Lok Sabha Question No. 3625 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-15
Subject: Opening of New Office of EPFO
Ministry: LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT
Asked by: Sunil Dattatray Tatkare

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT

## LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3625 TO BE ANSWERED ON 15.07.2019

OPENING OF NEW OFFICE OF EPFO

3625. SHRI SUNIL DATTATRAY TATKARE:

Will  the  Minister  of  LABOUR  AND  EMPLOYMENT  be  pleased  to state:

- (a)the details of policy/guidelines being followed for opening new offices of  the  Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in the country, State/ UT-wise including Tamil Nadu;
- (b)the number and details of such new offices opened by the Government during the last three years and the current year, State-wise;
- (c)whether EPFO had made changes in the rules in respect of withdrawal for the subscribers who are unemployed, if so, the details thereof along with  the  benefits  that  the  unemployed  subscriber  gets  out  of  these
- changed rules; and
- (d)the  other  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  for  speedy disposal  of  the  pending  claims  under  EPF  along  with  achievement thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE (IC) FOR LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT (SHRI SANTOSH KUMAR GANGWAR)

- (a): The existing policy for opening of offices in place is based on the norms prescribed by National Productivity Council which was approved by the Executive  Committee  of  the  Central Board  of  Trustees (CBT), Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) in the year 1999. The norms for deciding the opening of offices are further based on statistical data of workload, in terms  of  establishments  and  subscribers,  enforcement  parameters  i.e. coverage  of  establishments,  defaulters  and  prosecution  cases  pending and  lastly  service  parameters  i.e.,  the  workload  of  claims  and  claims settlements.

- (b): No  new  office  has  been  opened  in  Employees  Provident  Fund Organisation (EPFO) in the last three years.  However, the CBT in 215th meeting held on 19th December, 2016 has approved the recommendations of the Sub Committee of the CBT on Organizational and Cadre Restructuring  which  has  been  implemented  with  the  approval  of  the Central  Government in  December, 2016. As a part of the organizational restructuring, the 81 Sub-Regional Offices have been upgraded  to Regional Offices to   provide services to the EPF subscribers and other stakeholders under its jurisdiction. Further, 117 Inspectorates have been upgraded to District Offices.
- (c): Paragraph  68HH  has  been  inserted  in  the  Employees'  Provident Funds Scheme, 1952 to enable a member, who is no longer in employment for a continuous period of not less than one month, to avail upto 75% of amount standing to his credit in the provident fund.
- (d): The  following  steps  have  been  taken  for  speedy  settlement  of claims:-
- (i) EPFO has allotted a Universal Account Numbers (UAN) for consolidation/portability of accounts;
- (ii) A  single  page  Composite  Claim  Form  for  both  Aadhaar    &  NonAadhaar has been introduced by replacing  the  erstwhile  multiple  Claim Forms No. 19, 10C and 31;
- (iii) The process of settlement has been simplified and certain manual processes have been done away with.
- (iv) The entire payments to subscribers are made electronically through National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT). Similarly, the entire payments by employers are done electronically through Internet Banking (INB);
- (v) The services of EPFO for employees have also been integrated and offered  through  the  Unified  Mobile  Application  for  New-Age  Governance (UMANG)  Application,  a  Government  of  India  initiative.  The  application enables a member to access his passbook, track the status of the claim, submission of online claim form and digital life certificate by pensioners; and
- (vi) An option for submission of claim forms through online mode has been introduced.

******