Employees' provident fund withdrawal via UPI payment gateway is likely go live soon!
Concerning Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) subscribers, Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told reporters on Wednesday that testing of the facility has been completed and currently the EPFO is taking several initiatives to improve the quality of service delivery.
"We have completed the testing of the facility where members can withdraw EPF (employees' provident fund) through the use of the UPI payment gateway. The withdrawn amount will be directly transferred into the bank account of the member," Mandaviya said on Tuesday.
How to avail the facility
- Subscribers will be able to see the eligible EPF balance available to transfer into their seeded bank accounts.
- They will be allowed to use their linked UPI pin for completing the transaction to ensure a secure transfer of money into their bank accounts.
- Once the funds are credited to bank accounts, members can use them freely for digital payments or withdraw cash from ATMs using their debit cards.
The labour ministry has been working on a project where a certain proportion of the EPF will be frozen, and a large chunk will be available for withdrawal through their bank account using UPI.
Currently, EPFO has been trying to resolve software glitches for the smooth implementation of this system, which will benefit over seven crore members.
How can EPFO members withdraw their funds now?
At present, EPFO members have to apply for withdrawal claims to access their EPF money, which is time-consuming.
Under the auto-settlement mode, the withdrawal claims are settled electronically without manual intervention within three days of filing the application form.
The limit of this auto-settlement mode has already been raised to ₹5 lakh from the existing ₹1 lakh.
This facilitates a large number of EPFO members to access their EPF money within three days for illness, education, marriage, and housing purposes.
EPFO on WhatsApp - how it works?
The minister also said the EPFO plans to use WhatsApp to improve communication with members and make its services easier and faster to access.
The major reasons for using the WhatsApp channel for communications include its use by most mobile users.
Under this facility, the members can simply type 'Hello' to EPFO's registered WhatsApp number, which is verified by a green tick mark for safety and assurance, to initiate the conversation with EPFO.
They can also choose to receive messages from EPFO on their mobile number registered with EPFO.
