For the benefit of subscribers, retirement fund body EPFO has asked its regional offices to provide details of the calculation sheet to the EPF subscribers at the time of final settlement or withdrawal. The regional offices of EPFO will send the calculation sheet to the EPF subscribers’ email or registered mobile number.
In a notification dated March 22, EPFO said: “In order to increase transparency in respect of provident fund settlement withdrawal and to reduce the confusion and grievances of the subscribers, it has been decided that calculation worksheet of provident fund withdrawal of each member is to be provided either on their registered mobile number or the email id provided in the claim form.”
Accordingly regional offices, EPFO said, have been directed to provide the details of calculation sheet to the EPF subscribers at the time of final settlement.
EPF subscribers will get the calculation sheet both in cases of claims filed through offline and online mode.
EPFO is also working on a new system to make transfer of EPF holdings hassle-free in case of a job change. Employees who either shift jobs or move to new locations may soon be able to transfer their provident fund corpus with little interference from their employers.
Mint had earlier reported that EPFO is working on a so-called “anywhere service” plan to upgrade service delivery to its 60 million active subscribers. Once it is implemented over the next six months, organized sector employees moving across locations are unlikely to face any problem in unifying their PF corpus.
Last month, EPFO had raised the interest rate on EPF to 8.65% for 2018-19, the first increase in three years.
EPFO has close to six crore active subscribers. The employer as well as the employee pays 12% of basic wages each towards contribution for social security scheme run by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
The Supreme Court had recently ruled that special allowance paid by an employer is part of basic wages for EPF dues computation.
Experts have said that this ruling will not have an impact for employees earning more than ₹15,000 in basic wages plus dearness allowance.
This is because if you earn more than ₹15,000 per month in basic salary plus dearness allowance, employers can limit the EPF deduction to 12% of ₹15,000 under the proviso to Para 26A of the Employees Provident Fund Scheme, 1952.
“Impact on this class would not be significant as such employees have the option to contribute only up to the basic of Rs. 15,000 even if their basic salary is higher,” said Sandeep Sehgal, director of tax and regulatory at Ashok Maheshwary & Associates LLP.
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