Employees Provident Fund (EPF) subscribers must link their Aadhaar card to their Provident Fund (PF) accounts by September 1st. Receive pension fund contributions from employers and other benefits. The earlier deadline has been postponed from June 1, 2021 to September 1, 2021. The Ministry of Labor amended Section 142 of the Social Code 2020 to implement this new regulation. Section 142 provides for the identity of an employee or an unorganized worker or other person to be determined via the Aadhaar number in order to receive benefits under the code and to use services.
“Linking Aadhar to the UAN is mandatory. As of September 2021, employers will not be able to reimburse PF for cases where such a link is not made, “said Deloitte India partner Saraswathi Kasturirangan.
“The Social Security Code 2020 is a law amending and consolidating social security laws with the aim of extending social security to all workers and workers in organized / unorganized or other sectors. Although the Code has not yet been implemented, Section 142 of the Code was expected to receive benefits or payments under various programs on 3rd, “said Amrita Tonk, partner at L&L Partners.
“EPFO has issued a notice that it is now the responsibility of the employer to ensure that its employees link their pension fund account to their Aadhar number,” she added.
The implementation date for submitting ECR (electronic challan cum receipt or PF return) with Aadhaar-verified UANs has also been extended to September 1, 2021, the EPFO said in a statement. The Pension Authority previously said that the employer can only file ECR for those workers who have linked their Aadhaar to PK UAN. “The employer can submit a separate ECR for non-aadhaar-seeded UAN after the aadhaar seeding process is complete,” he added.
“The EPFO is moving towards an online approach to all services, be it KYC updates, requests for advances, withdrawals, etc. Therefore, beneficiary identification becomes critical and Aadhaar is required,” added Kasturirangan.
You will also lose other EPF benefits if your aadhaar data is not updated. This includes the COVID-19 advances and insurance benefits linked to PF accounts announced last month. “Linking PAN and Aadhaar with the Under is a basic KYC requirement for all banks, PPF accounts and EFP accounts. If this does not happen, interest credits and payout claims will face issues such as rejection as an enforcement measure, “said Vidisha Krishan, partner at law firm MV Kini.
“Employers need to use this extended time to ensure that appropriate notices are sent to employees advising them of the consequences of not linking and providing guidance on how to complete the link,” said Kasturirangan.
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