EPFO to make available all services online by September

The Employees Provident Fund organisation (EPFO) proposes to make all payments to its beneficiaries, including provident fund claims, through electronic mode beginning September this year.

At present, the pension fund manager manages 93 per cent of fund transfers online and has now decided to make 100 per cent e-payment of benefits by 15 August 2014, reports quoting EPFO official said on Thursday.

The work on digitising pension data is expected to be completed in three to four months, after which employers having account in banks other than State Bank of India would be able to pay PF dues online.

At present, employers having bank account in SBI, can pay PF dues online. This will be extended to all banks by September

The digitisation process is aimed at making EPFO services on par with core banking services while at the same time, making EPFO transactions paperless.

Under this facility, the benefits such as PF withdrawals will be directly credited to the beneficiaries' account and no cheque or bank draft will be issued.

EPFO is also contemplating providing permanent or universal account number to it all active members by October this year.

EPFO currently settles over 10 million claims in a financial year and has settled 12.1 million subscriber claims, including withdrawal and transfer of provident fund, in 2013-14.

Besides settling claims, the EPFO makes payment to around 44 lakh pensioners every month.

It is digitising its pension data for the purpose and will have a centralised data system.