Retirement fund body Employees Provident Fund Organisation on Friday said it has settled 1.37 lakh provident fund withdrawal claims worth Rs 280 crore to support subscribers during the lockdown.
"Employees Provident Fund Organisation has processed about 1.37 lakh claims across the country disbursing an amount of Rs 279.65 crore under a new provision especially formulated by amending the EPF Scheme to help subscribers fight Covid-19," a labour ministry statement said.
According to the statement, remittances have already started taking place. EPFO has settled these claims in the past 10 days. The system as it stands today is processing all applications which are fully know your customer compliant within less than 72 hours.
Members, who have applied for claims in some other category, can also file for a claim to fight the pandemic and depending upon the KYC compliance condition of each member, every effort is being made to settle claims at the earliest, the ministry said.
The provision for a special withdrawal from the EPF scheme to fight Covid-19 pandemic is part of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana announced by the government. An urgent notification on the matter was made to introduce a para 68 L (3) of the EPF scheme on March 28, 2020.
Under this provision, non-refundable withdrawal to the extent of the basic wages and dearness allowances for three months or up to 75 percent of the amount standing to member's credit in the EPF account, whichever is less, is provided.
The member can apply for a lesser amount also. This, being an advance, does not attract income tax deductions, the ministry said. Anticipating the huge surge in demand, the EPFO introduced a new software and a receipt module for online receipt of the claims on March 29.
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