EPFO News: Employees Provident Fund Settles Almost 13 Lakh Claims During Lockdown Amid Coronavirus Covid-19

Retirement Fund Body EPFO Settles 13 Lakh Claims During Coronavirus Lockdown: 10 Points

EPFO claim: EPFO is the provider of Employees' Provident Fund, a pension scheme for salaried persons

The Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has settled 12.91 lakh claims, including 7.40 lakh COVID-19 claims, under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) scheme in order to provide immediate relief to people reeling under the ongoing 40-day lockdown targeted at curbing the spread of deadly COVID-19 disease. The Retirement fund body has disbursed a total amount of Rs 4,684.52 crore, including Rs 2,367.65 crore COVID-19 claims, under the PMGKY package.

Here are 10 things to know about the claims settled by Employees Provident Fund (EPFO)

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country inched towards the 30,000 mark as of April 29 morning, according to the Union Health Ministry.
"As on April 27, Rs 875.52 crores have been disbursed to 79,743 PF members as an advance for COVID-19 by the exempted PF Trusts under this scheme, with 222 private sector establishments disbursing Rs 338.23 crore to 54,641 beneficiaries, 76 public sector establishments disbursing Rs 524.75 crore to 24,178 beneficiaries and 23 cooperative sector establishments disbursing Rs12.54 crore to 924 claimants," the government said in a release.
Tata Consultancy Services Mumbai, HCL Technologies Gurugram and HDFC Bank Mumbai are the top three exempted establishments in the private sector, both in terms of "number of claims settled" and "amount disbursed".
In the public sector, ONGC Dehradun, Neyveli Lignite Corporation Neyveli and BHEL Trichy are the top 3 exempted establishments to have settled the maximum number of COVID-19 advance claims.
Neyveli Lignite Corporation Neyveli, ONGC Dehradun and Vishakhapatnam Steel Plant Vishakhapatnam are top three establishments in terms of the amount disbursed to EPF members.
The government made the provision for a special withdrawal from the EPF Scheme to fight COVID-19 through an urgent notification, on March 28.
The provision allowed for non-refundable withdrawal to the extent of the basic wages and dearness allowances for three months or up to 75 per cent of the amount standing to member's credit in the EPF account, whichever is lesser.
In a related development, the government had earlier decided to pay EPF contribution on behalf of both, the employer and employee for next three months. This benefit was only applicable to organisations having up to 100 employees, with 90 per cent earning less than Rs 15,000 per month.
According to the labour ministry, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation had issued directions to its field offices to promptly process any applications received from EPF subscribers "to help them fight the situation".
EPFO is the provider of the Employees' Provident Fund, a pension scheme for salaried persons in the country.