EPF members to get credit-linked housing subsidy of Rs2.67 lakh via Hudco tie-up

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation, the umbrella body of retirement funds, has joined hands with Housing and Urban Development Corp (HUDCO) to enable its members avail credit-linked subsidy of up to Rs2.67 lakh for buying affordable homes under PMAY.

EPFO central provident fund commissioner V P Joy and HUDCO CMD M Ravi Kanth signed the memorandum of understanding towards this on Thursday, in the presence of minister for urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation M Venkaiah Naidu and labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya.

The MoU proposes to club the benefits of the housing scheme introduced by the EPFO for its subscribers and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), which aims at `Housing for All' by 2022.

Under the housing scheme, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) allows its subscribers from societies for withdrawing up to 90 per cent of their EPF accumulations to buy homes.

The labour ministry intends to facilitate at least 1 million subscribers in the next two years by allowing them to use 90 per cent of EPF accumulations to make down payments to buy houses and use their accounts for paying off EMIs of home loans.

In April this year, the EPFO had amended the EPF Scheme to enable subscribers make down payment to buy homes and pay EMIs through the EPF account.

Under the PMAY, the beneficiaries are provided credit linked subsidy based on their income levels so that the dream of housing for all can be realised by 2022.

The HUDCO is a nodal agency for implementation of credit linked subsidy scheme for middle and lower-income groups and economically weaker sections under the PMAY.