EPFO to launch online PF withdrawal facility in 3 months

Retirement fund body EPFO is likely to launch the online PF withdrawals facility in next three months for the benefit of its over six crore subscribers.

After the launch of this facility, subscribers will be able to apply online for withdrawal of the provident fund which will be transferred directly to their bank accounts.

The details of the online PF withdrawal facility will be discussed at a meeting of EPFO trustees from workers' side called by the Labour Ministry on July 24, a senior Labour Ministry official said.

At present, the subscribers who wish to settle their accounts with the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) are required to apply manually for withdrawing PF.

The official said for launching the facility, at least 40 per cent of the Unique (portable PF) Account Numbers (UANs) should be seeded with the Aadhaar number and bank account details of the subscribers.

At present, there are only 12 per cent subscribers whose Aadhaar number has been seeded with UANs activated by them.

In order to push the online facilities for subscribers, EPFO has become the registrar of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for enrolment. It is also an online authentication user agency of the Authority.

This would help EPFO verify the credentials of an applicant by using the Aadhaar database.

EPFO had issued over four crore portable UANs in July last year. EPFO has been seeding various KYC details with UANs like bank account and Aadhaar for improving the delivery of its services.

Tthe issue of capping premature provident fund withdrawals will also come up for discussion during the meeting on Friday, the official said.

It is proposed that the premature PF withdrawals should be capped at 75 per cent for EPFO subscribers at any given time till the age of 58.

Under the existing provisions, the subscribers can withdraw the entire amount by showing 'not employed anywhere' for a period of two months.

For implementing the proposal, the government would have to amend the scheme by scraping the provision of inoperative accounts, the official added.

Under this provision, a subscriber's account becomes inoperative if no contribution is made for 36 months. The EPFO does not credit interest on inoperative accounts.

If EPFO retain 25 per cent of a subscriber's PF till he attains the age of 58, his account has to be credited with due interest because it will become inoperative due to new provision, he added.