Navigating EPFO's New Compliance Deadlines: How Are You Preparing for the Changes?

The gist of the circular dated 1st April is as follows:

- EPFO to reconcile IW data with FRRO by 30th June to ensure 100% compliance, thereafter quarterly.
- Allotment of Universal PF No. to employees by 15th October.
- Centralized PF settlement process by 1st December.
- Digitalize the pension data in 4 months' time.
- Ensure 100% online transfer of funds by 1st July.
- Online PF code (employer) allocation in the next 4 months.
- E-transfer (by employer) from any bank, any branch in the next 6 months.
- 100% e-payment (currently only 93%) to beneficiaries by September.

Thank you.

Hi Sunder, thanks for your post. I have one more query. I have recently joined a company where we have hired some vendors for PF and ESIC policies. My ESIC vendor is asking me to provide the ESIC number of my employees' previous company. He is saying that ESIC has a provision that one person cannot be allotted an ESIC number twice, so the employee will have to continue their old ESIC registration number in the new company. But it seems irrelevant. I think this term is applicable in the PF process if the employee is willing to continue their PF number. Kindly clear my doubts.

Both of those are wrong. You need to allot a new ESIC number for each employee that joins. It does not matter if they have or do not have an existing ESIC number. If they are to continue with the old number, how do you plan to pay? Will you be paying into the previous company and asking them to credit it to the employee's ESIC account? I think you definitely need a different consultant to deal with ESIC.

About PF

You have to issue a new PF number here too. The employee will be required to transfer the balance in their own account to the new one.

IW stands for International Workers, and FRRO stands for Foreigner Regional Registration Office.

Thank you for your response. I initiated the discussion as the topic pertained to PF and ESIC. I noticed that some senior members had already begun discussing this topic, so I decided to pose my query here. I believe this forum is intended for sharing knowledge and resolving doubts regarding HR issues. If my question was incorrect in any way, I apologize. However, I urge you not to generalize and find fault with all HR professionals of our era. Additionally, our senior moderators and members have indicated that it is not compulsory to retain an old ESIC number. I want to clarify that I have never utilized ESIC treatment nor have I registered at an ESIC camp. I did not mean to imply that it is up to the employee's willingness to continue with PF or not. I mentioned that they can transfer their PF amount to a new account using Form 13 or 13 A (Please correct me if I am mistaken). Once again, thank you for your response.