The Hindu Business Line : Social security number: EPFO to roll out pilot projects

Kolkata, Oct 10 The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will soon roll out pilot projects pertaining to the National Social Security Number (NSSN) initiative in six cities across the country.

These include Indore, Kota, Patna, Hyderabad, Mangalore and Karnal, according to Mr A. Viswanathan, Chief Provident Fund Commissioner.

Speaking to reporters here, Mr Viswanathan said the EPFO was moving towards a centralised architecture and the focus now was to put in place appropriate technology that would facilitate the business process re-engineering and electronic linking of all EPFO offices. Siemens Information Services Ltd has been engaged as consultants in this regard.

Mr Viswanathan was in the city to hand over the NSSN certificates to employees of Vesuvius India Ltd, which has become the first company in West Bengal to have completed the NSSN formalities. According to him, the EPFO “has not been very efficient” in rendering services to provident fund subscribers and pensioners.

A unique NSSN number would enable provident fund subscribers to access services pertaining to their provident fund, pension and insurance matters smoothly. Besides, the NSSN number would stay with the provident fund subscriber for life, including for pension, post-retirement. It would also not be affected or changed in the event of moving to a different company.

The NSSN initiative is part of a project called “Re-inventing EPF India” that has been launched by the EPFO with a view to providing world-class services to its subscribers. Once a subscriber is allotted NSSN there will be no need for transferring provident fund accumulations every time he changes his job. Further, the provident fund account will be updated every month, instead of annually as at present.

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