The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is currently updating its application software to include a UAN-based single accounting system for each member. This will help automate the process flow with minimal human intervention, allowing for faster settlement of claims. The Ministry of Labour announced on Friday that the new software is being developed in consultation with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).
The issue was discussed at a meeting chaired by Sumita Dawra, Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment on Thursday. The purpose of the meeting was to review the reforms being undertaken in EPFO. She emphasised the need for expanding social security and implementing new initiatives to improve quality of life and ease of doing business. The meeting also covered operational reforms in litigation management and audit. Sumita Dawra praised EPFO's recent efforts to automate claim settlements and reduce claim rejections.
The Secretary advised the EPFO to continue taking proactive steps for systemic reforms and urged the officials to work closely together for an effective social security system.
The requirement for submitting the chequebook/passbook of bank accounts for Aadhaar-linked KYC has been eliminated, which has resulted in eliminating the need for scrutiny in nearly 1.3 million claims in the past month. EPFO has simplified the remarks for easier understanding of the members in cases of incomplete submissions and rejection of ineligible claims.
The number of auto transfers generated has tripled, increasing from 200,000 in April 2024 to 600,000 in May 2024, according to EPFO's records.
Meanwhile, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has proposed a new regulation that would allow users to introduce fees for mobile and landline numbers. The regulator released a consultation paper on this proposal on June 6, 2024. According to Trai, phone numbers are a valuable but limited resource, so mobile operators might have to pay charges for these numbers, which could then be passed on to consumers.
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Inputs from IANS
