Seventy-seven lakh Employees’ Pension Scheme subscribers can withdraw their pensions from any bank and their branches across the country from next month.
The Central Board of Trustees of EPFO have already carried out two pilot projects to ensure that the centralised pension payment systems (CPPS) was functioning smoothly, the Union Ministry of Labour said on Saturday in a wrap up of its performance in 2024.
This was possible as criteria for empanelment of banks for centralised collection of EPF contributions have been simplified. It will now include all agency banks listed with RBI. Additionally, CBT approved the empanelment of other Scheduled Commercial Banks that are not RBI Agency Banks but have a minimum of 0.2 percent of total EPFO collection, a relaxation from the earlier .5 percent slab, the Ministry said in yearender 2024 statement.
The EPFO credited 8.2 percent interest for 2023-24 to EPF subscriber accounts.
Other steps initiated to make to ease for pensions include the fact that the CBT approved a significant amendment to paragraph 60(2)(b) of the EPF Scheme, 1952 allowing for interest payment up to the date of settlement as against existing provision of paying interest up to the end of the preceding month, the Ministry of Labour pointed out.
The Ministry said it has increased withdrawal limit to help people use their money for housing, education and marriage and also illness. EPFO enhanced the limit for Auto claim settlement of partial withdrawals increased from ₹50,000 to ₹ 1,00,000.
GiG & Platform Workers
The Ministry, at the same time, is also working towards development of a framework for social security coverage to the unregulated gig and Platform workers as this sector’s is expected to grow up to have more than 23 million workforce by 2029-30.
A committee has been constituted and is likely to give its report sometime early next year on social security framework and welfare benefits to gig and platform workers.
Parallelly, a collaborative study, stated the Ministry, is being undertaken with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to comprehensively assess various factors related to platform workers.
These include the number of platform workers, prevalent business models, potential schemes, financial implications (such as aggregator turnover and contributions), and a roadmap for implementing a social security scheme for platform workers.
On the Ministry’s achievements of the 2024, it said registrations on e-shram, one stop solution to access various social schemes, crossed 30 crores this year showcasing its rapid and widespread adoption among the unorganised workers.
From January 1, 2024 to December 15, 2024, 1,89,33,219 vacancies were showcased on the National Career Service (NCS) portal, which offers job opportunities in government and private sector, taking the total vacancies mobilised since inception to 3.89 crores. This year active vacancies count crossed a peak of 20 lakhs on a given day, with an average of 15 lakhs job opportunities available on NCS portal at any given time, the Ministry stated.
A total of 11,451 overseas vacancies were posted by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Registered Agents on the NCS portal.
On the implementation of four labour codes, it said that all 36 States/UTs are expected to complete harmonization and pre-publication of draft rules by March 31, 2025.
