NEW DELHI: Atul Sobti, a representative of public sector enterprises on the EPFO’s Central Board of Trustees, has written to central provident fund commissioner Neelam Shami Rao, asking the pension fund manager to extend the last date of online joint option form for higher pension “by at least a month”.
Sobti, director general of Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), has pointed out that many central PSUs have approached SCOPE regarding the difficulties members and pensioners are facing in the submission of the online forms. He has also attached a 13-point annexure listing out the problems, which range from the unified portal delivering error messages of “no record is found against this UAN” even though the Aadhaar details fetch UAN in employer portal, to mismatches in the employees’ name in UAN and Aadhaar, among the many problems that need to be fixed expediently.
TOI had reported on Wednesday that EPFO has not issued a clarification regarding the controversial clause, nor dropped it from the online form, even after the Kerala HC directed it on April 12 to drop the clause within 10 days. In this regard, Sobti has sought clarification from EPFO on the requirement of furnishing prior permission under Para 26(6). He also requested EPFO to allow modifications to the online form, both at the level of employees and employers, so that errors can be rectified.
Sobti, also a Board member of the National Safety Council, National Productivity Council and National Board of Workers Education and Development, listed that members are facing problems owing to old PF or payslips not being available, Pension Payment Order not appearing at the time of filling the joint option form, and employees not being able to get acknowledgement slips upon submission.