PF subscribers must link their Aadhaar to avail benefits, deadline ending on Sept 1

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) subscribers have to link their Aadhaar with the Provident Fund (PF) accounts before 1 September. Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar with PF UAN (universal account number) to get PF contributions from the employers. Earlier, the deadline was 1 June which was extended to 1 September.

In a circular, the retirement fund body EPFO said that the directive on Aadhaar matching will not happen from 1 June as was announced earlier but from 1 September. It asked all its field offices to ensure that employers are ready to implement the decision from 1 September.

As per the previous direction, EPFO was insisting on validating Aadhaar, which means unless all details like name, date of birth, gender match, it was not allowing to pay the monthly EPF contributions. The move had prevented lakhs of workers especially low paid formal sector employees due to the mismatch of records.

So, If you have still not linked your Aadhaar with your PF account, then do the needful. The EPFO has also issued a notification whereby it is now the responsibility of the employer to ensure that their employees link their provident fund account to their Aadhar number.

in view of the second wave of coronavirus infections in the country, EPFO had allowed its over five crore subscribers to avail of the second COVID-19 advance

Earlier last year, the retirement fund body had allowed its members to withdraw COVID-19 advance to meet exigencies due to the pandemic.

The members were allowed to withdraw three months basic wages (basic pay dearness allowance) or up to 75 per cent of the amount standing to their credit in their provident fund account, whichever is less.

You will also lose out on other EPF benefits, which includes taking COVID-19 advances, insurance benefits, too if your Aadhaar details are not updated.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)