16 Apr 2024
This plan aligns with the bigger vision of creating a universal social security offering improved service delivery.
The Indian government is planning a revamp of the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to significantly improve service delivery. The short, medium, and long-term plans include restructuring its PAN India offices and processes, IT reforms to enable automatic settlement of claims, and cadre restructuring.
The plan is to form a social security organisation offering universal coverage and contactless and online services. It is creating a PAN India centralised database to settle claims automatically subject to a validation process.
EPFO has commissioned an in-depth study at IIT Delhi to develop reforms to enhance efficiency.
The organisation experienced a staff reduction of 21.3% along with a 3.5 times jump in claim settlement in the past ten years. With an increase in the organised workforce, the EPFO subscriber base has expanded by 126% since 2018. The organisation added 6.1 million subscribers in 2018-19 and 13.8 million in 2022-23.