EPFO to run drive from December to recover dues from defaulting subscribers

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will conduct a special recovery drive from December 2023 to recover dues from its defaulting subscribers. 

The move aims to address an “increasing trend of the slow recovery of arrears of provident fund and allied dues.”

The drive will run through December 2023 and February 2024.

According to a statement released by PIB Chennai on November 10, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation will conduct a special recovery drive to collect the outstanding dues from the defaulting establishments from December 2023 to February 2024.  

“All employers of defaulting establishments are hereby advised to clear all the pending dues towards EPF to avoid unpleasant consequences arising out of the recovery actions such as attachment of movable /immovable properties, attachment bank account, appointment of receiver and arrest of employer & detention in prison,” said the statement. 

With over 60 million subscribers and managing a corpus exceeding Rs 12 lakh crore, the EPFO provides its beneficiaries provident funds, pension, and insurance benefits through three schemes.

In August, the retirement fund body EPFO recorded a net member addition of 16.99 lakh.

According to a report by the Economic Times, the EPFO has issued a directive to its regional offices stating that the performance in recovering both current and arrear dues is falling below the set targets by the headquarters.

To address this issue, the EPFO has implemented a special recovery drive during December, January, and February 2024 for exempted and unexempted establishments. The organisation said that these actions are intended to achieve the objective of prompt dues recovery and not to harass employers or defaulters.

As part of the initiative, the EPFO has also instructed its zonal offices to submit weekly consolidated recovery reports on the performance of regional offices during the special recovery drive.