NEW DELHI, Mar 6: A whopping Rs 27,448.54 crore is lying locked in inoperative accounts with Employees Provident Fund Organisation, according to official statistics shared with Parliament.
The Government said it had launched a number of steps to assist the members to identify such . Maharashtra tops the list with Rs 6,765 Crore of the employees hard earned money lying unutilised. Karnataka comes second with Rs 3,013.63 crore blocked followed by Delhi with Rs 2,430.61 crore. Other states which have a high amount lying locked in inoperative accounts are Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh
The EPFO has allotted unique, permanent numbers to its members called Universal Account Number(UAN) which will enable it to identify the members without intermediation of the employers. The UAN has been designed to be an umbrella number of a member for all his employment.
The system would ensure portability of PF accumulations when details of bank account, Aadhar and PAN seeded in UAN database of members are verified by employer on change of job. The EPFO has also launched a portal to assist the members to identify their inoperative accounts. The number of UAN allotted to the contributing members covered under EPF Act was a little over Rs 4.31 Crore as on Februaray 24 last.
The government has lauched awareness campaigns through electronic and print meadia from time to time to educate the people.
There are at present over 1310414443 memebrs of the EPF, and the government recently enhanced the ceiling from Rs 6500 per month to rs 15000 per month to have the EPF Act apply to more employees.
(UNI)
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