The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has declared a special recovery drive scheduled to take place from December 2023 to February 2024. This initiative aims to address the increasing trend of slow recovery of arrears of provident fund and allied dues from defaulting subscribers.
The recovery drive, as announced by PIB Chennai on November 10, intends to collect outstanding dues from defaulting establishments. The EPFO is urging all employers of such establishments to clear pending dues to avoid potential consequences, including the attachment of movable or immovable properties, bank account seizure, appointment of a receiver, and the possibility of employer arrest and detention.
In a statement, the EPFO emphasized the importance of prompt dues recovery. The organization, managing a corpus exceeding Rs 12 lakh crore and catering to over 60 million subscribers, offers provident funds, pension, and insurance benefits through its three schemes.
According to reports, the EPFO has acknowledged challenges in meeting set targets for recovering both current and arrear dues. To overcome this, the organization has implemented a special recovery drive during December 2023, January, and February 2024 for exempted and unexempted establishments.
The EPFO clarified that these recovery actions are not intended to harass employers or defaulters but are necessary to achieve the objective of prompt dues recovery. The EPFO has also issued directives to its zonal offices to submit weekly consolidated recovery reports, monitoring the performance of regional offices during the special recovery drive.
As of August, the EPFO recorded a net member addition of 16.99 lakh, highlighting the substantial scale of its operations and the importance of addressing recovery challenges to maintain the organization’s financial health.
The special recovery drive underscores the EPFO’s commitment to ensuring the financial well-being of its subscribers and maintaining the integrity of its funds, reflecting the organization’s proactive approach in addressing evolving financial challenges.
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