A staggering Rs 32,000 crore of unclaimed amount is lying in various inoperative accounts of Provident Fund across the country, said Krishan Kumar Jalan, Central Provident Fund Commissioner, Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
He felt that their latest initiative, Universal Account Numbers (UAN), will help in reducing inoperative accounts. “With the help of a UAN number, we can trace the inoperative account holders. Identification becomes easy and the issue is resolved. This will be beneficial for employers as well as employees,” he said.
Mr. Jalan was speaking at a press conference held in the city on Sunday where he said that UAN was launched with a view to integrate services and also to provide services directly to the members.
To receive a UAN, the employers and their employees have to furnish their bank account, PAN, Aadhar card and other details to the EPFO which is seeded to their existing PF account. Upon allotment of the UAN, the members can download UAN card and access their updated balances. These members or their employers are not required to submit any of the documents during claims.
According to Mr. Jalan, about 4.17 crore UAN had been provided to PF account holders in the country till July-end this year and the target is to add a crore more by August-end. He said this initiative will help weed out multiple PF accounts and predicted that out of 12 crore EPFO accounts, half of them might be duplicates.
Speaking about the Hyderabad circle, consisting of AP, Telangana and Orissa employees, he said that till date data of 6.2 lakh members has been uploaded, out of which data of 1.7 lakh employees has been verified.
Mr. Jalan was in the city to interact with the employers and appeal to them to speed up the process of UAN registration of their respective employees.
