'PF claims to be settled in 15 days soon'

EPFO undergoing computerisation; Mlore EPF website launched

Speaking to media on the sidelines of the launch of the Mangalore EPF office website here on Wednesday, he said that computerisation will make the work load lighter for the employees who are at present struggling due to staff shortage. The employees will be trained to use the software developed by NIC at the EPFO training centres. Once the computerisation process is completed, settling of claims and issue of account slips can be done at a much faster rate, he said and added that settling of claims takes more than 30 days at present, but it can be done in 15 days once the computerisation process is complete.

To a query on whether the excess employees will be relocated after computerisation, Chandramouli informed that the possibility of having excess employees is very remote. “In fact, we have recently recruited 2,383 SSAs”, he added.
Speaking of the net corpus of the Organisation, he said that EPFO has more than 4 crore subscribers in the country under 5 lakh establishments. The PF corpus with EPFO amounts to Rs 1.4 lakh crores, the pension corpus is 1.08 lakh crores and the total is Rs 0.58 lakh crores. All the money has been invested in government controlled bonds, securities and public sector undertakings  that give steady returns, as per the guidelines of the Central Board of Trustees, he said and brushed away the rumours that EPFO is investing in public sector.

To a query on whether the claims have gone up due to financial meltdown, he said that it has gone up considerably in the last 2 to 3 years, but refused to give the credit to the meltdown. As many as 99 lakh claims were settled last year as against the 76 lakh of the previous year, he added.
Earlier, Commissioner Chandramouli launched the website www.epfmangalore.org, which allows the customer to check his balance, change his claims and also check the remittances by the establishments online.
Regional PF Commissioner I S S Nair and others were present on the occasion.