Big EPFO relief! With lockdown adding to problems, this big rule has been made less stringent now

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has been pro-active during the Coronavirus lockdown and taking various measures to help EPFO subscribers. After allowing EPF and EPS account holders to withdraw money from their account during lockdown, it has now eased in EPFO norms in regard to Aadhar-based e-sign for the process of EPF compliance. Now, employers can take the sign of the employee on a fresh paper and send its scanned copy through its official e-mail to the EPFO for EPF compliance.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment informed about the decision in a statement and said, "In the current scenario of lockdown announced by the Government to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic and other disruptions, the employers are not able to function normally and are facing problems in using their digital signatures or Aadhaar-based e-sign on EPFO portal." The ministry's press statement went on to add that many important tasks like KYC attestation, transfer claim attestation etc are being done online by the authorized persons of employers using their Digital Signatures (DSC) or Aadhaar based e-Signs on EPFO portal. For using DSC/e-Sign, one time approval from Regional Offices is required. Due to lockdown, many employers are facing difficulties to send the one time registration requests to the Regional Offices.

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"Keeping in view the above situation and to further ease the compliance procedure, EPFO has decided to accept such requests through email also. Employer can send the scanned copy of duly signed request letter to the concerned Regional Office through mail. Official email addresses of the Regional Offices are available at epfindia.gov.in," the statement further added.

Further, such establishments, whose authorized officers have approved digital signatures but are not able to locate the dongle, can login to the employer portal and register their e-sign through the link for registration of already registered authorized signatories. If their name against the approved digital signature is same as that in their Aadhaar, the registration of e-sign will not require any further approval. Other authorized signatories can register their e-signs and send the request letters approved by the employers and seek approval of the concerned EPFO Offices.

This facility provides further relief to the employers and EPF members adversely impacted by the Pandemic.