Employees’ Provident Fund Organization improves accessibility by adopting new IT initiatives

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) had taken giant strides in improving its benefit delivery mechanisms by adopting IT enabled tools and techniques.

EPFO has lined up a slew of digital initiatives for the future like introduction of centralized pension system, integration with external entities such as UIDAI, steps to ensure direct extension of services to members, initiation of Big Data analytics and progressive introduction of service delivery measures through hand held devices.

Some of the important digital initiatives taken by EPFO in the recent past to transform the delivery mechanisms are:

Universal Account Number (UAN)- It has enabled PF members to access a bouquet of services like dynamically updated UAN card, updated PF passbook including all transfer-in details, facility to link previous members’ ID with present ID, monthly SMS regarding credit of contribution in PF account and facility for auto-triggering transfer request on change of employment.

Inoperative Account Helpdesk- Tracing out old or dormant Inoperative Account of PF members has become easy with the launch of this feature.

Centralized software for generation of certification of coverage(CoC)- It has been possible to issue certificates of coverage to members migrating for employment to countries having social security agreement with India.

Online Transfer Claim Portal(OTCP)- It has made transfer of PF accumulations from one account to another quick and online. Members can file their requests online and there is zero paper movement between the concerned offices of the organisation.

Electronic return for exempted establishment- It has made the process of submitting the monthly return by exempted establishments easier and hassle free.

Centralized Monitoring of Compliance related functions- It has enabled online monitoring by field offices and Head Office. It provides data on defaults by establishments covered under the Act and enables the organization to track the status of assessments including levy of damages and also status of recovery and legal cases.

Online Registration of Establishments (OLRE)- It has made registration of establishment with EPFO web- based.

Short Code SMS Service- This could be accessed by PF members who have activated their UAN. Using this service, member can send SMS to a specific number i.e 7738299899. The format of the SMS is EPFOHO UAN followed by first three characters of the preferred language.

SMS alerts- sent to members   for remittance, withdrawals, interest credit etc.Also, SMS is sent to employers for non deposit of dues.

Central MIS portal- A system of Dashboards ensures uniformity and consistency in data and results in greater efficiency in monitoring.

Source: CIOL.com