The Employment Provident Fund Office may introduce social security number (SSN), a unique 14-digit identity number for all provident fund subscribers, in West Bengal within this year, said M Narayanappa, regional provident fund commissioner-I, West Bengal on Monday at an interactive session.
"We are in the process of collecting data and are already conducting trial runs at our Howrah office. We are optimistic that SSN would be provided to all the subscribers as soon as the business process re-engineering plan is completed," said Narayanappa.
"We would soon issue an identity card with a photograph of the applicant for the purpose", he added.
The number would be useful in avoiding confusions arising out of different date of births in different documents ( Form 2 and Form 9) of the PF account, he added.
The number will also be useful in cases of transfers, as the PF account will be directly transferred to the new organisation , even without a formal application, he added.
This year the EPFO recovered Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) in West Bengal from the companies who have defaulted on paying PF dues to their employees.
However, still Rs 240 crore (Rs 2.4 billion) was still locked in non-contributory account, in both exempt and non-exempt account, he said.
While much of the amount recovered this year was due to compliance by the National Jute Mill Corporation, the jute industry was still a major defaulter of PF dues, he added.
The commission would take steps like attaching the bank account and property of the defaulters to recover the dues, he said.
Some companies had acquired stay orders or provisions of payment by installment by the court, but the commission would move the court to nullify the order, said Narayanappa.
Speaking on the occasion, Santosh Saraf, president , the Merchant Chamber of Commerce said the government should levy 10 per cent tax on early withdrawal of PF funds in order to encourage savings.
