Tracking EPF transfer status using RTI Act

Employees Provident Fund (EPF) organization is one of the largest provident fund organizations of the world, with a membership of around 50 million subscribers across India. For the organized employment sector this scheme offers social security. The organization is guided by the principle of “return of capital is more important than return on capital”, that is, the capital is secured by sovereign guarantee. For such a massive organization, it is surprising that computerization has been slow to be implemented. Consequently, routine transactions like transfer of PF from one employer to another become an uphill task. In the earlier days, when employee turnover was limited, this would not have been a problem. But, in the present age, when change of jobs every few years is the norm, it becomes a hassle to get the PF transferred. After filing the transfer application called Form 13 through the new employer, the subscriber does not get to know any update for a few years. The transfer amount does not show up in the annual statements, in some cases for up to 5 years. At the end of the several years, the subscriber comes to know that the amount was not transferred due to a procedural lapse. This causes loss of interest and potentially loss of principal if the follow up is not thorough. HR departments in typical companies, stay away from offering assistance in following up with the PF department. Many companies are engaging third parties that liaise with the EPF department as consultants. However, the effectiveness and diligence of these consultants on matters like transfer leave much to be desired.

In my experience, the best course of action that an employee can do to ensure timely transfer of PF from one employer to another, is to use an application under the Right To Information (RTI) act of 2005. The RTI act of 2005 is one of the most citizen-friendly legislations in India. It is amazing that our executive and legislature have crafted this legislation.

The process is fairly simple, and is enumerated below:

1)      Three to Six months after submitting the Form 13 to the employer, ask for an acknowledgement from the employer.

2)      Prepare an RTI application, a sample draft is available here.

3)      Purchase a demand Draft (DD) of Rs. 10/- value, payable to the RPFC of the city that your account needs to be transferred to.

4)      Send the RTI application, copy of the acknowledgement and the DD to the PF office, addressed to Central Assistant Public Information Officer. Addresses of the EPF offices are available in this link.

In case you are too lazy to go through the above steps (most likely case J ), you can also use the services of websites like www.rtination.com, to do the paper work for you.

The RTI act mandates that every application is answered in a month’s time. If things go well, you will get an up to date status of the transfer. If you are not satisfied with the response, there is an appellate procedure too.

A word of caution here – even if the response to your RTI acknowledges the transfer, watch out for the PF statement and verify both the principal and interest are credited to your account.

PS: This blog contains information gleaned from many sites and colleagues. No claim is made about the originality of the content.