The retirement fund body EPFO has announced the launch of a facility for bulk transfer of funds from exempted establishments through one time payment. Under Section 17 of the EPF & MP Act, 1952, the exempted establishments which has been granted an exemption and manage the provident fund of members themselves under the supervision of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EFPO). A labor ministry statement said that there was a launch of a new facility of a bulk transfer of funds and data from exempted trusts to EPFO through a single payment made by Apurva Chandra (Labor & Employment).
EPFO has officially set to motion the functionality for bulk transfer of funds from exempted establishments to EPFO through just single time payment. This facility will now make ease of doing business by increasing the speed of funds transfer for exempted establishments. When the employment of a member is changed from exempted to the unexempted establishment, his/her past accumulations are transferred to EPFO. Previously, exempted establishments approved and transferred the funds one-by-one for each member. The process was very cumbersome and time taking for larger establishments where they had to transfer the funds of many employees each day.
Now with the availability of the new facility, the exempted establishments can bulk upload data and transfer the funds for a large number of members, through a single payment. This setup is expected to benefit around 1,500 exempted establishments of EPFO. All transactions between exempted establishments and EPFO have already been updated to electronic, and so solving the issues regarding delay and reconciliation of funds transferred. In a scenario where a member shifting job from unexempted to the exempted establishment, EPFO transfers the funds in the bank account of the exempted establishment electronically and the details of the transaction are accessible in the login of the establishment.
This facility has made the crediting of funds in the account of the member a lot faster which is maintained by exempted establishment. Exempted establishments have already been provided the facility to file their Electronic Challan-cum-Return (ECRs) and monthly (PF) returns for remittance of Pension Fund contribution electronically which facilitates compliance in a hassle-free manner. One another facility launched by the labor secretary empowers the EPFO members to obtain a Scheme Certificate through Umang App.
