Thursday, August 9, 2012

Provident Fund – Know your balances – ePassbook Launched


EPFO has provided a facility for all the employees to directly know their current EPF balances. Please visit this link to get your current PF balance information (as per the EPFO records) through an SMS on your mobile.
Note that because of the delay in accounting of monthly contributions as noted above, the balance information you would receive may be as of the last statement period. This excludes the Interest on contributions for 2009-10 and the contributions for 2010-11.
With the e-sewa coming in, this information could become much better in the coming months /years.
Ensure that you read through the FAQ given in the above page, and understand the procedure well.
EPFO e-Sewa
Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has introduced Electronic Challan-cum-Return (ECR) facility to provide greater transparency and better quality of services.
The ECR facility is available from April, 2012. All Employers who are covered under the Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 are required to register their establishments on EPFO website for filing the Electronic Challan cum Return (ECR) for wage month of March 2012 (payable in April 2012) onward.
The ECR facility is intended to provide following benefits:
  • No paper return to be prepared and submitted to EPFO
  • No need to submit other returns viz., Form 5/10/12A, 3A and 6A
  • Employers will get the confirmation of payment through SMS instantly
  • The contribution will be credited to the members’ account on monthly basis
  • Employers can view the annual accounts statement for accounting year 2011-12 online
  • For earlier years employers can request for the annual statement through this portal
  • The ECR facility is available for companies who are contributing to the statutory scheme run by EPFO as well as companies who are running in-house PF trusts
  • Members can get the detailed account statements with all credit and debit on request through our website with effect from 1st May 2012 (after launching of Member e-Sewa).
PFO has now brought this dream alive by launching the member services portal at http://members.epfoservices.in/  - though the portal is still in Beta mode (brought down regularly every day for making updates and expected to be a comprehensive live service soon) you can register on it right now, to take a look at your e-passbook which contains all your PF balances and transaction details.