THE NEW-AGE EPFO

THE EMPLOYEES' PROVIDENT FUND ORGANISATION IS TAKING STEPS TO MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR ITS NEARLY 80 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS. CAN THE NEXT SET OF REFORMS MAKE IT FUTURE-READY?

- SURABHI

ON FEBRUARY 2024, a 69-year-old pensioner died by suicide in the provident fund (PF) office in Kochi after being unable to withdraw his PF benefits for nine years. Despite multiple visits and submission of papers, it is reported that his dues were not cleared because of 'technical' issues.

The tragic incident brought to the forefront the long delays subscribers and pensioners of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) often face in not only getting their life's savings but also for minor requests such as correction in personal details.

Over the past few months, the EPFO, the country's second-largest financial institution after the State Bank of India, is pulling out all stops to reinvent itself as a tech-savvy and subscriber-friendly organisation. From completely digitising all its services to ensuring speedy grievance redressal and launching awareness campaigns, the EPFO is working towards shedding its image as an archaic and inefficient organisation. the Life Insurance Corporation of India, has embarked upon serious reforms to overhaul its decades-old IT infrastructure and reduce the number of compliances and approvals. The aim is faster service for subscribers, ease of doing business for companies and reduction in the workload of its officials.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

Set up in March 1952, the 73-year-old EPFO has seen a surge in its subscriber base, corpus and activities over the years. From just 1,267 factories and 542,904 workers on March 31, 1954, the retirement fund manager now has 796,093 contributing establishments, 77.6 million active members and over 8.1 million pensioners. Its corpus was ₹24.75 lakh crore on March 31, 2024.