PFRDA has relaxed the norms related to partial withdrawal facility in NPS.
NPS subscribers who have contributed for at least three years can now withdraw 25% of the accumulated corpus. Earlier, NPS subscribers were allowed to withdraw their corpus after completion of 10 years.
In addition, PFRDA has done away with the requirement of maintaining a gap of at least five years between the partial withdrawals. With this, NPS subscribers can withdraw their accumulated corpus anytime; however, they can avail this facility for three times.
Currently, NPS subscribers can withdraw partially for higher education or marriage of their children, construction or purchase of first house and treatment of specific ailments like cancer, kidney failure, paralysis etc.
Like NPS, EPFO also allows partial withdrawals. However, since there is no such limit on withdrawals, many people pull out their money from their EPFO account. As a result, many subscribers are left with a small corpus for their post-retirement days defeating the very purpose of EPFO.