Chairs 80th
meeting of Board of Trustees of JKEPFO
‘Online claim
filing to be launched soon’
SRINAGAR, JULY
17: Advisor to Governor, K Vijay Kumar has asked the Jammu and
Kashmir Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) to expedite the process of
settlement of pending dues to its subscribers and also to ensure that the
employee who files the Provident Fund claim get its money within stipulated
time frame. He also directed for pacing up the process of digitization of
records which would further help in achieving the positive results.
While chairing
the 80th meeting of Board of Trustees of J&K Employees
Provident Fund Organization, the Advisor said that it is important that the
money of the employees deposited with the organization should be given back to
them whenever the subscriber files claim with the JKEPFO within given period of
time.
The meeting was
attended by Principal Secretary, Labour & Employment and Industries &
Commerce department, Shailendra Kumar, Provident Fund Commissioner J&K
Bashir Ahmed Khan, various members of Board of Trustees and officers from
JKEPFO.
During the
meeting, it was decided that soon the organization will launch the service of
filing claims online that would make the entire process easy and also help in
tracking the application with their present status. It was stressed that the
digitization of records needs to be completed by the end of December, 2018.
Addressing the
meeting, K Vijay Kumar also directed for putting in an effective grievance
redressal mechanism and to address the issues of the employees who are the
subscribers of EPFO.
JKEPFO would also
develop online payment software to receive and pay the payments online to the
subscribers. In order to make the organization subscriber friendly and
self-sufficient, the Advisor suggested for sending a team of the Board of
Trustees to study the best model of the EPFO in the country and to adopt the
practices being used by that organization.
The Advisor also
asked for conducting the internal audit of the employees to get their performance
report besides incentivizing the staff working in the EPFO offices in various
districts of the state.
The meeting
discussed in detail all the agenda items presented before the board for
discussion and approval including audit of accounts, investment of
provident fund money, declaration of rate of interest for current financial
year, enhancement of insurance amount and settlement of withdrawal/Provident
Fund claims within time frame and others.
Regarding
investment of Provident Fund money, it was decided that a best fund manager
would be hired and the suggestions and plan of the fund manager would be taken
up before the Board for approval.
“Proper fund
management is the need of the hour and the majority of the corpus lying with
the organization should be invested properly so that the returns would be
utilized on welfare of the employees”, the Advisor said.
Principal
Secretary Labour & Employment informed the meeting that the organization
has hired a firm for preparation of the annual accounts for the years 2006-07
to 2014-15. Once the job is done by the firm, JKEPFO will contact CAG for
appointing a team for the audit of accounts of the organization, he added.
While discussing
the issue of declaration of rate of interest, it was proposed that the EPFO should
follow the rate of interest which Central Provident Fund Organization (CPFO) is
carrying. With regard to enhancement of insurance amount, it was informed that
the organization has increased the amount upto Rs 2 lakh.
The meeting also
deliberated upon the follow up action of the decisions taken in the previous
meeting of the Board of Trustees.
While enquiring
about the status of legal cases pending in various courts, the Provident Fund
Commissioner informed the meeting about the details of the cases and put forth
the demand of hiring standing counsels for both the divisions. The Advisor
asked the Principal Secretary to look into and also to take up with the Law
department and come to the Board in its next meeting.
He also asked for
hiring services of some reputed IT agency or taking help from the IT department
for end to end process capturing on computers.
The members also raised various other issues beneficial for the
subscribers. The members were assured that all genuine points raised by them
would be taken care of.
