The Hindu Business Line : To facilitate e-filing of PF claims, returns — NSSN project launched in West Bengal Zone

THE Regional Office of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in West Bengal Zone has emerged as the number one in the country among all its offices by recovering a record Rs 283 crore, against a default sum of Rs 500 crore, as on March 31, 2004. Some 1,300 new establishments in the zone have been covered.

Encouraged by this response, the EPFO has launched the National Social Security Number (NSSN) project in the zone from April 1, which envisages allotment of a NSSN for online settlement of claims and e-filing of PF returns by employers. The Bengal zone covers Sikkim and The Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Under the new dispensation, voluntary compliance will be the norm and enforcement action will become an exception. On receipt of a NSSN in the form of a digitised smart card, subscribers can contact the PF office directly for any matter without going through one's employer.

The EPFO's `Business Re-engineering Process' project envisages providing a world-class service to subscribers through latest information technology, besides achieving a geometric increase in the subscriber base.

In Bengal, EPFO has a membership of 35 lakh, and for all over the country, the number is a staggering 3.5 crore, making it the largest social security organisation in the world. The organisation has a corpus of Rs 1,35,000 crore.

Participating in an interactive session organised by the Merchants Chamber of Commerce here on `Re-inventing EPF India — National security number key to your social security' here on Tuesday, the regional PF Commissioner, Dr A.M. Raju, said under the new programme, initially in few pilot offices of the organisation, the PF subscriber would be able to get information on his account from any of the 260 offices throughout the country.

He said the EPFO would now consciously move towards a regime that encourages and facilitates trust and voluntary compliance. "We intend to support the competitive advantage of Indian business by reducing compliance costs."

Pointing out that the subscriber will be able to file his PF claim for withdrawal or advance in any of the 250 offices regardless of where he was last enrolled, Dr Raju said the claims would be settled within two or three days.

He said the social security number allotted to the subscriber would remain constant and therefore, any change of job location would not involve any transfer of account. In other words, identification of the member is independent of his employers.

Suggesting that it was equally employer-friendly, he said once the online service was fully in place, the number of returns to be filed by the employer annually would be reduced to 12 forms from the existing 48.

Pointing out that registration with PF office would now be online, Dr Raju said every employer would now get a unique business number, which will be integrated with the Permanent Account Number issued by the I-T Department.

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To facilitate e-filing of PF claims, returns — NSSN project launched in West Bengal Zone