“ONE EMPLOYEE, ONE EPF ACCOUNT” (A SPECIAL DRIVE TO CONSOLIDATE MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS OF AN EMPLOYEE)

AKASH DWIVEDI---------The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India launched the Universal Account Number (UAN) for EPF members in October 2014 with a view to enable members to have continuity in their PF membership on every change in job and/or location. UAN has been issued to all members in respect of whom at least one contribution has been received since January 2014. Instructions have been issued to establishments that in case any new employee joins an establishment, they may furnish, UAN, if any, allotted to the member earlier, or declare that s/he is becoming a PF member for the first time. EPFO has been advising members to link all their PF account numbers with the UAN so issued and to also seed KYC data against their UAN number. KYC primarily means Aadhaar, PAN and Bank Account. The establishments are advised to upload and then digitally authenticate the KYC information. As on 25th April 2016, 6.77 crore UANs have been issued. Aadhaar has been uploaded against 1.30 crore UAN, out of which 1.03 crore Aadhaar have been digitally authenticated by the establishments. With the enactment of Aadhaar Act, 2016 (26th March 2016), EPFO is now seeking to make Aadhaar, the primary identifier. It is planned that in case of members having Aadhaar seeded UAN, there will not be any requirement of attestation of claims by the employers. Integration of members’ multiple PF accounts will enable continuance of lifelong PF membership, and allow PF, pension and insurance benefits on combined service and accordingly it is expected that pay-outs to members on superannuation would be significant. EPFO seeks to encourage members to continue their PF membership by offering increasingly better services and ease of convenience. There is no proposal to discourage PF withdrawals, rather the aim of instruction is to upgrade the quality of services being offered by EPFO.