Worried about transferring your Employee Provident Fund (EPF) account after a job change? Here’s some good news. For scores of employed professionals, the implementation of online transfer of EPF accounts has come as a relief. What used to be a laborious process is now expected to be reduced to a few days time.
“Earlier, it used to take one to two years for the EPF account transfer to take place. But with the start of the online transfer system, we are aiming to speed up the entire process and ensure that it happens within three days time,” said M. Jagadeeshwar Rao, Member of Central Board of Trustee, Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
There are over 14 lakh EPF accounts that come under the purview of the Visakhapatnam Provident Fund Office, which caters to Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts.
Previously, the manual process of transferring the EPF account involved filling up of Form 13, getting it attested from the previous employer and submitting it to the Provident Fund Office. From thereon, the process would take a long time.
In the online transfer system, PF subscribers need to visit the website www.epfindia.com and click on ‘Online Transfer Claim Portal’ (OTCP) and follow the process. With this the money can get transferred from one account to another online. However, for online transfer of EPF account from a previous employer to the current employer, it is important that the digital signatures of these employers are registered with EPFO to verify claim papers online. The EPFO had started registering digital signatures of companies from July this year.
“With the introduction of OTCP, the EPF authorities are in the loop as soon as an EPF account transfer is initiated. In the earlier process, the employer would take a lot of time in submitting the Form 13 to EPF authorities, but EPFO did not have the scope of figuring out the delay in submission. But now, the process is faster,” said Mr Rao.
Currently, the online process is being upgraded in all the PF offices across the country. “There are some technical issues at some places, which will be fixed within the next two months,” Mr Rao added.
