“The Philosophy EPFO has evolved a three-fold approach of bringing Ease of Doing Business (EODB) to employers, ease of living for employees and promote good governance,” said Sunil Barthwal, Commissioner, Central Provident Fund at the interactive session organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Employers’ Federation of India (EFI).
“If an Employee has moved from organization X to Organization Y, then there will no further need to post a claim for transfer and the account transfer will be done automatically by EPFO,” said the newly appointed Commissioner.
EPFO manages the 9th largest sovereign pension fund in the world in terms of amount and the largest in the world in terms of numbers, handling over 20 crore accounts.
Reiterating its commitment to progressive and digital reforms, Barthwal informed that EPFO is heading towards the second phase of computerization and keeping in mind the online processes, will be implementing Big Data Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. “I have personally reviewed and found out that only 34 per cent of all claims for PF were coming online, and within one year, now 90 per cent of all claims are being implemented online, which has increased efficiency and has removed inconvenience to subscribers,” he said.
Online PF settlements, Online linking of Universal Account Number (UAN) with Aadhaar of employees, auto transfer of PF account on change of employment, Launch of new mobile application, (UMANG) and Online monthly PF returns for private trusts are some of the areas the EPFO is working on currently.
Barthwal suggested that a joint committee should be set up between CII, EFI and Industry representatives to collect and address all the issues affecting the parties involved.
As EPFO is moving towards a more transparent and simple system, things are also going to be more streamlined. Significant technological and procedural changes to ease the flow of work at EPFO
Praising the EPFO efforts in making the process simpler, M S Unnikrishnan, Chairman CII National Committee on IR, President EFI and MD and CEO Thermax, said that the process of taking advances has been simplified and the number of days for clearing claims has been reduced to 10 days is a great achievement.
“EPFO has taken a great step in terms of interaction with the Industry and is trying to understand their grievances. The consultative nature that the government has implemented and that is being undertaken by CII-EFI is a step towards a better PF facility for Employees. The kind of Automation and Digitalization that EPFO has implemented in quite commendable,” he said.
CII and EPFO have created a dedicated helpline portal to facilitate response to queries and issues raised by industry members related to PF.
