Your final provident fund withdrawal claims will soon be automated
What's the story
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is set to revolutionize its services by automating the process of settling final provident fund withdrawal claims. The move is aimed at expediting money transfers into applicants' bank accounts, a senior official announced today. The development comes as part of EPFO's efforts to improve efficiency and service delivery for its over 70 million members.
Automation expansion
Auto-settlement currently available for partial withdrawals
Currently, partial or advance withdrawal claims up to ₹5 lakh are settled automatically within three days of filing. Now, the EPFO is planning to extend this auto-settlement system to final withdrawals as well. Central Provident Fund Commissioner Ramesh Krishnamurthi announced the plan at ASSOCHAM's National Seminar on New Labour Codes. He said, "We are also going to initiate, as far as feasible, auto-settlement for now...which was (available) only for advances. Now we are going in for auto-settlement of final withdrawals."
Account migration
Account transfers to be automated as well
Along with automating final withdrawals, the EPFO also plans to automate provident fund account transfers when a member changes employers. This means that you won't have to fill out any forms for account migration anymore. "We try to auto-migrate your accounts to your latest member account," Krishnamurthi said, highlighting the organization's commitment to making processes as seamless as possible for its members.
Future updates
Updates on EPFO notifications under new legal framework
Krishnamurthi also revealed that more notifications specific to the EPFO would be published soon under the new legal framework. The three schemes - EPF Scheme 1952, Employees's Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme 1976, and Employees Pension Scheme 1995 - will also be renotified.