by Contents
EPF is one of the major schemes that fall under the Act of Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous, 1952. Employer and employee each contribute about 12 percent of the basic salary of the employee and dearness allowance in the EPF. Presently, the interest rate of EPF is 8.10 per cent p.a. Note that to access your EPF account, you must know your EPFO member login, which you may get to know from the organization that opened your EPF account. Once you know about your EPFO member login, you can easily register and accordingly change your passcode for security purposes.
Employee provident fund organization or EPFO
You may often after joining an organization come across the term EPFO. This may propel you to even google search for the term EPFO. On conducting your EPFO establishment search, you may know that EPFO is a non-constitutional body encouraging you to save funds over the long term for your post-retirement life. The organization is headed by the Labour & Employment Ministry, Indian Government launched in the year 1951.
What are the objectives of EPFO?
Read on to know about the major objectives linked with EPFO –
· Ensures every employee has an EPF account. This is a route to save for your retirement days.
· Ensure all organizations follow the rules and regulations set up by EPFO regularly.
· Ensure that the online services are highly reliable and make the required improvements to better the employee provident fund facility.
· To access all the member accounts online easily.
· Claim settlement to be lowered from 20 to 3 days only.
· Encouragement and promotion of voluntary compliance.
UAN (Universal Account Number)
All the EPF subscribers can access the PF (provident fund) accounts online as well as perform various functions such as withdrawing as well as checking the EPF balance. UAN (universal account number) makes it highly convenient for you to access the portal through an EPFO member login. UAN is a twelve-digit number allotted to every EPFO member. The UAN of the employee stays the same even post switching jobs. In the scenario of a job switch, your member ID often changes, & your new ID may be linked to your UAN. However, you as an employee must activate your UAN to get the services online.
You may ask your employer to provide you with your UAN or universal account number. In the case, you are not able to reach the concerned person for the UAN details in your organization, you may simply sign in to the UAN platform (https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in) using your member identification details to find out your UAN.
What are the schemes provided by the EPFO?
Below listed are the different schemes that EPFO offers –
· EDLI or employees’ deposit-linked insurance scheme (year – 1976)
· EPS or employees’ pension scheme (year – 1995)
· EPF or employees’ provident fund scheme (year – 1952)
What are the services offered by EPFO?
Important services provided by the EPFO include –
· Helpdesk for the inoperative accounts – In the year 2015, EPFO started the helpdesk by the name inoperative accounts helpdesk available on the online platform to assist you as an employee to track your dormant or old inoperative account. Through this help desk, you can track such accounts to either transfer or withdraw the funds. However, for accessing your dormant account, you must provide your basic EPFO details to the helpdesk to track the account. Without the details, it will be impossible for the inoperative account help desk to track your old, inoperative, or dormant EPF account.
· Online EPF withdrawal – The amount through your EPF can be simply withdrawn through the online route through the EPF portal with the assistance of your UAN. If you are an employee with no employment for over two months, then you may be eligible to withdraw your EPF money. However, to withdraw your EPF amount, you must provide your bank details and Aadhaar details. Also, note that your Aadhaar and bank account details must be directly linked with your UAN for the withdrawal of the EPF amount.
· International workers may generate a coverage certificate – If you are an EPF member working in countries that has a social security agreement (SSA) with India, then you may generate a CoC (certificate of coverage) with the assistance of the centralized software launched by the EPFO.
· Monthly returns for the exempted establishments – EPFO have established an IT tool. With the assistance of this IT tool, exempted establishments may easily file for their monthly returns through the online platform with zero trouble.
· UMANG app – The EPFO has started the unified mobile app for the UMANG or new age governance for EPF members. You as an employee can use your UAN and the passcode to get the services through the UMANG application. Different services like viewing the EPF passbook, timely updating the details of the profile, etc. are available on this UMANG app.
· Online transfer of the EPF – Transfer of the EPF amount from the employee’s earlier member ID to the present one may be conducted online with the assistance of the UAN. This process is paperless, hassle-free, simple, and easy.
· Establishments can simply register online – OLRE (online registration of establishments) may be performed on the portal of EPFO. Employees even can gain a lot from this owing to the online presence of the provident fund.
· Online payment of the provident fund – It is mandatory for all organizations to make provident fund payments through the online route. Presently, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Bank, Punjab National Bank & State Bank of India hold agreements with EPFO for collection of the dues.
· Missed call & SMS service – If you are one of those members who have activated your UAN, then you can access the PF (provident fund) balance, past contribution, etc. just by sending an SMS to the registered EPF number i.e., 7738299899 or just by ringing up at 011 22901406.
● Claim status & passbook – You as an EPFO member may be able to simply check the claim status and view as well as download the EPF passbook through the assistance of UAN.
