The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) plans to hasten the PF claims settlement process. It has set a target of seven to 10 days. At present, the process takes at least a month. EPFO's new central provident fund commissioner Samirendra Chatterjee said the organisation is expected to settle claims within a week from March 2011, once its concludes its computerisation exercise. "We are trying to change EPFO's old image that we are insensitive to employees' demands," Mr Chatterjee said on Wednesday at an Indian Chamber of Commerce meeting. The EPFO, which has a corpus of Rs 3 lakh crore, plans to introduce electronic funds transfer for quick settlement. It has already made arrangements with BSNL for SMS alerts to customers withdrawing PF. However, a huge number of dormant accounts has been an inhibiting factor for the organisation to improve efficiency. "We have an estimated 2 crore inoperative accounts, which makes things complicated," the commissioner said. He now plans to introduce a group insurance scheme for workers, replacing the existing employees' deposit-linked insurance (EDLI) scheme and annuity scheme in pension.
