Implementation of EPFO's UAN at tardy pace in East: Official

Implementation of EPFO's Universal Account Number (UAN) in West Bengal as well as in the eastern zone of the country has been "very very lethargic", a senior official of the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment said today.
"I am very sorry to say that this (implementation of UAN) is not at all happening in West Bengal. To be precise the progress is very very lethargic in the eastern zone of the country. Here it is not moving at all," Additional Central Provident Fund Commissioner for West Bengal, North-Eastern Region, Jharkhand, Sikkim and Andaman and Nicobar Island, V Vijayakumar, said at a programme here organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Out of 35 lakh active provident fund users only 1.73 lakh users from West Bengal have opted for the UAN till date, he stated.
And only 60 lakh UANs in the country have been activated so far from an active base of 4.17 crore provident fund subscribers.
"Unless we move into UAN and the UAN allotment is complete and UAN activation is complete we will not be in a position to move forward and provide you better services," the Labour official said.
"Now a stage may come where we will make it mandatory. At some point we will say that unless your UAN is activated we will not settle your claim. At that point of time it will definitely going to be painful," he said.

"I don't understand what's the problem in activating. We require support from employees and support from the employers. It's a simple procedure which should be done by the employers and must be done at the time of filing their return," he stated adding the scenario is better in Maharashtra, Delhi, Bangalore.

In fact, the EPFO has conducted several programmes to spread awareness about UAN and address concerns raised by employers.
"For the last one month the EPFO has organised more than thousand programmes to go to the doors of the employees and employers and find out why UAN is not taking up, what is the problem, what they are supposed to do," the Labour official said.

In last October the EPFO has launched the UAN based Member Portal to provide a number of facilities to its members through a single window.