Employers have demanded that the EPFO provide access to its data for individual employees since 1995. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters
As the June 26 deadline to submit joint options to claim higher provident fund pensions nears, several employers and their representatives are learnt to have approached the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), seeking an extension, as well as a simplified process.
The employers argued that since the process involved the transaction of an employee’s hard-earned money, it should be done meticulously and needed more time. Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav said sufficient time had been given, but added that the Centre would address all concerns.
‘Simplify process’
K.E. Raghunathan, who represents employers in the EPFO’s central board of trustees, confirmed that employers had raised certain grievances with the EPFO. “The process of ratifying joint options has to be done meticulously as it is involving money transaction. The employer will have to comply certain formalities. But during COVID, several companies have stopped operations. Data of pensioners beyond seven-eight years might have been lost. Considering this, I am sure the EPFO will extend the date of joint submission,” he said, adding that such hurdles were beyond employers’ control.
“They are not able to fill up the details. The date has to be extended and a simplified process should be brought in place,” he added.
Once an employee submits the joint option, the employer will have to ratify it by uploading month-wise details from November 1995, the month from which the Employees Pension Scheme started. As the employers may not have maintained such details, they have demanded that the EPFO provide access to its data for individual employees since 1995.
Validation problems
Pensioners have also raised certain objections regarding the application process. Parveen Kohli, an activist for pensioners’ rights, said that the pensions of 24,672 retirees had been revised after they exercised the joint option in 2017-2018, on the basis of an EPFO HQ circular issued on March 23, 2017 implementing the R.C. Gupta judgement of the Supreme Court.
“Their pension had also been revised after acceptance/approval of joint option. Now, we have been asked to apply for validation of these joint options. But when we apply, there is no opportunity to select any such date beyond August 31, 2014. Supreme Court has nowhere allowed EPFO to unsettle the settled cases, particularly when we were not a party to the litigation, as there was no cause of action/grievance because we were already getting higher pension after exercising joint option in 2017/2018 in the format provided by EPFO,” Mr. Kohli said, adding that though he had submitted written complaints to the EPFO, the matter had not yet been solved.
Talking to reporters on Thursday, the Labour Minister said that the Centre had taken steps to implement the Supreme Court judgement on higher pensions. When asked if the date for submitting joint options would be extended, Mr. Yadav said that the Centre had given adequate time for submissions. “We will address all the concerns raised,” he added.
+ There are no comments
Add yours