EPFO eyes major revamp with leveraging tech for automatic claims settlement, restructuring of workplaces; commissions study to IIT Delhi

EPFO revamp on the playing cards: The authorities is contemplating a ‘revamp’ of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to align with the broader imaginative and prescient of common social safety and to considerably enhance service supply.
Some of the adjustments envisioned for the retirement fund physique within the brief, medium, and long run embody restructuring of EPFO workplaces, enterprise course of re-engineering, leveraging IT for automatic settlement of claims and cadre restructuring, a senior authorities official informed ET, requesting anonymity.
The goal is to create an innovation-driven social safety group. The thought is to prolong common protection and guarantee seamless and uninterrupted companies in a contactless, paperless and clear method to its stakeholders by way of state-of-the-art expertise, the official mentioned.

According to the official, the EPFO has commissioned a study to IIT Delhi on reforms wanted at EPFO to enhance effectivity, the report for which is predicted to be submitted later this month.
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EPFO’s staffing decreased by 21.3% over the previous decade, whereas claims processed elevated by greater than three and a half occasions. This highlights the necessity for elevated human sources and different structural changes on the group. Efforts are underway at EPFO to improve governance, reminiscent of establishing a nationwide centralized database and using expertise for automated declare processing, pending validation.
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EPFO is present process restructuring on the infrastructure degree. The official acknowledged that any determination on cadre restructuring shall be made after contemplating all elements. The subscriber base of EPFO has considerably elevated in recent times due to the rise within the quantity of organized staff in India. The internet subscriber addition below EPFO has seen a considerable progress, with numbers standing at 6.1 million in 2018-19, 7.8 million in 2019-20, 7.7 million in 2020-21, 12.2 million in 2021-22, and 13.8 million in 2022-23. This marks a exceptional soar of over 126% in simply 5 years.