Mumbai: Changing jobs without worrying about transferring the funds lying in your provident fund seems to be happening soon. Retirement fund body Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) expects to operationlise permanent or universal account numbers (UAN) to its over 4 crore subscribers by October 15 this year.
The universal account numbers will be portable throughout the working career of employees, on the pattern of core banking services. Under core banking services, a customer can avail the bank services in any of its branch through his allotted account number.
After getting UAN, a PF subscriber would not be issued a new account number on joining a new firm. Instead, he/she would get a member-id which would be linked to the UAN. If an employee has already been allotted the universal PF account number, then he/she is required to provide the same on joining a new establishment to enable the employer to in turn link the new allotted member identification number to UAN. This will help in smoothening out the process of filing of PF transfer claims on changing jobs.
The employees would be also be given a personalised log-in though which they can see carry out different tasks: download UAN card, view updated PF account, file and view transfer claims, and update KYC information.
EPFO has recently issued universal PF account numbers for 4.17 crore contributing members. They have been made available to the employers who in turn have to seed the numbers with Know Your Customer (KYC) details such as bank account, PAN and Aadhaar details of the employees.
As per latest progress review, more than 30 lakh (KYC) data has been seeded so far. EPFO has set September 15 as deadline for completing this task.
Universal account number has long been a pending demand of even employers. It is expected that the operationalision of allotment and deployment of the UAN will substantially lower the cost of compliance and save the employer from verification of various claims made by employee to EPFO.   Â
               Â