Teething troubles for EPFO web portal

Currently, only balance till March 2012 available; data update in 2-3 weeks

If you are planning to check the balance in your employees’ provident fund (EPF) account online, you could be in for disappointment. The recently-launched facility to view provident fund accounts online shows the balance only as of March 2012.

However, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation central provident fund commissioner K K Jalan says, “The updated EPF balance will be available in 15-20 days, as the portal will upgrade to an ‘annual account updating software’. This will help all subscribers to view their EPF balances till March 2013.”

One can check the current total balance (employers’ and employees’ contribution), excluding the interest accrued, by downloading the e-passbook. For this, a subscriber would have to state his/her provident fund account number, mobile number and date of birth, along with details of any key document — permanent account number, driving licence, passport, Aadhaar number, etc. After registering, the portal takes four-five working days to prepare the e-passbook.

For those who want to know how much they would get when they quit their job, there is a ‘know your claim status’ facility. Through this, a subscriber would have to click on the link on the portal to find the status of his/her claim submitted in an EPFO office. Then, the subscriber has to select the EPFO office where his account is maintained and provide his/her provident fund account number. The subscriber would then be informed if the status of his/her claim is ‘under-process’, ‘settled’ or ‘rejected’.

One could also register complaints on the website. Jagmohan Atri, EPFO’s additional central provident fund commissioner (Haryana & Rajasthan), says, “Any grievance related to the portal claim or services can be registered at the portal. Complaints would be directly routed to the EPF office concerned and would take up to 30 days to be settled.”

From October, EPFO would also provide a facility for online account transfer claims. Many facilities are, however, yet to be made available; for instance, online transfer of EPF accounts while shifting jobs. Also, in many cases, even if the EPF balance from the previous employer has been transferred offline, it isn’t reflected in the account. This defeats the purpose of a single provident fund account across employers.