Retirement
EPF
Also known as: Employees Provident Fund, PF
A retirement fund where you and your employer both contribute 12% of basic pay every month.
EPF is a mandatory retirement scheme for most salaried employees. You contribute 12% of basic salary and your employer roughly matches it.
It earns a government-declared interest rate, around 8%, tax-free, and compounds quietly over your career.
It is one of the safest, highest-return debt-like instruments available, so avoid withdrawing it between jobs.
For example
On a ₹30,000 basic salary, about ₹3,600 from you plus a similar amount from your employer flows into EPF monthly, building a large tax-free corpus.