Press Trust of India | Last Updated: August 18, 2015 14:47 (IST)
New Delhi: Retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to re-examine its plan to launch online provident withdrawal facility for its subscribers having Aadhaar-enabled provident fund and bank accounts, in the backdrop of a Supreme Court ruling.
The top court earlier this month ruled that "the production of an Aadhaar card will not be a condition for obtaining any benefits otherwise due to a citizen".
"We are re-examining the proposal of online provident fund withdrawal facility for subscribers having Aadhaar-linked bank and provident fund accounts. We have sought legal opinion on the issue in the backdrop of latest apex court ruling," said EPFO's central provident fund commissioner KK Jalan.
At present, the subscribers who wish to settle their accounts with the EPFO are required to apply manually for withdrawing provident fund.
The retirement fund body is planning to launch some specialised services for those members who have activated their 'Universal Account Number' and their Know Your Customer (KYC) seeding is complete and digitally authenticated.
These services include online filing of provident fund withdrawal claims for all such members whose provident fund and bank account is seeded with Aadhaar. In all such cases, the claims would have been settled only on submission of a copy of cancelled cheque of an Aadhaar-enabled bank account of an applicant.
It was also planned that the members whose provident fund and bank accounts are Aadhaar-enabled, should be allowed to file their claims directly without the intervention of the employer, through the online portal.
The retirement fund body was also working on the use of ATM network of banks to deliver EPFO services such as balance enquiry, claim transfers and claim withdrawals to all the members whose UAN and bank accounts are Aadhaar-enabled.