The EPFO had come out with two circulars as part of its efforts to comply with the Supreme Court ruling of November 2022.
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Nearly 9,000 members of the Employees’ Provident Fund have applied for higher pension under the joint option on the online facility provided by the EPFO.
“In respect of persons who were EPF members as on September 1, 2014, the online applications are being preferred by the employees since February 27 and already 8,897 members have applied to their employers,” the EPFO said in a statement on Saturday, while noting that the submission deadline is May 3.
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Additionally, the EPFO has received 91,258 online applications by March 4 for retired members of the Employees’ Pension Scheme (prior to September 1, 2014, and whose options were not considered earlier). This takes the overall applications submitted to the EPFO for higher pension to 0.1 million.
The EPFO had come out with two circulars as part of its efforts to comply with the Supreme Court ruling of November 2022.
In the first set of instructions issued in late December, it had said that pensioners who, as employees, had contributed to the pension scheme on salaries exceeding the then prevalent wage caps of Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,000 and had jointly applied with their employers for such a contribution, but whose request was declined by the PF authorities, could apply digitally or online. The last date of submission for this was March 4.
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On February 20, it had issued a second circular listing the application procedure for employees and employers who had contributed on salary exceeding the prevalent wage ceiling of Rs 5,000 or Rs 6,500 per month and did not exercise the joint option and were members before September 1, 2014, and continued to be members would be able to use the joint option for higher pension. The online link was provided on February 26. “EPFO has been making all-out efforts to publicise the process of joint option which can be submitted online till May 3, 2023,” it said, adding that circular dated February 20 adheres to the provisions of the scheme and complies with the Supreme Court orders.
“The correct assessment of contributions and their deposit and diversion to Pension Fund, the past services rendered and the remittances made are necessary for correct calculation of the benefits and valuation of the pension fund,” it said, amidst continuing confusion amidst pensioners as well as employees on how to apply for the higher pension.
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The EPFO also said that since the contributions of both the employee and employer on higher wages are involved, the EPF and EPS-95 schemes require the joint request when they contribute on higher salary.
“This is not a new requirement and predates the EPS-95 and the position has been affirmed by SC in the RC Gupta case stating that it is a necessary pre-cursor for exercising joint option on higher salary under Employees’ Pension Scheme,” it said.
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