'Govt to ensure transparent admin of social security schemes'

Government is making efforts to ensure transparent and swift administration of social security schemes through e-initiatives, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said today.
"The government is trying to ensure transparent and swift administration of social security schemes through e-initiatives for employees and employers," Dattatreya said while inaugurating new building of sub-regional office of EPFO in Rohtak.
He appreciated new initiatives by Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), including allotment of Universal Account Number to all EPF subscribers.
This will address issues of multiple account numbers and transfer of PF accumulations from one account to another when an employee changes job.
The retirement fund body has launched Know Your Claim facility for tracking status of claim application, Know Your Balance and e-passbook for viewing remittances and members name, Online Transfer Claim Portal to file claim for transfer electronically from one account to another and provision of allotment of PF codes number online(OLRE).

Among others are, Electronic Challan cum Return (ECR) facilitating online payment of PF contributions and submission of returns, adoption of a new software (Batch Processing Software) for timely updating annual accounts status of the subscribers, EPF Internet Grievance Monitoring System (EPFiGMS and Electronic payments of benefits are among others e-initiatives by EFPO.

Almost 98 per cent of payments are now through electronic mode using the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and Core Banking Solution (CBS) at banks, said an official release.
EPFO administers Employees' Provident Fund Scheme for ensuring retirement savings and taking care of contingencies; Employees' Pension Scheme for granting pensionary benefits to workers and includes members pension, widow pension, children pension, orphan pension and nominee pension; and Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, in which benefits are payable on death of the member while in service.

The pension scheme guarantees minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month for member, widow and disabled pensioner, while the insurance scheme has the maximum payment provision of Rs 3.6 lakh.
The sub-regional Rohtak office of EPFO caters to members under EPF in seven districts -- Jind, Sirsa, Fatehabad, Bhiwani, Jhajhar, Rohtak and Hissar in Haryana.
It covers around 6,400 establishments and 5.43 lakh members would be serviced by the office.
In the current financial year, around 58,000 claims were settled by Rohtak office and more than 95 per cent of them were settled within 3 days, said the statement.