The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has been doing its bit to help out its subscribers during the lockdown. It has relaxed the rule of Aadhar-based e-signature for EPF compliance.
Employers are now allowed to take the employees’ signatures on a fresh paper and mail a scanned copy of the same through the official e-mail id to the EPF office for compliance.
This decision was communicated by the Ministry of Labour and Employment via an official statement. The move was taken keeping in mind the fact that employers are unable to function normally due to the pandemic-related restrictions and lockdown. Therefore, it is natural for employers to face difficulty in using their digital signs or Aadhaar-based e-signs on the official EPFO portal.
The statement also revealed that tasks such as KYC attestation, transfer claim attestation, and so on are being facilitated online by the authorised individuals at the employers’ end with the help of digital signatures or Aadhaar-based e-signatures on the EPFO portal. However, the use of digital signatures or e-signs requires a one-time approval from regional offices. This was becoming difficult for many employers owing to the lockdown situation.
Therefore, now, EPFO will be accepting such requests via e-mail too. All the employers need to do is, send the scanned copies of duly signed request letters to the concerned regional office via e-mail. The official e-mail addresses of the regional offices can be obtained from the website, epfindia.gov.in.
