EPFO Disburses Over Rs 47,600 Crore As Member Benefits In 2015-16

Retirement fund body EPFO disbursed more than Rs 47,000 crore as member benefits and Rs 8,200 crore as pension payments in the last financial year. The Employee's Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) also settled 1.18 crore claims in 2015-16.

"In 2015-16, EPFO disbursed approximately Rs 47,630 crore as member benefits and Rs 8,200 crore as monthly pensions," it said in a statement. EPFO has taken several steps to put in place a framework to monitor status of enrolment for contractual employees, especially in municipalities.

Under this, principal employers, including government bodies that enroll workers directly or through contractors, can view details of the latter, including the amount paid towards PF dues real-time.

Now, EPFO will be in a position to compare PF dues reimbursed to contractors and the ones actually remitted by them. Any mismatch in amounts would indicate possible evasion that can be followed up for compliance.

A facility already exists in the public domain where all principal employers can check amounts remitted by contractors' establishments.

EPFO is also in the process of digitising the compliance reporting mechanism. Compliance reporting is expected to be online and real-time by the second quarter of this financial year, it said.

The process of seeding EPS pensioners' data with Aadhaar is under way. "While seeding the data, it has been noticed that in certain cases, there is mismatch between EPF and Aadhaar data in respect of date of birth and name of the pensioner," EPFO said.

To rectify it, pensioners/members are being advised to correct either their details provided to EPFO offices or the ones in Aadhaar, whichever is correct.

It has also been found that a number of online transfer applications by members are pending with employers for attestation and verification of member details. Field offices of EPFO have been directed to take up the matter with employers on a priority, it added.

PTI