8.33% of ₹25,000 is ₹2,082.50, which EPFO rounds to ₹2,083.

Monthly contributions on ₹25,000 of PF wages, old cap vs new ceiling

Bars drawn to scale. EDLI and admin charges (₹125 each at the new ceiling) are paid on top by the employer and are left out.

What changed depends on where you started

Before 17 Sep 2026	What the rule now says	Take-home	Into EPF each month	To EPS each month
EPF and EPS member, contributions capped at ₹15,000	Contribute on the full ₹25,000	₹1,200 lower	₹2,350 → ₹3,917	₹1,250 → ₹2,083
EPF member outside EPS, 24% of ₹25,000 into EPF	Must join EPS (FAQ questions 9 and 12)	Same	₹6,000 → ₹3,917	₹0 → ₹2,083
Not in PF at all (an "excluded employee")	Must be enrolled in EPF, EPS and EDLI from 17 Sep 2026 (questions 28 and 29)	₹3,000 lower	₹0 → ₹3,917	₹0 → ₹2,083

If you joined after September 2014 with wages above ₹15,000, you were kept out of EPS and the employer's whole 12% went to your EPF account. Your wages are now within the ceiling, so you have to join EPS, and ₹2,083 a month moves from your balance to the pension fund. Take-home doesn't change. Over ten years at a flat ₹25,000, the balance comes to ₹7.16 lakh instead of ₹10.96 lakh, and the ₹2.5 lakh that went to EPS buys pension service instead.

Nobody has to apply. EPFO says the employer must enrol newly covered staff and start contributions (question 30).

₹25,000 of PF wages, not ₹25,000 of gross

The ceiling is compared with PF wages: basic pay, dearness allowance and retaining allowance. Gross salary doesn't count. EPFO gives two cases. Gross ₹50,000 with PF wages of ₹25,000: you must be in all three schemes. Gross ₹60,000 with PF wages of ₹30,000: you are not required to join, though you can with your employer's consent.

The labour codes add one more step. If allowances outside wages come to more than half your total pay, the excess counts as wages. Take pay of ₹50,000 with a basic of ₹20,000. The other ₹30,000 is ₹5,000 over the half-way mark, so PF wages become ₹25,000, and every figure on this page applies even though your payslip says basic ₹20,000. The CTC to in-hand calculator does this add-back for you.

If your PF wages are a little below ₹25,000, contributions follow your actual wages. Nothing is rounded up to the ceiling (question 21).

September 2026 is split, and October can show two deductions

The new ceiling started on the 17th, so September 2026 is worked out in two parts: the 1st to the 16th on the old rule and the 17th to the 30th on the new one, filed in a single return due by 15 October 2026.

September 2026, ₹25,000 wages	PF wages for the month	Your 12%
EPS member capped at ₹15,000 until the 16th	₹8,000 + ₹11,666.67 = ₹19,666.67	₹2,360
Newly enrolled on the 17th	₹11,666.67 (14 of 30 days)	₹1,400

EPFO lets employers who couldn't deduct the extra in September recover it from the next payroll without asking the inspector first (questions 10 and 11). So a newly enrolled employee may see ₹3,000 for October plus ₹1,400 for September, ₹4,400 in all, on the October payslip. That catch-up should happen once.

What the EPS and EDLI money does

EPS money is not part of your balance. It builds a monthly pension from 58, and EPFO says pensionable salary can now be counted up to ₹25,000. The government's own EPS contribution of 1.16% stays on ₹15,000, which is ₹174 a month, and EPFO says that doesn't change your pension (question 37).

EDLI pays your nominee if you die in service. The formula on ₹25,000 average wages works out to 35 × ₹25,000 = ₹8,75,000, plus up to ₹1,75,000 linked to your balance, ₹10.5 lakh in all. The scheme's maximum is still ₹7 lakh, so the higher ceiling doesn't raise the cover (question 38).

Worked examples

Newly enrolled at ₹25,000: the first full year

From the October 2026 wage month to September 2027, ₹3,917 a month reaches the account: ₹36,000 from salary and ₹11,004 from the employer, ₹47,004 in all. Each month's money is counted from the month after, when the employer pays EPFO.

Interest at 8.25% is worked out monthly and added at 31 March and when the year closes: ₹404 for November to March, then ₹1,390 for April to September. Balance after a year: ₹48,798. Another ₹24,996 went to EPS. On the old cap, the same person would have had ₹29,276.

Age 25, wages rising 5% a year, contributions capped at ₹25,000

Wages pass the ceiling in the second year, and from then on the employer pays only on ₹25,000. Your share stays at ₹3,000 and the account gets ₹3,917 every month until you turn 58, in 2059-60.

At 8.25% the balance reaches about ₹75.0 lakh, against ₹45.0 lakh on the old ₹15,000 cap. If your employer paid on full wages instead, the same career would reach about ₹1.65 crore, because your 12% and the employer's EPF share would keep rising with your pay.

Tips and tricks

How we would use it

Questions people ask

How much PF is deducted from a ₹25,000 basic salary?

₹3,000 a month, which is 12% of ₹25,000. That assumes your basic plus DA is ₹25,000. Allowances like HRA are not PF wages, unless together they exceed half your pay.

Why does only ₹917 of my employer's ₹3,000 show in my passbook?

₹2,083 of it goes to the pension scheme (EPS), which is shown separately and pays a pension from 58. Only the remaining ₹917 joins your EPF balance and earns interest.

My basic is ₹26,000. Does PF have to be paid on the whole amount?

Not necessarily. Above ₹25,000 the statutory contribution can be restricted to the ceiling, so ₹3,000 from you and ₹3,000 from the employer. Some employers contribute on full wages, which would make it ₹3,120 each (EPFO FAQ question 21). See the ₹40,000 basic page for how the two arrangements compare.

Does my EDLI insurance go up with the new ceiling?

No. The formula can reach ₹10.5 lakh at ₹25,000 wages, but the scheme pays at most ₹7 lakh. EPFO says an actuarial review will decide any future change.

Is the interest on my EPF taxable at this salary?

No. Interest becomes taxable only on your own contributions above ₹2,50,000 in a year (Income-tax Act, 2025, Schedule II). At ₹25,000 wages your share is ₹36,000 a year.

Written by Bulan Sarkar, who checked the results by hand and against a second public calculator. Use it for planning; it isn't tax or investment advice.

Sources

EPF Calculator

Project your EPF balance at retirement with the ₹25,000 wage ceiling from 17 September 2026, the EPS split and a year-by-year table.