The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is reconsidering its proposal to allow online withdrawal of provident fund (PF) money by subscribers who possess Aadhaar-linked bank accounts, following a recent Supreme Court ruling.
Currently, the subscribers have to manually apply to the EPFO to withdraw their PF money.
"We are re-examining the proposal of online PF withdrawal facility for subscribers having Aadhaar linked bank and PF accounts. We have sought legal opinion on the issue in the backdrop of latest apex court ruling," EPFO's central provident fund commissioner KK Jalan told PTI.
In its ruling, the apex court had said that "the production of an Aadhaar card will not be a condition for obtaining any benefits otherwise due to a citizen".
The EPFO is looking to roll out "specialised services" for subscribers who have enrolled for "Universal Account Number" and whose KYC linking is "complete and digitally authenticated".
Members of the EPFO, whose PF and bank accounts are linked with Aadhaar, will be allowed to apply online for PF withdrawal under the "specialised services". A claimant will have to submit a copy of a cancelled cheque of his Aadhaar-enabled bank account.
The retirement fund body was also examining a proposal to enable its subscribers, whose PF and bank accounts are linked with Aadhaar, file for PF withdrawal without the intervention of the employer.
Earlier this month, Jalan had said that the EPFO settled a total of 11.56 lakh claims in July, with 43% of the applications settled in three days, 83% within 10 days and 97% within 20 days.
The body has also revised the time to be taken to settle PF, pension and insurance claims to 20 days compared to an earlier time limit of 30 days.
