Important Compliance Update : Auto Transfer of PF only happens when certain conditions are fulfilled

Auto transfer of provident fund while changing jobs will be initiated only after the first payment of the new employment is received against the UAN flagged for such transfer.

In a circular to all its regional offices, the retirement fund body said according to the revised procedures, any EPFO member seeking auto transfer of his/her PF account needs to submit details, such as “date of joining, date of exit and reason for exit” from the previous employment.

Also, it is necessary that the UAN (universal account number) of the member is activated, Aadhaar seeded and verified by the previous employer, and the mobile number is also available.

Only members satisfying these conditions and whose UAN and Aadhaar numbers is “entered and matched by the present employer against the existing details as available against the UAN would be marked for auto transfer,” said the circular issued on November 15′ 2017.

The EPFO said the “necessary functionality” required to carry auto transfer of PF accounts had been launched in the unified portal, and once the transfer is initiated, an SMS or e-mail would be sent to the member concerned.

In case a member wants to stop auto transfer, it has to be done within 10 days of receiving the SMS, it said, adding that this can be done either online, through the present employer, or by approaching the nearest EPFO office.

The EPFO, however, asked its regional offices to exercise “due diligence” in processing such “stop requests”.