EPF: An investor-friendly avatar

As our monthly pay slips arrive, we keep tabs on how much goes to the EPF from our pockets. But seldom do we pause to think how much has accumulated in our account after working for so many years. Besides, we are also in the dark about how much the employer has contributed in our name. In earlier years, the only way to get an answer to this was whenever the EPF decided to give out this information through our employers. But times have changed. EPFO now offers a ‘Know your EPF balance’ facility through its portal, www.epfindia.com. On entering details relating to the PF office where your account is maintained, your PF number, your name and mobile number, details relating to the total contribution made both by you and your employer promptly arrive as an SMS.

But sometimes, this balance may not be up-to-date. For instance, in many cases only the balance as at March 31, 2014 may be available. Viewing your EPF passbook can help in such cases. This can be done through the UAN Member e-SEWA facility at http://uanmembers.epfoservices.in/ UAN or Universal Account Number was introduced by the EPFO last year to provide a single-window facility to members for a number of services. If you don’t know your UAN, check your pay slip or ask your office. If not yet allotted, you/your office can check the UAN generation request status in the website mentioned, with the request ID.

Once you activate your UAN in the same portal, you can view or download your updated passbook. The passbook gives details of the sums put in by both the employer and employee till the latest month. A break-up of the employer’s contribution to the EPF and the linked pension scheme is also given.

UAN also provides the facility to link all your past EPF accounts, if you have a record of the old PF numbers. An ‘Inoperative accounts helpdesk’ available at http://59.180.231.60:9091/INOPHelpDesk/ helps to link accounts older than 36 months to your UAN. These situations could arise when, for example, you have an existing account but new employers allot a new account to you, as and when you change jobs.

You can also check if you can do an online transfer of these sums to the latest account and proceed with enabling the transfer. Once enabled, you can track the status of the transfer request online.

Besides, the UAN helps you update your change in mobile number, email or address and upload KYC documents such as PAN card, passport, driving licence, etc. You can also upload new documents as and when you obtain them. Your employer will verify the physical copies to complete the KYC procedure.

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