EPFO subscribers to get PF a/c updates in real time from Oct 16

Over four crore subscribers of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the retirement fund body, would be able to access their provident fund accounts online on real time basis using a dedicated members' web portal from October 16.

The Universal Account Number (UAN) member's portal will help EPFO monitor whether their employers are depositing their PF contributions.

The UAN members' portal is likely to be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 16, a senior official said adding that in the first phase the members' accounts would be accessible and become portable for lifetime.

As the UAN will be a portable account, the formal sector workers would not have to apply for transfer of PF accounts on changing jobs.

The senior official said that eventually the EPFO would provide more value added services like paperless settlement of provident fund withdrawal claims during retirement and fixing of pension after attaining the age of 58 years.

According to the official, the EPFO is on track to complete the seeding of over four crore UANs issued in the last week of July this year.

As per the information uploaded on the EPFO website, there are 4.18 crore contributing members who are employed in 4.3 lakh different firms across the country.

At present, EPFO has already captured bank account details in respect of 2.04 crore employees, PAN details of 92.94 lakh employees and Aadhar number in respect of 35.4 lakh workers.

The official said that in order to improve the quality of service under the UAN programme, at least bank account numbers of all the members needed to be seeded with portable PF accounts as this would make the PF withdrawal and other claims settlements less time consuming.

EPFO has recently made it mandatory for firms to provide their employees' bank account numbers with IFSC code of bank branch to facilitate allotment of universal PF account number and payment to its subscribers.

As per an office order, the companies would have to furnish the information regarding the core banking account number with IFSC code of the bank branch in respect of existing members by October 15.