EPFO directs officials not to reject final PF settlements due to part/non-payment of contribution by employers

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has allowed for the processing of part payments in some cases, including non-remittance of employer contribution for certain periods and during the final provident fund (PF) settlement, instead of rejecting the whole claim. 

“Instances of rejecting the final Provident Fund settlement claims citing various reasons of short/non-remittance of contributions by employers for certain periods or non-transfer of previous PF account/past accumulations, etc. have been noticed,” the EPFO said.

“In this regard, the provisions of para 10.11 of the manual of accounting procedure (MAP) Part-IIA categorically allow processing of such claims for part payment of the available accumulations in the account of the member,” it added. 

It further said, “Accordingly, all offices are hereby advised not to reject such claims, but to ensure processing such claims for part payments as per the above provisions to avoid any financial distress to the members/claimants.”

All cases of part payment should be entered in the register of part payment and should be reviewed every month, the EPFO said. Further, when the amount is available for making payments, action should be taken by the office to effect further payment without insisting on a fresh claim from the claimants, it added. 

Passbook Lite and single-login portal

Earlier, members had to log in to the passbook portal of EPFO to check their PF contributions and transactions. 

"EPFO has introduced a new facility called ‘Passbook Lite’ within its member portal. This feature will enable members to easily check their passbook and related summarised view of the contributions, withdrawals and balance in a simple and convenient format through the member portal itself without having to go to the passbook portal,” the Ministry of Labour & Employment said in a release. 

Further, for members who want a more detailed view of their passbooks with graphical representations of transactions, the existing Passbook Portal will remain available. 

The EPFO also enabled easy and direct access to Transfer Certificates (Annexure K), allowing members to download them directly in PDF format from the member portal. Previously, this certificate was only shared between PF offices, and the members had to request it for access.