EPFO extends deadline for mandatory UAN-Aadhaar linking to September 1

EPFO extended the UAN-Aadhaar linking deadline from June 1 by three months on the request of the central government

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Tuesday extended the deadline for mandatory Aadhaar-linking with universal account number (UAN) of individual subscribers by three months from June 1 to September 1, 2021. The extension was ordered on the request of the government in view of the second wave of Covid pandemic, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Two social security arms under the Labour ministry, EPFO and ESIC, had taken different views on making Aadhaar mandatory to meet one of the clauses of the Code on Social Security. (Mint/Indranil Bhoumik)

The decision has been taken after several representations to Union labour minister Santosh Gangwar about the inconvenience faced by EPF subscribers at the time of pandemic, they said requesting anonymity.

Issuing a circular regarding extension of the deadline on June 15, EPFO said: “Further, all the employers may be advised by concerned field offices to be ready for implementation after the period of deferment.” HT has reviewed a copy of the circular.

Hindustan Times on June 10 reported that the two social security arms under the Labour ministry took different views on making Aadhaar mandatory to meet one of the clauses of the Code on Social Security (CoSS).

While the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) decided against denying benefits to insured persons for want of Aadhaar, EPFO went ahead to make Aadhaar-linking mandatory from June 1, citing a law which was yet-to-be fully operational. This made it impossible for employers to deposit provident fund contributions of lakhs of employees who hadn’t linked their accounts to the 12-digit identity number.

EPFO, with more than 220 million accounts and a corpus of ₹12 lakh crore, is one of the world’s largest social security organisations.

The labour ministry on May 5 specifically clarified that the government has only notified the particular clause – “Section 142” of the Code on Social Security and as other provisions of the Code were pending, Aadhaar should not be made mandatory at this stage.

“At present, only Section 142 of CoSS is notified, which aims to create the National Database for unorganised workers (NDUW) and not to create any inconvenience to members of ESIC or EPFO,” one of the officials said.

On May 5, Gangwar said Section 142 was notified “only for collection of data of workers including migrant workers. No benefit will be denied to workers for want of Aadhaar”.

Saraswathi Kasturirangan, partner at consultancy firm Deloitte India said: “Effective 1 September 2021, employers will not be able to remit PF for cases where such linking is not done... 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.”