The EPFO has proposed to move towards the centralised payment system using the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) platform.
The Central Board of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had its 219th meeting in Delhi to take decisions on various requests. The meeting was chaired by Shri Santosh Kumar, Union Minister of Labour & Employment.
The Board is now considering the 10 requests, which EPFO had earlier rejected from ineligible establishments, for waiver of damages that happened between May 20, 2017 and September 30, 2017.
The Board started investing in Equity Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) since 2015. It has also incorporated the observations of CAG in the accounting policy.
The EPFO has proposed to move towards the centralised payment system using the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) platform. In the current system of EPFO, payments to beneficiaries involves higher cost of transactions, delays in recredits in case of failed transaction, and there is no provision for AADHAAR-enabled payments.
With the new centralised payment system, funds will be transferred on the same day to the beneficiaries through the NPCI platform. The transaction status will be recorded on T+0 basis which will result in early recredit in the accounts of beneficiaries in the case of failed transactions.
The new payment facility provides AADHAAR-enabled transfer of funds. Also, the transaction cost will come down significantly.
The Board also approved the adoption of new IT-enabled technologies to provide better services to the stakeholders.
The Board has introduced allotment of Universal Account Number (UAN) for citizens, which is verified online with Aadhaar. This UAN is mandatory for filing returns and depositing contributions. However, EPFO faces some difficulty in seeding the Aadhaar details of employees. To sort out this problem, an open functionality has been introduced through which citizens or present prospective employees can generate their UAN on the basis of Aadhaar and link their KYC details. The registration facility is available in the Member Interface of the Unified Portal (https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/). Being an online facility, there is no need to submit any physical documents.
The EPF subscribers can correct their names, DOB and gender by filing an online request to their employers in the Member Interface of the Unified Portal (https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/) for correction in name, DoB and gender.