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Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday directed retirement fund body EPFO officials to further streamline claim settlement process, ensure timely grievance redressal, and adopt a public-friendly approach during a review meeting. Mandaviya conducted a virtual review meeting to evaluate the performance of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) Regional Offices, a labour ministry statement said. The meeting was attended by Union Labour Secretary Sumita Dawra, EPFO Central Provident Commissioner Ramesh Krishnamurthi, senior officers from the ministry and from 21 Zonal and 140 Regional Offices of the EPFO. The review focused on enhancing claim settlement efficiency, reducing claim rejections, activating Universal Account Numbers (UAN), and implementing the Pension on Higher Wages (PoHW) Scheme. Dawra briefed the minister about the recent initiatives undertaken by EPFO to improve service delivery viz. simplification of the joint declaration process, eliminating the ..
Subscribers of retirement fund body EPFO and Employees' State Insurance Corporation may soon be able to use the claim settlement amounts through e-wallets, a top official said on Wednesday. Replying to a question on EPF withdrawal from ATMs, Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Employment Sumita Dawra told PTI, "This is an area of great interest for the insured person, for a contributor. How can I withdraw my money more easily." In cases of auto settlement... the money goes to the bank account and they in any case are able to withdraw it from the bank account, from any ATM presently, Dawra said. "Now you are talking about how the claim can go directly to probably a wallet or, we'll have to work out some mechanism. So there we have started talks with bankers and also we are going to have a plan in place on how we can do this practically," she said, while speaking on the sidelines of a tourism summit here. "We are reaching out to them (Reserve Bank of India) and we'll have a plan
Subscribers of the retirement fund body EPFO may soon be able to get services at par with banking system and use ATMs to withdraw their claim amount, a top official said on Friday. Union Labour Secretary Sumita Dawra told PTI that focus right now in EPFO (Employees' Provident Fund Organisation) is to improve the IT infrastructure. "While improvements are being seen in last few months, in January 2025 we will see more improvement coming in as a result of hardware upgradation," she said. The secretary said that the efforts are being made to bring systemic reforms that make processes easier and efficient. "As part of this modernisation drive, we also aim to compare EPFO systems with the banking systems in India that are in place and are working well. For ease of living, bringing more transparency and ease of claims is also part of the plan," she said. Under the new system, claimants, beneficiaries or insured individuals will be able to access their claim amounts through ATMs. A maxi
The CBI arrested an enforcement officer of the EPFO on Monday while allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 2 lakh from a software company which had received funds of more than Rs 3 crore under the central government's Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana, officials said. Arrested officer P Kabilan in Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, had allegedly come to know that the company received Rs 3 crore from the Centre under the scheme to boost creations of new jobs in formal sector through the support of EPF contributions for new employees, they said. Kabilan allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 15 lakh, five per cent of the total funds, from the owner of the software company for not taking action against it. "It has been further alleged that the accused officer collected and verified the documents from the complainant company and learnt that the company had received an amount of Rs 3 crore (approx) under the central government's Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana
Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav on Tuesday said retirement fund body EPFO's coverage will be expanded to 10 crore subscribers from the existing level of 6.5 crore. At a function to mark the 70th foundation day of the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), Yadav said, "EPFO social security schemes ambit will be expanded. It will be increased from 6.5 crore subscribers to 10 crore." He also launched the EPFO Vision 2047 document. According to him, it is the biggest responsibility of the EPFO to reduce its litigations and increase the coverage. "We have subsumed 29 labour laws into four broad codes. These codes provide for expansion of social security schemes, including EPFO," the minister said. This rationalisation and simplification of laws will minimize litigations and bring in ease of doing business. The minister expressed happiness over the way EPFO has grown in the years gone by and the way it is managing its huge corpus of savings of the members. As per a statem