The statutory social security body under the Indian Government, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), in an upcoming meeting will consider and approve a centralized system for disbursing pension so that over 73 lakh pensioners in the country can get benefits at the same time.
To understand this, one needs to know that currently, pensioners living in different areas across the country receive their pensions at different days or times.
This is because over 138 regional offices of the EPFO credit the accounts of pension beneficiaries in their regions on their own, creating different time and dates for when pensioners living in different regions receive their pension amounts.
EPFO to Meet Later in July
The government retirement fund body EPFO is set to meet on July 29 and 30, 2022. It will consider and approve a proposal for setting up a central pension disbursal system, which would extend benefits to all the pensioners across the country, stated a FE report.
With the help of a centralized pension disbursal system, all the pensioners will be able to receive pension credited to their accounts at the same time, as opposed to the system at present.
“A proposal for setting up a central pension disbursal system will be placed in the EPFO’s apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees (CBT) in a meeting scheduled on July 29 and 30,” stated a PTI source.
The pension amount of over 73 lakh pensioners will be disbursed using a central database of over 138 regional offices in the country, which will assure crediting the amount in all the linked pensioners’ bank accounts in one go.
On Nov 20, 2021 at the 229th meeting of the CBT, the trustees had given a green signal to the proposal about developing centralized IT-led systems by C-DAC, and now it is poised to come into action.