Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) is going to bring a big digital transformation for crores of its members. Under EPFO 3.0, preparations have been made to make many PF related services completely digital and easy. The biggest change will be that employees will be able to withdraw the amount deposited in the Provident Fund (EPF) account through UPI and ATM. At present this facility has not been started, but the government has indicated that its rollout will be done soon.
Union Labor and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya recently said that the testing of EPFO 3.0 has been completed. Now final preparations are going on for its launch. However, no official date has been announced yet.
How to get money through UPI and ATM?
After the implementation of EPFO 3.0, members will be able to directly transfer the eligible amount of PF to their Aadhaar linked bank account. For this both UPI and ATM options will be available. At present, for PF withdrawal one has to go through the process of online application and verification, which sometimes takes time.
After the implementation of the new system, there will be less paperwork and the withdrawal process will become faster and more transparent than before. This will give employees quick access to their savings in case of emergency.
How much PF will members be able to withdraw?
As per the structure proposed by EPFO, eligible members will be able to withdraw 50% to 75% of their total EPF balance. However, final terms and conditions will be announced at the time of launch. Along with this, it will be mandatory to maintain at least 25% of the total deposited amount in the account. Its objective is to maintain the retirement security of employees, as the main objective of EPF is to encourage long-term savings.
Auto-settlement limit increased to Rs 5 lakh
The government has also increased the auto-settlement limit to speed up the settlement of EPF claims. Earlier this limit was Rs 1 lakh, which has now been increased to Rs 5 lakh. This will enable faster settlement of eligible claims and members will not have to wait for long for their money. Experts believe that after the implementation of the new system, settlement of many claims will be possible within a few days.
Digital services will expand
Not only withdrawal facility, but many other digital services will also be added in EPFO 3.0. These include features like face authentication through UMANG app, instant UAN activation, easy access to passbook and correction in Aadhaar related records. Overall, EPFO can prove to be a big step towards making PF management easy, fast and transparent for 3.0 crore employees. However, to start the facility of PF withdrawal from UPI and ATM, we will have to wait for the official announcement.
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