Dear Sir/Madam,

The 28 crore subscribers of the EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) are among India’s most hardworking citizens who have opted for this scheme to save for the future, especially for rainy days ahead. Considering this, we the undersigned, implore you to look into the gross irregularities and malpractices of the EPFO organization and the overseeing central government departments that have either delayed payment of dues, made only partial payments or have withheld dues altogether of crores of employees in India, amounting to possibly lakhs of crores of Rupees, under the garb of technical issues or on other dubious grounds. 

With the advent of digitization of the system, EPFO subscribers were anticipating speedy and seamless processing of dues, swifter payment of interest and much more. To their chagrin, things have got much worse. Many subscribers have not received interest due to them for the past 2 financial years. Some have not received interest for a year. Plenty of complaints were sent that the amount received was incorrect. The subscribers are struggling with withdrawals too, as the computerization seems to be hampering the process rather than augmenting it. 

The system is so complicated that withdrawal of dues is often on hold for an eternity as there are lot of errors committed by the employees, the employers (organization) or someone in the EPFO hierarchy. There are also countless instances where the processing does not happen if one of the 3 main stakeholders fails to enter some mandatory data. This is mostly due to the fact that the system is made to harass the subscribers and they have to often run from pillar to post. And, if they had left their previous job in bad terms with their employer, then God help them if they need their help to process data. There is a Grievance cell, but it takes its own time to process complaints and that too at an individual level (if at all they are resolved). A simple example of this harassment is the mandatory entry of providing NCP days by the employees for processing his dues. Now NCP stands for Non Contributory Pay Days and this data is with the employers and the EPFO, so why are dues being withheld from subscribers if they do not possess this information?

Over the past decade, the PF body and the government have made things extremely tough for subscribers, having forced a huge number of subscribers into the scheme through a circular in 2014. Then, they prevented subscribers full access to their own funds, except on retirement or after 12 months of unemployment for PF and after 3 years of unemployment for EPF pension contributors! Subsequently, they have kept on changing the rules, mostly against the interests of the employees. The PF interest rate has been dropping down to abysmal levels, while the PF funds are being used to shore up funds of government-friendly entities in the market.

Enough is enough. It’s time to support the crores of victims of these Provident Fund irregularities and malpractices. The total amount withheld could easily amount to lakhs of crores of Rupees. It is quite surprising that the CAG has not yet highlighted these facts that affect such a huge percentage of our population.

We hereby request the relevant authorities to ensure the following:

• Interest is paid fully for all the Financial Years to each and every PF subscriber.
• Every EPFO member has full access to his entire PF fund at all times and need not wait for retirement.
• A Proper Audit is conducted of the entire EPFO system as well as their investment to eradicate irregularities and malpractices specified in this petition.
• All EPFO portals, especially the membership passbook, must be available to members 24x7 even on Sundays & Public Holidays.
• The newly introduced tax on PF of higher deposit amounts must be rolled back immediately as it's highly unfair to start taxing a hitherto tax-free scheme that has been operational for the past 72 years.
• The procedure for receiving dues and resolving issues should be streamlined, simplified and made convenient for employees, employers and the EPFO officials processing the same.

Please sign this petition and safeguard the financial interests of crores of EPFO subscribers.