Now Aadhar not mandatory to EPF members: EPFO withdrawn previous decision

“In view of the discussions held with UIDAI officials and the time required in the process of obtaining Aadhaar numbers, it may not be possible to obtain Aadhaar number/ Aadhaar Enrolment number by EPF members by 1st March, 2013. Therefore, it has been decided to not to make Aadhaar Number/Enrolment number mandatory for EPF members from 1st March, 2013. However, the field offices would make maximum efforts to obtain the available Aadhaar numbers of the EPF members.”

EPFO Order in this regard reproduced here:-

Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation 

Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. Of India 

Bhavishya Nidhi Bhawan, 14-Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi-110066

date: 06.02.2013

This is in reference to Head Office letter No. RI/UID/2010/30051 dated 21.01.2013 on the subject cited above.

The issue of expeditious enrolment of the EPF members was discussed with UIDAI Officials. It has emerged that UIDAI through its registrars has been organising enrolment camps in 18 states only. Register General of India (RGI) has been collecting data in respect of the remaining states through National Population Register (NPR). While the data collected by RGI is also being processed for issue of Aadhaar numbers by UIDAI, the methodology used by RG1 for setting up enrolment camps is different i.e. it is being done on the basis of house-to-house data collected by enumerators during Census Operations 2011, unlike UIDAI camps, where any resident, irrespective of the place of residence, can get himself enrolled for Aadhaar number. Thus enrolment may take considerable time.

In view of the discussions held with UIDAI officials and the time required in the process of obtaining Aadhaar numbers, it may not be possible to obtain Aadhaar number/ Aadhaar Enrolment number by EPF members by 1st March, 2013. Therefore, it has been decided to not to make Aadhaar Number/Enrolment number mandatory for EPF members from 1st March, 2013. However, the field offices would make maximum efforts to obtain the available Aadhaar numbers of the EPF members.

Further your attention is invited to Head Office letter no. MIS-11/1S0- 9001/2011-12/24686 dated 9th November 2012 on implementation of ISO 9001 Certification for the field offices which is a mandatory success indicator under the Results Framework Document (RFD). The updation of merribers’ master in database is one of the standards required for the purpose. In view of the benefits that would accrue both to the EPF members as Well as EPFO, it has now been decided to collect the core banking account number of all the contributing members as indicated in ECR.

The Regional offices and Sub-Regional offices should make an all-out effort to collect the core banking account numbers in respect of all the contributing members as indicated in ECR. Compliance of instructions may kindly be ensured in this regard.

Yours faithfully,

sd/-

(Anil Swarup) 

Central Provident Fund Commissioner

Source: http://www.epfindia.com/Circulars/Y2012-13/RI_UID_37496.pdf