The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) processed around 2.88 lakh applications for withdrawal of advance by subscribers under the special scheme during the pandemic, while just under 2 lakh were being scrutinised for deficiencies, according to EPFO officials on Wednesday.
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However, the EPFO Officers’ Association has raised concerns about the automatic online processing system and the lack of staff for the manual scrutiny as the lockdown to control COVID-19 continues.
After the announcement by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on March 26 as part of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, the EPFO rolled out the online application for non-refundable advance on March 29. A subscriber can apply for withdrawal of 75% of their account balance or three months’ of their salary under the scheme.
“As of today [Wednesday] 2.88 lakh claims have been settled and ₹774 crore disbursed under COVID-19 claims. Now less than 2 lakh claims are under various stages of processing depending upon the level of deficiencies noticed during scrutiny. It is an ongoing process,” said EPFO CEO and Central PF Commissioner Sunil Barthwal.
According to EPFO officials as well as a statement last week, the applications that are fully KYC (know your customer) compliant are being settled automatically within three working days. The applications that have deficiencies are being checked manually at field offices to prevent over-payment or fraudulent payments, an official said.
The EPFO Officers’ Association has raised concerns about both the auto and the manual modes of processing. In a letter to Mr. Barthwal on April 11, the association wrote that there were “arbitrary preconditions” for auto-settlement of claims, including flagging PF accounts as ‘suspect’ based on certain transactions and putting a limit of ₹45,000 on the claim amount. The association also said the EPFO was functioning with “bare minimum staff” which would not allow it to quickly process claims manually.
Mr. Barthwal declined to comment on the allegations made by the association.
