ADVOCATES FOR INDUSTRIAL LABOUR LAW IN CHENNAI

LABOUR LAW NEWS  FOR THE MONTH OF MAY,2017

E.P.F LAW REFORMS
In the recent past, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation  have come out  with  various changes in the E.P.F Scheme.  In fact, The following are the major changes/proposals.

1.      PF withdrawal is taxable if they do not render service continuously for at least 5 years. If the EPF is transfer to another employer, the new employer’s also include period of employment to calculate the continuous period.

2.     You don’t require Adhar for withdrawal benefits under the Employees’ Penion Schem,1995.  Furnishing of Adhar number is mandatory for final settlement of Pension (Form No:10D)

3.      People expect the E.P.F Organisation on line facility for settlement of claims, Advances and Pension by May this year.

4.       In introduction pf the E.P.F Organisation scheme is “Employees ‘ enrolment campaign 2017  to provide opportunity to the employers to voluntarily come forward and declare details of all such employees who were entitled for PF membership between 01.04.2009 to 31.12.2016 but could not be enroll for any reason. The Campaign aims to extend PF benefits to employees hitherto deprive of PF benefits. Under the Campaign only such an employee can be declared for membership-

(i) who is alive and
        (ii) who furnishes Form 11 to the employer and
(iii) who was required or entitled to become member of Employees’
ProvidentFund on or after the 1st day of April, 2009 but before the 1st day
of January,2017 but could not be enrolled as member for any reason.

5.      The Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana(PMRPY) Plan Scheme has been designed incentivise employers for generation of new employment, where Government of India will be paying the 8.33% EPS contribution of the employer for the new employment. This scheme has a dual benefit, where, on the one hand, the employer is incentivised for increasing the employment base of workers in the establishment, and on the other hand, a large number of workers will find jobs in such establishments. A direct benefit is that these workers will have access to social security benefits of the organized sector large number of workers will find jobs in such establishments. A direct benefit is that these workers will have access to social security benefits of the organized sector . The Scheme is effective from 09-08-2016  and applicable to the employees whose pay is Rs.15,000.00 and below.

6.      The Central Board of Trustees, E.P.F Organisation has recommended  to give 8.65% interest  on EPF deposits for the year 2016-17.

7.      The settlement of EPF Claims, advances, payment of Pension and EDLI benefits etc. has been decided  to be processed within 10 days time of its receipt as against the mandatory time of 20 days.

8.      On the basis of the verdict of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, the EPFO has decided to grant enhanced pension to the members whoes salary pension calculation has been limited to Rs.6,500/- PM provided they deposit/ or transfer from EPF Account  the Pension Fund contribution (8.33%) with interest, on full salary .

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Major amendment in the EPF and MP Act,1952 and the Schemes viz. applicability of the Act to establishments employ 10 or more employees  are under consideration.

The services of the EPFO were earlier available under the  EPFO portal

1.      Always the site shows error. (May be due to overload)
2.      Unable to trace out earlier ECR statements.
3.      Unable to  feed KYC details of existing members.
4.      The Annual statement of accounts in Form No:23 are not available in the portal for the year 2016-17.
5.      The  details of contribution received  in the respective account of the members are not received through SMS, which was available earlier.
6.      On line transfer of Accounts are not properly entertained.
7.      Most of the employers are facing problems in getting Code Number as the system always shows “un-expected error”.
8.     Most of all, It is learnt that a large number of PF and Pension claims are pending with various EPFO Offices due to irregular functioning of unified portal.

We, therefore, urge the EPF organization to set right      all the above
problems in the unified portal, as mentioned above, before introducing on line settlement of claims and other proposed schemes.
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LABOUR LAW ATTORNEYS