Provide universal A/c no to members to improve services: Oscar

Retirement fund manager EPFO needs to provide unique account number to its subscribers and improve its accounting for providing seamless services at par with banks, Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes said.
"The operations of EPFO should be as smooth as in a bank," the Minister said in a statement after chairing a meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Labour Ministry.
The panel today discussed the issues relating to Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and have called for smooth, corruption and hassle free and transparent working of the body.
According to the statement, the Minister said: "There is a need for EPFO to be employee-centric and for this purpose, there should be a methodology to allot a universal number to the employee which will remain with the employee even if the employee changes organisations or locations.

"There is also a need for introduction of double entry accounting system in the EPFO. These two major innovations combined with the other consequential initiatives would definitely enhance the working of the Organisation."
According to the statement, as on 31st March, 2013, 8.87 crore members belonging to 7.43 lakh firms are served by the EPFO.
The corpus of the EPFO has already exceeded Rs 5 lakh crore and if the money managed by the exempted trusts is taken into account, the body manages about Rs 7 lakh crore. There are more than three crore members who are contributing to EPFO every month.