Full Form of EPFO – Employees’ Payment Fund Organization

Full form of EPFO is Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation. It is India’s regulatory body for provident funds, reporting to the Ministry of Labour’s Employment. EPFO is in charge of managing India’s mandatory provident fund. It also oversees international social security treaties. EPFO plans cover international workers in countries where bilateral agreements have been signed. There are 18 such agreements in place as of May 2021.

History of EPFO

The Central Board of Trustees (CBT), a statutory body established by the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, is EPFO’s supreme decision-making body. EPFO manages more than 11 lakh crore ($157.8 billion) as of 2018.

To regulate the provident funds of a few private companies, Congress passed the first Provident Fund Act in 1925 with a narrow focus. The Royal Commission on Labour in 1929 emphasized the necessity of setting up provident funds for factory workers.

The introduction of a statutory provident fund for industrial workers was widely agreed upon at the Indian Labour Conference in 1948. In 1948, the Coal Mines Provident Fund Scheme was implemented. After this fund’s success, there was a lot of interest in expanding it to different industries.

As a result, the Employees’ Provident Funds Ordinance was passed in the closing months of 1951. The Employees’ Provident Funds Act, which applied to all of India except Jammu and Kashmir, replaced the Ordinance of 1951, which went into effect on November 5, 1951. Section 5 of the Employees’ Provident Funds Act outlined the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme, which was implemented gradually and fully on November 1, 1952. In addition to cement, the Act had an impact on the cigarette, electric, mechanical, and general engineering product industries as well as the iron and steel industries.

EPFO Composition

The Central Board of Trustees, which is made up of central and state government representatives, employers, and employees, administers the Acts and Schemes created under it. The Board is in charge of managing a contributory provident fund, a pension plan, and an insurance plan for India’s organized-sector workforce. The Indian Union Labour Minister serves as the board’s chairman.

For the smooth running of the Act and Schemes, the Central Board appoints the organization’s officials in the Cadre of Commissioners under Section 5D. To this end, the commissioners of Under the statute, the organization is endowed with broad powers to assess an employer’s financial liability, search and seize records, levy damages, and attach and auction off the defaulter’s property, prosecution, and arrest and detention of defaulters in civil prison, etc.

The EPFO currently employs over 20.000 people at all levels. The 815 members of the Commissioner cadre are selected through a competitive recruitment process at the Union Public Service Commission of India, as well as through internal promotion. In addition to promotions from the social security assistant staff, subordinate officers (Enforcement Officers/Accounts Officers) are recruited directly.

EPFO Working

Workers contributing to EPF are given a 12-digit number called a Universal Account Number (UAN). EPFO will produce a copy for each PF member. The UAN serves as a catch-all for all of the different Member IDs that have been assigned to an individual over the course of their career. It’s the same no matter what job you are in.

As a result of this, a single User Account Number can link multiple Member Identification Numbers (Member IDs) assigned to a single member. Thus, all Member Identification Numbers (Member ID) associated with the member can be viewed in detail.