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9,000 TCS Employees Made EPF Withdrawals Due To Covid Pandemic
NEW DELHI : Over 9,000 employees of IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) withdrew more than ₹43 crore from their employees’ provident fund (EPF) account due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a list of company-wise highest EPF withdrawals after coronavirus lockdown, TCS employees ranked second.
The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has released a list of top 10 exempted establishments which made the most withdrawals amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
The list also includes HCL Technologies where almost 7,000 employees withdrew ₹27 crore from their EPF accounts. NLC employees topped the list with ₹84.4 crore withdrawals, followed by TCS ( ₹43.3 crore). Others in the list are Visakhapatnam Steel Plant ( ₹40.1 crore), NTPC ( ₹28.7 crore), Power Grid Corporation of India ( ₹26.2 crore), and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ( ₹24.2 crore).
EPFO said it has processed about 1.37 lakh claims across India disbursing an amount of ₹279.65 crore under a new provision especially formulated by amending the EPF Scheme to help subscribers fight Covid-19.
EPFO has promised to settle all such Covid related claims in less than 72 hours if the applicant’s EPF account is fully KYC compliant.
Under this rule, EPF subscribers can take a non-refundable withdrawal to the extent of the basic salary and dearness allowances for three months or up to 75% of the amount standing to member’s credit in the EPF account, whichever is less.
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a serious threat and considering dire need of money in these trying times, it has been decided to process advance to fight COVID-19 pandemic on top priority.
“Claims for availing advance to fight pandemic are filed online, necessitating every EPF account to be KYC complaint as pre-cursor,” the provident fund body said.
“EPFO has relaxed date of birth correction criteria to ease KYC compliance enabling submission of claim to fight pandemic online. EPFO would accept the date of birth recorded in the Aadhaar card of a subscriber as a valid proof for rectification of the date of birth in PF records. All cases with variation in date of birth up to three years are now being accepted by EPFO,” it said.-Livemint
