Declaring victory officially on the change.org but will keep the petition alive to share the updates with you on future of dormant accounts and the proposal to allow full EPF withdrawal on special grounds like medical, marriage etc as well (don't get confused, even before the new EPF rules, only certain part of EPF is allowed for withdrawal on special grounds except for the case of 2 months non-employment which allows full EPF withdrawal). And for the awareness of all our supporters, this is what has happened since the notification and until roll back of the new EPF rules. - On 10-Feb-2016, a gazette notification was issued by Govt. restricting the EPF withdrawals to only employee contributions and the employer contributions can only be withdrawn at the retirement age of 58 years. - Not sure how well these new EPF rules were debated before the notification was issued. And, the gazette notification was silent on what will happen to dormant EPF accounts. An EPF account becomes dormant if there are no contributions for 3 years and as per the norms (before that notification issued) no interest will be paid on entire EPF balance of dormant accounts. Also, the new rules were notified to be implemented retrospectively. - On 03-Mar-2016, I have started this petition requesting roll back of the new EPF withdrawal rules. - On 21-Mar-2016, the Tirupur Exporters' Association sent a letter to Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya requesting roll back of the new EPF rules. - On 29-Mar-2016, during Central Board of Trustees of EPFO meeting, some on raised this "The intent was different when the proposal was discussed. But what has been implemented is completely different and against the interests of subscribers," Read more at: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/personal-finance-news/epfo-all-set-to-review-withdrawal-norms/articleshow/51627602.cms - On 29-Mar-2016, as a corrective measure since the dormant accounts balance will be locked till 58 years due to new EPF rules, the Govt. announced that the dormant EPF accounts will get interest from 01-Apr-2016. - On 01-APR-2016, the Govt. had put the new EPF rules implementation on hold till 30-APR-2016 to update their systems to accommodate the new provisions. Can you see the mad rush of Govt. in bringing the changes without even thinking about all the side effects and how those changes affect millions of people? http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Confusion-in-EPFO-over-new-rules-payment-of-interest/articleshow/51433608.cms - During 2nd week of Apr-2016, news reports came that the trade unions and an online petition with over 1.2 lakh supporters were demanding the roll back of the new EPF rules. http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/pf-norms-may-be-eased-on-pressure-from-trade-unions/article8480467.ece - On 18-Apr-2016, the garment factory workers started protests in Bengaluru demanding roll back of new EPF rules. - On 19-Apr-2016, initially the Govt. said the new rules will be put on hold until 31-July-2016 but later on the same day giving in to pressure to the protests by garment factory workers the new EPF rules were withdrawn completely. "The withdrawal restriction imposed under the EPF scheme was at behest of trade unions but now since they don't want it we have withdrawn the notification dated February 10," labour secretary Shankar Agarwal said on Tuesday. Read more at: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/51896900.cms Once again, thanks to the garment workers for making this change a reality. BTW, it looks like the violent activities during the protests in Bengaluru are not by the garment workers. Read more here http://www.oneindia.com/bengaluru/all-but-garment-factory-workers-get-credit-epf-rules-rollback-2076389.html This should be a lesson to the Govt. to not touch EPF again. Read more here http://www.firstpost.com/business/memo-to-nda-govt-dont-mess-around-with-the-epf-any-more-2738996.html?utm_source=FP_CAT_LATEST_NEWS Thank you all who were part of this journey.