It's a better option to take advance EPF than a loan during tough times

The usual advice is that one should not withdraw from their EPF account because it hurts the retirement corpus

The Covid-19 crisis has hit employees and employment across sectors quite severely. With government employees, and private sector employees taking a salary cut, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has relaxed account withdrawal norms to help employees who are facing fund crunch during these tough times. The new non-refundable advance facility introduced by the EPFO allows subscribers to withdraw up to 75 per cent of their accumulated corpus or “Basic + DA (dearness allowance)” component up to three-month’s salary, whichever is lower.

The usual advice is that one should not withdraw from their EPF account because it hurts the retirement