Alerting news for Employees Provident Fund (EPF) as Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar Card with PF UAN (universal account number) to get PF contributions from the employers and other benefits.
EPF And Aadhaar Linking Mandatory
Now, EPF subscribers need to link their Aadhaar card with the Provident Fund (PF) accounts before September 1.
Earlier the deadline was June 1, 2021, they have deferred to September 1, 2021.
For the implementation of this rule, the labour ministry amended Section 142 of the Code of Social Security 2020.
What Is Section 142?
Basically, Section 142 helps in establishing the identity of an employee or an unorganised worker or any other person through Aadhaar number for seeking benefits and availing services under the Code.
While giving more information on the subject, Saraswathi Kasturirangan, partner, Deloitte India said, “Linking of Aadhar with the UAN is mandatory. Effective 1 September 2021, employers will not be able to remit PF for cases where such linking is not done,”.
According to Amrita Tonk, partner, L&L Partners, “The Code on Social Security, 2020 is a legislation to amend and consolidate the laws relating to social security with the goal to extend social security to all employees and workers in the organised/unorganised or any other sectors. Although the Code has not been implemented as yet, Section 142 of the Code has been notified by the ministry of labour and employment on June 3, which mandates that the Aadhaar number has to be provided by employees and unorganised sector workers who are seeking registration, benefits or expect to receive any payment under various schemes,”.
Further, she said, “The EPFO has issued a notification whereby it is now the responsibility of the employer to ensure that their employees link their provident fund account to their Aadhar number,”.
Filing ECR With Aadhar
Apart from this, the date of implementation for filing ECR (electronic challan cum receipt or PF return) with Aadhaar verified UANs is also extended to September 1, 2021, as per the EPFO notification.
Prior to this, the retirement body mentioned the fact that the employer can only file ECR for those employees who have linked their Aadhaar to PF UAN.
Further adding “Employers can file separate ECR for non-Aadhaar seeded UAN after completion of Aadhaar seeding process,”.
With the launch of these rules, Kasturirangan said, “The EPFO is moving towards an online approach for all benefits, be it KYC updation, request for advances, withdrawals etc. Hence establishing the identity of the beneficiary becomes critical, and Aadhaar is being insisted upon,”.
In simple words, employees will lose out on other EPF benefits if the Aadhaar details are not updated.
Not to forget facilities like COVID-19 advances announced last month and insurance benefits linked to PF accounts.
Kasturirangan added, “Employers’ need to use this extended time to make sure that suitable communication is sent to employees advising them of the consequences of non-linking, and provide guidance on how the linking can be completed,”.