Good news for Provident Fund A/c holders, Interest Rate on PF Deposits Raised to 8.75% for 2013-14

Retirement fund body EPFO Monday announced a hike in interest rate on Provident Fund deposits to 8.75 per cent for 2013-14, a decision that will benefit over 5 crore subscribers.

The interest rate on PF deposits in the previous financial year was from 8.5 per cent.

The decision to raise interest rate was taken by the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the apex decision making body of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisaton (EPFO).

"We have decided to recommend to the government 8.75 per cent rate of interest for 2013-14 to its subscribers," Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes, who chaired the CBT meeting, told reporters here.

Trade Unions to press for 9.5 per cent interest on PF deposits for FY'14

Trade unions will press for 9.5 per cent interest on PF deposits to over five crore subscribers for the current fiscal at next week's meeting of the trustees of retirement fund body EPFO. 

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's apex decision making body the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) will meet on Monday to discuss and approve the proposal regarding rate of return to be provided on PF deposits in 2013-14. 

"We will demand for 9.5 per cent rate of interest for subscribers for the current fiscal, higher than 8.5 per cent provided for 2012-13," All India Trade Union Secretary and a CBT member D L Sachdev told PTI. 

He said: "This rate of 8.5 per cent is less than the interest provided by banks these days, and would not be able to cover inflation." 

Retail inflation for industrial workers in November was 11.47 per cent. This is the rate of inflation which is used by central government for computing hike in Dearness Allowance. 

According to EPFO estimates in its proposal for the trustees, payment of 8.5 per cent rate of interest on PF deposit for this fiscal would leave a small surplus of Rs 56.96 crore. 

The EPFO, which is estimated to have an income of Rs 20,796.96 crore in the current fiscal, needs Rs 20,740 crore to pay 8.5 per cent interest to its subscribers, as per the agenda listed for the CBT meeting. 

EPFO Makes Further Progress MORE than 10 Lakh Claims Settled by EPFO in October, 2013 EPFO Stresses on Complaint Resolution.

               The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) settled 10,21,922 claims during the month of October, 2013.  This number is 28% higher than the claims settled in the month of September, 2013. 72% of these claims were settled within 10 days while remaining 28% were settled within 30 days.  EPFO’s efforts in grievance redressal has paid dividends.  Number of complaints in Central Public Grievances Redressal System (CPGRAM) has come down to less than 100.  No. of grievances in Employees Provident Fund internet Grievance System (EPFiGMS) which has been activated lately have also got reduced from more than 25,000 to less than 5,500. Shri K.K. Jalan, Central Provident Fund Commissioner expressed his happiness over the fact that 108 offices out of 123 offices of EPFO do not have a single complaint pending for more than 30 days.
 
               These data were revealed during  a meeting convened today by the Central Provident Fund Commissioner (CPFC) Shri K.K.Jalan.  He also informed that the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation got a receipt of 5,689 crores as remittances during the month of October, 2013 through 4.86 lakh establishments, which filed electronic challans cum return. He was also happy to note that a annual account updation software which was launched in September, 2013 has resulted into updation of 8.21 crores annual accounts till October, 2013.

EPFO Rerformance in September 2013

   While reviewing the work of Employees Provident Fund Organisation during September 2013, it has been observed that the Organisation settled 7,96,759 claims in its 123 offices located throughout the country compared to 7,49,639 claims settled during September 2012. More than 50 % of the offices settled more than 80% of the claims within 10 days of receipt. Offices such as Ujjain, Gwalior, Udaipur, Jabalpur, Agra and Laxmi Nagar among many others are settling 80% of the claims within 3 days. The review meeting was taken by Shri K. K. Jalan, CPFC recently.

   In addition to the above, the Organisation responded to 16,586 grievances in the month of September. As a result, the number of total grievances has come to around 6,000. The earlier number was more than 25,000. It is also relevant that 101 of the 123 offices have no grievance pending for more than a month.

Declaration of Productivity Linked Bonus (P.L.B.) for the year 2012-2013.

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation
(Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. Of India)

No. WSU/12(1)12012-13/PLB/13048

Date: 09 Oct 2013

All Regional P.F. Commissioners
In-charge of the ROs/SROs
Regional P.F. Commissioner-I(ASD), Head Office

Sub: Declaration of Productivity Linked Bonus (P.L.B.) for the year 2012-2013.

Sir,
   The Central Government, under Section 5D(7) of the Employees' Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 has conveyed its approval to the extension of the existing Productivity Linked Bonus Scheme 1998-2004 (Revised) for the year 2012-2013 vide their letter No A-26022/1/1994-SS.1 dated 07th October 2013.

Digital Signatures Under EPFO.

   The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has not made it mandatory for all employers with more than 1000 workers to send their digital signatures to the EPFO.

   However, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is implementing the facility for online claim settlement in respect of transfer claims. This facility is optional and the claims can either be filed on line or through physical form. The system will be made operative after digital signature of willing employer or his representative is registered with EPFO. Necessary communication to this effect has already been sent to all employers and the process of registration of digital signature has also begun.

Passbook for PF Account Holders.

Press Information Bureau
Government of India

   Passbook for PF Account Holders

   There are no dormant accounts in Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). However, as per provision of para 72(6) of the Employees’ Provident Funds (EPF) Scheme, 1952, a member’s account under certain condition is classified as Inoperative Account. All such Inoperative Accounts have a definite claimant.

   As per Para 73(1) of the EPF Scheme, 1952, a statement of account to each member through his last employer will be sent after the close of each year, showing opening balance, contribution during the year, interest credited, amount debited and closing balance of the year.

   Following initiatives have been taken by the EPFO to provide details to the PF account holders:-

   1)    Online access has been given to the EPF members to ‘Know their EPF Balance’ through the website of the EPFO at http://epfidia.gov.in

   2)    Facility of e-passbook has been provided to the EPF Members. It is an online version of the employee’s Provident Fund account. Transactions are recorded and can be tracked easily by the members by registering themselves on the website of EPFO.

   However, in the event of change of employment, a new PF number is issued to the employees as on date.

   This information was given by Minister of State for Labour & Employment Shri Kodikunnil Suresh in the Rajya Sabha today in reply to a written question.

DA to EPF Pensioners.

   As per the statistics available upto  31.03.2012, the number of pensioners receiving pension less than Rs. 500/- p.m. is  around 12 lakh and those receiving more than Rs. 500  and less than Rs.1000/- is around 16.05 lakh.
 
   A number of representations have been received against meager pension and demanding increase in the pension. In order to address this issue, the Government of India constituted an Expert Committee for reviewing the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 on 12.06.2009.  The recommendation of the Expert Committee was considered by Pension Implementation Committee (PIC), a sub-Committee of Central Board of Trustees (CBT), Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), which inter-alia recommended that a minimum monthly pension under Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 be increased to Rs. 1000/- per month as an interim measure. The recommendation of the PIC was considered by CBT, EPF. However, the discussion remained inconclusive. A proposal for providing minimum pension of Rs. 1000/- under EPS, 1995 is under consideration of the Government.
            
   Central Government appoints Valuer under Para 32 of the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 for annual valuation of Employees’ Pension Fund. Depending on the valuation report, the Central Government declared additional relief whenever Pension Fund permitted to do so. From 5th valuation of Employees’ Pension Fund as on 31.3.2001, the fund is showing continuous deficit, therefore, pension could not be revised by the Central Government.

   However, the following categories of pension were increased w.e.f. 29.01.2000 in the following manner:

Category of Pension	Increased from	Increased to
Widow/Widower Pension	Rs. 250/-	Rs. 450/-
Children Pension	Rs. 115/-	Rs. 150/-
Orphan Pension	Rs. 170/-	Rs. 250/-

   On the basis of the annual valuations carried out by the valuer appointed by the Central Government, the Central Government grants relief to pensioners, if the Employees’ Pension Fund shows surplus. The first four valuations showed surplus and accordingly relief of 4%, 5.5%, 4% & 4% was granted during 1996 to 2000. However, no relief has been declared by the Central Government after 31.03.2000 as the fund is showing continuous deficit thereafter.
 
   This information was given by Minister of State for Labour & Employment Shri  Kodikunnil Suresh in the Rajya  Sabha today in reply to a written question.

PIB

Leveraging Aadhaar for improving the services of EPFO — regarding.

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation
Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. Of India
Bhavishya Nidhi Bhawan, 14-Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi-110066

R-I/UID/2010/37496

date: 06.02.2013

To
All ACCs (Political states),
All RPFC-I (In-charge of Regions),
All RPFC-II (In-charge of SROs)
(Through web circulation)

Subject:- Leveraging Aadhaar for improving the services of EPFO — regarding.

Sir,
     This is in reference to Head Office letter No. RI/UID/2010/30051 dated 21.01.2013 on the subject cited above.

   The issue of expeditious enrolment of the EPF members was discussed with UIDAI Officials. It has emerged that UIDAI through its registrars has been organising enrolment camps in 18 states only. Register General of India (RGI) has been collecting data in respect of the remaining states through National Population Register (NPR). While the data collected by RGI is also being processed for issue of Aadhaar numbers by UIDAI, the methodology used by RG1 for setting up enrolment camps is different i.e. it is being done on the basis of house-to-house data collected by enumerators during Census Operations 2011, unlike UIDAI camps, where any resident, irrespective of the place of residence, can get himself enrolled for Aadhaar number. Thus enrolment may take considerable time.

   In view of the discussions held with UIDAI officials and the time required in the process of obtaining Aadhaar numbers, it may not be possible to obtain Aadhaar number/ Aadhaar Enrolment number by EPF members by 1st March, 2013. Therefore, it has been decided to not to make Aadhaar Number/Enrolment number mandatory for EPF members from 1st March, 2013. However, the field offices would make maximum efforts to obtain the available Aadhaar numbers of the EPF members.

   Further your attention is invited to Head Office letter no. MIS-II/ISO- 9001/2011-12/24686 dated 9th November 2012 on implementation of ISO 9001 Certification for the field offices which is a mandatory success indicator under the Results Framework Document (RFD). The updation of members' master in database is one of the standards required for the purpose. In view of the benefits that would accrue both to the EPF members as Well as EPFO, it has now been decided to collect the core banking account number of all the contributing members as indicated in ECR.

   The Regional offices and Sub-Regional offices should make an all-out effort to collect the core banking account numbers in respect of all the contributing members as indicated in ECR. Compliance of instructions may kindly be ensured in this regard.

Yours faithfully,

sd/-
(Anil Swarup)
Central Provident Fund Commissioner

Source:http://www.epfindia.com/Circulars/Y2012-13/RI_UID_37496.pdf

EPFO E-SEWA PORTAL - Employer Registration FAQ

 1. Why should an employer register his/her establishment on the EPFO Employer portal?
     With effect from 01.04.2012, any remittance to be made by the employer has to be done only after generating challan from the Employer Portal of EPFO. In case of wage month March 2012 onwards, the employer has to upload Electronic Challan cum Return (ECR) in the pre specified format and challan will be populated on the basis of uploaded return. For previous and other dues the challan has to be filled in online to generate and print it for remittance.

 2. What happens if the employer does not register?
   The online generation of challan will not be possible if the employer has not registered his/her establsihment. The employer has to register and create his/her user id & password for accessing the Employer Portal of EPFO.

 3. Once the employer enters his/her establishment id a message is displayed ‘No record found”. What should he/she do?
   Please check whether you have entered the correct code number and extension number, if any and have selected the correct EPFO Office. If correct, then please contact the concerned EPFO Regional/Sub Regional Office.

PF Cases Awaiting Settlement

   As on 13.12.2012 (for the period from 01.04.2012 to 13.12.2012), out of 107.16 Lakh claims received for settlement order, only 6.96 Lakh claims are pending for settlement.

   The obstacles faced in settlement of claims inter-alia include:

   (i) Incomplete claims (no bank account number,incomplete employee details, etc.)
   (ii) Incorrect claims (wrong account number, incorrect personal details, etc.)

Nationalised Bank for EPF Deposit.

   Provident Fund contribution of private sector labourers covered under the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 is deposited in the State Bank of India.

   As per the provision of Para 52(1) of the Employees` Provident Funds Scheme, 1952, all monies belonging to the Fund shall be deposited in the Reserve Bank of India or the State Bank of India or such other Scheduled Banks as may be approved by the Central Government from time to time. No other Scheduled Bank has been approved by the Central Government for this purpose.