Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is finding it difficult to extend coverage of the Unified Account Number in West Bengal because of very poor introduction of Aadhar cards in the State.
V Vijaykumar, Additional Central PF Commissioner (West Bengal, North-East, Jharkhand, Sikkim, Andaman & Nicobar Islands), told BusinessLine after a Bharat Chamber of Commerce event that out of 45 lakh active members in the State, only 5 per cent could link their UAN to Aadhar card. This was the main reason for poor activation of UAN in the State. “Some 1.34 lakh UAN cards only could be activated in West Bengal,” Vijaykumar said.
To accelerate the process, EPFO may also facilitate Aadhar card and bank account, particularly for contract workers, to bring them under the fold of provident fund.
Vijaykumar also said that EPFO was trying to reduce inoperative PF accounts in the State. EPFO has discovered that there were such accounts in West Bengal among some bidi unit officials, who did not take the money back.