NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, MARCH 25
Despite the lockdown of the entire country to contain the spread of pandemic coronavirus, the Government of India has taken a slew of measures to resolve the problems of members of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation. All that one has to do is just log in the EPFO portal https://www.epfindia.gov.in/ and use its virtual services from the comfort of your home.
Salaried individuals who contribute towards the employee provident fund (EPF) may have concerns regarding their PF account. Many of them could be following up with the PF office to either apply for transfer of their PF balance, change nomination or date of birth details or apply for PF withdrawal, etc. However, keeping in mind the spread of Coronavirus, it is suggested to remain at home and not venture out in the open unless it is for essential services. EPFO has also come out with an advisory for the beneficiaries to avail PF Online Services to contain the spreading of COVID-19.
In its advisory, EPFO says that given the Government of India guidelines to contain the spreading of COVID-19, Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) advises it members, pensioners and employers, to avail various online services offered by EPFO, from the comfort of their homes, and should avoid visiting the EPFO offices.
Most of the services of EPFO are available online on its website or from the Member Portal. An employee can generate his/her own Universal Account Number (UAN) and even activate his/her UAN online. Thereafter, one can even seed it or link it with Aadhaar, PAN, Bank Account and mobile number thus completing the KYC seeding.
As an employee, one can log-on to the Member Portal and also make nominations or even view PF balance in the passbook. Importantly, for PF transfer, etc, the exit date needs to be updated in the EPFO system. One can also update his/her date of exit entirely online without going to the PF office or approaching the employer.
For someone looking to transfer his/her account from un-exempted to the exempted establishment and vice-versa, the process to do so can be done online.
As an employee, one can not only raise claims online for Provident Fund advances or final withdrawal, pension or Insurance benefits (EDLI) but also receive payment of PF/Pension/Insurance benefits directly in his/her bank account.
Similarly, a pensioner can download his/her Pension Payment Order (PPO) or preserve it in Digilocker. The pensioners can also know his PPO number with the help of his/her bank account number or UAN and view passbook. Pensioners can also update Jeevan Praman (Digital Life Certificate) online at any time of the year.
In the case of employees, employers and pensioners have any grievance they can get them resolved online through the EPFigms portal. These facilities are also available on UMANG App. of Government of India, so one can access these online services from his/her mobile too on UMANG App.
