The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation has issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) stating the restricted time frame for freezing any individual or establishment account for verification.
In order to detect probable situations of suspicious accounts or transactions where there may be a risk of impersonation or fraudulent withdrawals, multiple stages of verification for MIDs, UANs, and institutions will be carried out as part of the SOP, according to the EPFO. In order to ensure that the money in these accounts are secure, the EPFO has limited the amount of time that may be frozen for verification in each person or establishment account to 30 days and can be extended up to 14 days.
Here is a look at EPFO’s latest SOP freezing and defreezing UANs of EPF subscribers, which was issued on July 4, 2024.
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What is freezing of EPF account mean
Freezing” refers to disablement of the following operations for categories defined
1 Login into the Unified Portal (Member/Employer)
2 Generation of a new UAN or linking of MID to a pre-existing UAN
3 Any addition or change in member profile & KYC/Employer DSC.
4 Any deposits through Appendix-E, VDR Special, VDR Transfer-in etc., in a MID
5 Any settlements of claims/transfer of funds or withdrawals
6 Registration of New establishment based on the same PAN/GSTN etc. including the usage of Aadhar/PAN/DSC of Employer/Authorised signatory.
De-freezing
“De-freezing” refers to restoring the frozen operations and found genuine after verification in a given time frame and duly authorised by authority
EPFO said that “Categories” denote the classification of individual or group of MIDs/UANs/Establishments that require due verification so as to secure the accumulations of the genuine members: –
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- ” Category A: MIDs/UANs/Establishments that are identified and communicated by Head Office from time to time.
- ” Category B: MIDs/UANs/Establishments where there is an attempt or any fraudulent withdrawal either in the form of transfer or settlement to anybody other than the genuine member including the change of member profile and KYC details.
- ” Category C: MIDs/UANs where there are deposits through Appendix-E, VDR Special, Special 10D, VDR Transfer-in etc., without the approval of the Competent Authority and/or without the adherence to the instructions issued in this regard.
Identification of the cases for freezing
Whenever a suspicious activity or transaction in MID/UAN/Establishment is reported/detected and which can be classified either in Category B or C of this SOP, then the same must be immediately brought to the notice of the OIC by the concerned official/officials with supporting documents and justifications in e-file.
Similarly, the ACC of the Zone on receipt of credible information on suspicious transactions/MIDs/UANs/Establishments will send written directions to OIC to take necessary actions, in addition to executing the freeze through the Authorised Officer in the Zonal Office.
On receipt of such information the OIC after assessing quickly should immediately get this MID/UAN/Establishment frozen through the Authorized Officer.
OIC will also place this information to the notice of the RFRMC within 3 days. The RFRMC will prima-facie examine the necessity of the above said freezing and confirm it.
In cases where there is a clear modus operandi or pattern emerges, the same should be immediately brought by the OIC to the notice of the Zonal ACC and ACC Finance & Accounts, Head Office.
The cases covered in Category A shall be communicated by the RPFC (Vertical 9-FIA) of the Finance & Accounts Division directly to the IS Division to execute the freeze in the Application Software and also place it before the Fraud Risk Mitigation Committee for perusal.
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Executing the freezing
The execution of freezing in the application software will be undertaken by the Nodal Officer of Vertical – 6 of IS Division at NDC.
ii. The Authorized Officerwill intimate the Nodal Officer of ISD for freezing MIDs/UANs/Establishments through an Issue Tracker under the categories A, B & C. The nodal officer shall execute the freeze on the same day of receipt of communication.
The request for freezing in the Issue Tracker will be on a Request Template finalized by the ACC IS Division in consultation with the ACCFinance & Accounts Division of the Head Office.
IS Division will ensure that Issue Tracker has a provision for the trail of freezing, de-freezing as well as information sharing on MIS 3.0 on account of such interventions.
In cases where the UAN linked with the above frozen MID contains some other MIDs, the OIC should intimate all the other respective OICs where such other MIDs fall through an email, for subsequent action with a copy to the concerned ACC(s) of the Zone(s).
Intimation of the freezing to the stakeholders
Whenever a particular MID/UAN/Establishment is frozen, the information of freezing is required to be shared with the concerned member, employer as the case may be.
Information to the Member will be provided through two modes. An SMS will be sent to the member as mentioned of this SOP. Also a message on the Unified Portal should be popped up when the Member accesses the login. IS Division will make provisions for both the interventions. However, OIC will check that such information has been shared with the member.
Information to the Employer will be provided through two modes. An email will be sent to the employer as mentioned in Para 5.7 of this SOP. Also a message in the Employer Login of the Unified Portal should be popped up when the Employer accesses the login. IS Division will make provisions for both the interventions. However, OIC will check that such information has been shared with the employer.
For ZO and HO, the information will also be provided through two modes. One through email by the concerned OIC of the Regional Office with a standardized subject “Freezing of MID/UAN/Establishment”. And, the second mode will be a drill down report in MIS 3.0, to be installed by the IS Division on the request of the ACC Finance & Division.
Duration of the freezing
Normally, the duration of the freeze should not exceed 30 days from the date of freezing, except in the cases where there is a confirmation of the fraud.
On receipt of the information of the freezing, if the member or employer files a grievance in the EPFiGMS Portal, then in that case the duration shall be as below:
| Category | MID | UAN | Establishment |
| A | 15 days within receipt of request in the form of an EPFiGMS grievance from the member orsurvivors of thedeceased member | 15 days within receipt of request in the form of an EPFiGMS grievance from the member orsurvivors of thedeceased member | 30 days within receipt of request in the form of an EPFiGMS grievancefrom the employer |
| B | 15 days within receipt of request in the form of an EPFiGMS grievance from the member or survivors of the deceased member | 15 days within receipt of request in the form of an EPFiGMS grievance from the member or survivors of the deceased member | 30 days within receipt of request in the form of an EPFiGMS grievance from the employer |
| C | 15 days within receipt of request in the form of an EPFiGMS grievance from the member or survivors of the deceased member | 15 days within receipt of request in the form of an EPFiGMS grievance from the member or survivors of the deceased member | 30 days within receipt of request in the form of an EPFiGMS grievance from the employer |
Extension of the freeze duration:-
In case the verification of disabled MID/UAN/Establishment is not completed within the above prescribed time frame, an extension can be considered in the following manner: –
a. An extension of not more than 14 days by the RFRMC after duly discussing & recording the circumstances that justify such an extension in a RFRMC Meeting.
b. If there is a requirement of more time, the RFRMC shall recommend to that effect to the ZFRMC which after duly discussing & recording the circumstances that justify a second extension in the ZFRMC Meeting and order for such extension of not more than 14 days. c. Any further extensions will be only after the approval of FA & CAO.
Verification
Once the freezing is confirmed, the OIC will trigger the process of verification. Towards this, the OIC will also monitor that the DA (Accounts) or DA (Compliance) as the case may be, triggers the file for verification the timelines. The DA (Accounts) or DA (Compliance) as the case may be, of the DO/RO is required to open a separate e-Office file for recording the freezing as well as the de-freezing the MID/UAN/Establishment.
