Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State (I/C) for Labour and Employment launched 3 Apps: UAN REGISTRATION, E-INSPECTION and DIGI LOCKER, developed by Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) at its 67th Foundation Day. Speaking on the occasion the Minister said that these Apps will immensely enhance the Ease of Doing Business and promote transparency in the working in the EPFO.
He further said that we have used information technology in a big way for better service delivery to members and providing online transfer of Provident Fund, online claim settlement, providing digital lockers for keeping documents in digital form. Now, if your EPF account is linked with Aadhar then withdrawal of funds is very easy. A time limit of 10 days has been fixed for claim settlement.
The details of three important digital initiatives of EPFO are as under:
Online Facility for UAN generation by worker: Now any workers can obtain Universal Account Number (UAN) directly on EPFO website which enrolls them for PF, Pension and Life Insurance benefits and a worker need not depend on his employer alone for UAN. This is in the direction of ease of living and ensuring universal social security.
EPS Pensioner’s PPO in DigiLocker website/Application (APP) EPFO integrates with DigiLocker of NeGD to create depository of electronic PPOs which is accessible to individual pensioners. This is a move towards paperless system and ease of living for pensioners.
e-Inspections: Digital interface of EPFO with employers: The E-Inspection Form would be available in user login of employers not filing ECR which enables employer to inform either closure of business or unpaid dues with proposal for payment. It will nudge employers for compliant behavior and prevent undue harassment of non-willful defaulters and eliminate inspector raj.
Appreciating the enormous amount of operations of EPFO, he said that EPFO is the biggest social security organization of the world covering around six crore active members and 65 lakh pensioners and maintaining around 22 crore accounts of workers with a fund of approximately 13 lakh crore. EPFO is giving better interest rates to it’s subscribers which was recently enhanced upto 8.65%.
Heeralal Samariya, Secretary, Labour & Employment and the Guest of Honour appreciated the efforts of the EPFO in further improving its service delivery mechanism which has generated trust amongst its stakeholders. He said that workers believe that their money is safe in EPF and also earn a high income on the deposit. He stated that a robust investment mechanism and close monitoring by CBT has ensured safe investments and also higher returns. SMS to employees about receipt of their monthly contribution and online claims have strengthened their trust in EPFO.
Sunil Barthwal, Central Provident Fund Commissioner gave a brief presentation on the EPFO journey since 1952 and highlighted the EPFO performance during the last one year. He told that EPFO has aligned its policies and services in line with three principals of the Government i.e. Ease of Doing Business (EODB) to ensure a friendly and honest relationship between Employers and EPFO; Ease of Living for Employees, brought about by digitization & online services and a Good Governance model that is transparent, consultative and participative. He added that the digital India drive is being implemented in letter and spirit in EPFO. EPFO is the largest user of UMANG app i.e 87% of customers on the UMANG app are EPFO subscribers. 93% of claims received online in September 2019 from a meagre 5% in October 2017. The revamp of EPFiGMS has ensured prompt grievance redressal and now 92% grievances get resolved in 20 days and even 98% of the grievances on CPGRAM related to EPFO are resolved in 9 days. Public outreach at various levels and “Nidhi Aapke Nikat” every month have ensured a stakeholder friendly and a sensitive approach towards grievances. EPFO is consistently trying to achieve digitization through KYC seeding linked through Aadhar. After UIDAI, EPFO is responsible for updating maximum Aadhar seeding in the country. There has been a 70% increase in mobile number linked to Aadhar from the period of October 2017 to September 2019. He also gave an insight into an average day of EPFO office. Approximately 614 crores were received in contribution, out of which 329 crores was used for paying beneficiaries. Rs 302 crore per day was invested last year. 416 establishments were registered every day and 74423 members were enrolled daily and 2604 grievances redressed daily.
A booklet was also released commemorating the historic journey of EPFO from 1952 to 2019.
The function also marked distribution of awards to best performing EPFO offices to Zonal Office Haryana, RO, Dehradun, RO, Agra, DO, Thrissur. RO, K R Puram was the Best Online Claims settlement performer, RO, Delhi (East) was adjudged the best in KYC seeding in UAN. Awards in two new categories – Swachhata to RO, Dehradun and Punctuality to RO, Kannur were also given. The best performing IT team award was for the Team developing the facility for UAN for workers. The best performing Exempted PF Trust award went to BHEL Hyderabad Provident Fund Trust.
