Premature withdrawal deprives you of getting the benefits of a regular pension after retirement under EPS. Moreover, if you withdraw EPF before the completion of 5 years, the amount becomes taxable. So, combining/consolidating EPF by transferring the previous PF accounts to the current employer is a better option to ensure that you receive interest on the entire EPF amount in order to generate a healthy retirement corpus along with getting a regular pension and avoiding tax outgo.