The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has revamped the rules for companies managing their own provident fund trusts in India. The new regulations replace mandatory annual audits with a risk-based audit system, allowing the EPFO to focus on high-risk or non-compliant establishments. Additionally, a cap has been set on interest rates that exempted establishments can offer, limiting them to 2% above the annual rate declared by the EPFO. This move aims to ensure financial prudence and prevent excessively high returns, which have previously reached rates as high as 34% in some cases. Furthermore, the revised norms allow companies to retain their exempted status after mergers and acquisitions. The EPFO will soon notify these changes as part of its efforts to strengthen regulatory oversight and improve the ease of doing business for companies while enhancing the welfare of employees.