In the month of July, 2015 EPFO( Employees Provident Fund Organisation) have revised from 30 days to 20 days, the timelines for settlement of PF, pension and insurance claims. As a result, the claimants would now get speedier service. While taking stock of EPFO’s performance, Shri K.K. Jalan, Central P.F.  Commissioner said yesterday that the EPFO settled 11.56 lakh claims in the month of July,2015 and of these 43% were settled within 3 days,83% within 10 days and 97% within 20 days. As such, EPFO is already geared up to meet the new stringent timelines. The field offices were also instructed for greater liasoning with the disbursing banks for prompt delivery of benefits to pensioners.

The EPFO launched a nationwide publicity outreach programme called Nidhi Aapke Nikat in July. The programme, a new initiative on the part of EPFO, is more broad based in its approach and encourage greater participation by all its stakeholders. More than 1300 employers and 1470 employees actively participated in the first Nidhi Aapke Nikat.

Giving utmost priority to grievances, the EPFO was able to dispose 19,016 grievances leaving only 3068 grievances pending in all the field offices of the country put together. It is noteworthy that 84% of the pendency is for less than 15 days.

Social security agreements between India & Austria and India and Canada have been operationalised.This move would help Indian citizens and citizens of these two other countries to avail social security benefits when working in the host country.

As a decision was taken to invest in the equity market, to further comprehend the nuances of investment, meetings were held with entities like Bombay Stock Exchange, ASSOCHAM etc.  Taking the cue from the Digital Week celebrations of the Government of India, EPFO unveiled its new user friendly website. Incidentally, during the month, EPFO was conferred with Smart e-governance initiative award by NDTV-CISCO in recognition of the various IT driven initiatives taken.

In order to increase the efficiency of fund management, the New Fund Management System (NFMS) has been implemented in the administrative account of EPFO. Under the same, as autosweep facility is used to transfer funds to investment account, funds are prevented from being idle(uninvested) in the administrative account.

In order to curb the tendency on the part of subscribers to withdraw PF prematurely, which results in only a meagre amount remaining at the end of the working life thereby defeating the very purpose of a social security net like Provident Fund, a proposal has been sent to the Government for restricting the same.

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AT