Most of you change jobs for better prospects - be it pay packages, better work culture - the reasons could be many. But do you make it point to transfer your existing Employees Provident Account (EPF) to your new employer. Majority of you would say a ‘No’, as the efforts required to transfer the EPF account from one employer to the other are far greater than that required for a premature withdrawal of the EPF account. Sometimes the employer himself asks you to go in for a withdrawal of the old EPF account and create a new one.

But there is some good news for you. The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is close to finalising a plan to provide portable account numbers. This will enable the organised workers to maintain their retirement savings while changing jobs. Let’s see how the portability works.

The portable number which can be any of the three, Permanent Account Number (PAN), Unique Identification Number or National Population Register Number can be used by the EPF account subscribers to tag the different provident fund accounts they have (due to change in jobs). The portable number will not just help employees retain their accounts when they change jobs, but also serve as the reference number for claiming pension and other related benefits. The EPFO wants to give employees an option of choosing between three existing unique numbers so that no subscriber gets left out and at a later stage the aim is to move to just one number.

To increase the pace of implementation of the portability of the EPF account number, a high-powered committee, headed by the Central Provident Fund Commissioner Mr R. C. Mishra and comprising senior officials from the Unique Identification Authority of India and the ministries of information technology and labour, are in the process of shortlisting a consultant to implement the initiative. Once a consultant is appointed, the EPFO will follow its advice for business process re-engineering to redesign the workflow within the organisation.

Impact of such an initiative EPF account holders...
The EPF account holders will be relieved from the hassles of transferring or going in for a premature withdrawal of their EPF accounts. Moreover, the portability will help the employees for claiming pension and other related benefits. Online accessibility of their EPF accounts will further help the employees to keep a track on their accounts.

Our view:

We believe that the initiative undertaken by the EPFO will go a long way in benefitting not only the employees but also the EPFO itself. Post the implementation of this portability, the EPFO would not have to spend more time towards claim settlement and instead channelize their efforts in other work, thereby making them more efficient.

Moreover, the lesser an employee goes in for a premature withdrawal the better it is, in terms of earning interest on the EPF amount. Also early withdrawals from the EPF account are subject to taxation as per relevant tax slabs (early withdrawal indicates exiting within 5 years).

 

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shilpartl81@gmail.com Jan 04, 2018 navachetana micrfin services pvt ltd havire
nward@hallmarkhealth.org Jun 17, 2012 Its not on you' to open or not open EPF account. If your crnerut employe R is covered under EPF Act, then they are duty bound to open your account with EPF.Unless you have an account with the crnerut employers how can you transfer? Your EPF balance amount can be transferred from previous account to crnerut account.Is your crnerut employers covered under EPF Act? If not, then you cannot get the amount transferred, because you dont have any crnerut EPF account.For transfer, there needs to be two accounts. One FROM which the amount is to be transferred, the other one TO which the amount is to be transferred.If your crnerut employers are covered under EPF Act, then you must get the EPF account number from them as they must have filed the Form 5 when you joined them 1.5 yrs back. If there is such account, then there must be EPF deduction being done with your salary. It does not really matter whether the employee is permanent or not. Even temporary employees are employee' under the EPF Act.(there needs to be 20 employees for an establishment to covered under the Act at any point of time in any year of its existence! Organisations can also voluntarily join EPFO scheme even if the number of employees is less than 20)The work of the old organisation is finished. They have no role in this any more. Its your money and EPFO.
vks002@yahoo.com May 09, 2012 Well, its good that they are yet again embarking upon this daunting task. This has been in existence earlier too. The last time it was to be done by issuing NSSN (National Social Security No) but nothing happened. I would be eagerly waiting for this to happen because its been 10 years since I applied for my transfer and I am still fighting with my luck and the officials in EPF to transfer my money.
top.to.top.to.top@gmail.com Oct 17, 2014 I had not with drawn my previous PF accounts so will there be a way to merge them into one, can i do it online, now i got message saying that portability is on now
jbnrjee@gmail.com Oct 18, 2014 Very good news simplifying the EPF account. I left job 7/8 years back and holding  a EPF Scheme Certificate and  am doing some small business at home. . As per my Scheme Certificate, I am supposed to get my pension from next year. But I do not want to get in touch with my previous employer to fill up my 10D form. My question is whether I will be able to get EPF Pension against submission of my Scheme Certificate through online by myself only. Awaiting valuable reply/advice. Thanks

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