In India, money of lakhs of employees is deposited in PF account. This PF money becomes a great support at the time of change of job, emergency, illness, studies or marriage. However, withdrawing PF money has till now been a lengthy process, involving form filling, verification and waiting for several days. Now preparations are underway to change this system.
Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) is going to bring a feature that will make withdrawing PF money almost as easy as sending money to someone through UPI. This means opening a mobile app, submitting a request and the money will be transferred directly to your bank account. This change can prove to be a big relief for PF account holders. Let us know which UPI apps can be used to withdraw money.
When will this facility start?
EPFO is preparing to launch UPI-based PF withdrawal system in the next two to three months. A technical framework is being developed in collaboration with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). In this new process, PF account holders will be able to submit withdrawal requests through the UPI app. After this the EPFO system will verify the details in the backend. As soon as the information related to Aadhaar, bank account and PF account is found correct, the process will proceed. Officials believe that this system will significantly reduce the time taken in claim processing and tracking will also be easy for the user.
Money will be credited directly to bank account
Currently, even if an online advance claim of less than Rs 5 lakh is submitted, it takes at least three working days to be processed in the automatic mode. For larger amounts, manual processing takes even more time. The new UPI system will almost eliminate this waiting time. As soon as a member submits a claim under a valid category like illness, medical treatment, children’s education or marriage, the EPFO system will immediately verify it. If everything is correct, the amount will be transferred directly to the bank account linked to UPI through State Bank of India. This means that the money can come into the account immediately after the claim is approved.
Which apps can be used to withdraw money?
Now many people are wondering which UPI apps can be used for PF withdrawal. So, let us tell you that initially the PF withdrawal facility will be available only on BHIM app. According to officials, permission to withdraw the entire amount will not be given in the first stage. A limit will be set for this, the final decision on which is yet to be taken. This limit will be decided keeping in mind the UPI rules of the Reserve Bank of India.
The aim is to ensure that the system remains secure and there is no misuse. If everything goes well in the initial phase, then this facility can later be launched on other big UPI platforms like Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay. This means that in future, withdrawing PF can be as easy as daily digital payments.
