Union Minister for Labour & Employment and Youth Affairs & Sports, Mansukh Mandaviya, has highlighted key reforms undertaken by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to ensure provision of efficient, transparent and user-friendly services to its members. EPFO has introduced a new facility called ‘Passbook Lite’ within its member portal (https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/). This feature will enable members to easily check their passbook and related summarised view of the contributions, withdrawals and balance in a simple and convenient format through the member portal itself without having to go to the passbook portal.
At present, when employees change jobs, their PF accounts are transferred to the new employer’s PF office through Form 13 online. After transfer, a Transfer Certificate (Annexure K) is generated by the previous PF office and sent to the new PF office. Until now, Annexure K was only shared between PF offices and was made available to members only on their request. A reform has been introduced that now enables members to directly download Annexure K in PDF format from the Member Portal itself.
EPFO has also taken the transformative step to reduce and rationalize the approval hierarchy. Powers that earlier rested with RPFC/Officer-in-Charge have now been delegated to Assistant P.F. Commissioners and subordinate levels in a structured, tiered manner. The scope of this reform will include PF transfers and settlements, advances and past accumulations, refunds, cheque/ECS/NEFT returns, and interest adjustments.