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1.37 lakh provident fund claims cleared in 10 days to help in times of Covid-19 distress, says govt
The government had last month announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore welfare package as part of a fiscal stimulus under a scheme named Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana.
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has settled 1.37 lakh withdrawal claims worth Rs 280 crore in less than 10 days as part of the relief measures to mitigate the economic impact of coronavirus, as announced by the government last month, a home ministry official said on Friday.
The government had last month announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore welfare package as part of a fiscal stimulus under a scheme named Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana.
Under the scheme, the government is contributing both the share of the employee and the employer in the Provident Fund accounts of employees of organizations with less than 100 employees, for a period of three months. The 90% of these employees should be earning less than Rs15,000 per month for them to qualify under this scheme.
The government has also amended the PF regulation scheme to allow employees to either withdraw 75% of the provident fund money in their accounts, or a sum total of three months of their wages, whichever is lower, but this will be treated as a non-refundable advance from their accounts.
The government further eased regulations to allow 90% of the roughly 60 million EPFO subscribers who earn less than Rs 15,000 per month to produce any valid age proof document to facilitate the withdrawal of provident fund money.
The relaxation allows subscribers to get their date of birth corrected by producing any of these documents -- birth certificate, service records of central or state organisations, education-related certificate, medical certificate by a civil surgeon, Aadhaar or any other document issued by a government department.
The relaxation was given since several people in this category were unable to withdraw their money because of discrepancies in their age record.
