Teething troubles for EPFO portal

Balance till March 2012 available now, but data update in 2-3 weeks, says PF dept

If you are planning to check the balance in your employee provident fund (EPF) account online, you could be disappointed. The recently-launched online facility to view provident fund account gives the balance only till March 2012, making the ‘know your EPF balance’ facility quite outdated.

However, things are likely to change soon. EPFO's Central Provident Fund Commissioner K K Jalan says, "The updated EPF balance will be available in 15 to 20 days as the portal will upgrade to an 'annual account updating software'. This will help all subscribers to view their EPF balance till March, 2013."

You can, however, see the total balance (employers and employee contribution) till date minus the interest accrued if you download the E-passbook.

For this, the subscriber will have to give his PF account number, mobile number, date of birth along with details of any one key document. This document can either be a PAN, driving license, passport, Aadhar number, etc. After you register, the portal will take about four to five working days to prepare your e-passbook.

There are some other useful facilities as well. First, for those who want to know how much they would get when they quit their job, there is a 'know your claim status'. This gives their EPF balance after leaving their organisation.

Here, the subscriber will have to click on the link given on the portal to find the status of his claim submitted in one of the EPFO Office. Then, he should select the EPFO office where his account is maintained and one should furnish his PF account number. With this, the subscriber will know the status of his claim if it is 'under process', 'settled' or 'rejected'.

 Also, you can file complaints on this website. If there are any issues or grievances, you can register the same on the EPFO website. Jagmohan Atri, EPFO's additional Central Provident Fund Commissioner- Haryana & Rajasthan says, "Any grievances related to the portal claim or services can be registered at the portal. Complaints will be directly routed to the respected EPF offices and will take a maximum of 30 days to be settled."

There are number of other things that one should look forward to in the future such as, account transfer claims online from next month instead of the present practice of submitting forms to the office.

There are, however, many facilities that are yet to be made available. For instance, online transfer of EPF account when you shift jobs. Also, even if the EPF balance from the previous employer has been transferred offline, it still doesn't reflect in the account in many cases. This defeats the entire purpose of one PF account across employers.