What PF members can learn from EPFO ruling: 6% interest ordered on ₹14 lakh provident fund claim delay

A consumer court has directed the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to pay 6 per cent interest to a retired employee for a 35-day delay in settling his provident fund claim of over ₹14 lakh, PTI reported.

What does the EPFO ruling mean for PF members?

• Keep proof of when the claim was submitted, including the acknowledgement or submission record.

• Keep copies of all documents submitted with the PF claim.

• Keep any communication from EPFO regarding rejection, deficiencies or missing documents.

• Check whether EPFO has communicated any deficiency in the claim, particularly if the organisation later says that the claim was incomplete.

• Keep records of any additional documents or declarations submitted, along with the dates on which they were submitted.

• Track the claim settlement timeline, particularly the prescribed 20-day period referred to by the commission.

• Keep all correspondence relating to the claim in case there is a dispute over whether the claim was complete or when the documents were submitted.

The Mumbai Suburban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, in an order passed last week, held the statutory body guilty of service deficiency for failing to settle the claim within the stipulated 20-day period under the EPF Scheme, 1952.

The complainant, a former employee of Fleet Maritime Services (India) Pvt Ltd, stated in his plea that he had submitted a complete PF claim on October 19, 2016, but the EPFO failed to settle it within the prescribed period.

Why was the PF claim delayed?

The EPFO argued that he had not submitted the required joint declaration with the original claim, and it was returned on November 7, 2016. It received a complete set of documents only on December 2, 2016.

Subsequently, the provident fund claim was settled within 20 days on December 14, 2016, the organisation said, denying that there was any delay on its part.

But the commission rejected the EPFO's defence, noting that the organisation failed to produce any written rejection letter or deficiency communication sent to the complainant to prove that the original submission was incomplete.

"On the evidence available on record, the Opposite Party has failed to satisfactorily establish that the claim was incomplete on 19.10.2016," the commission said, PTI reported.

How much interest has EPFO been ordered to pay?

The organisation should have processed and settled the claim within the prescribed period and the failure to do so constitutes "deficiency in service", it said, ordering the EPFO to pay 6 per cent per annum interest on the ₹14,06,272 claim amount for the 35-day delay period (from November 9, 2016, to December 13, 2016).

The EPFO has been granted 45 days to comply with the order.