The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) provides an online facility for submission of payroll data by employers for higher wage pensions. The EPFO has extended the date for submitting payroll data to January 31, 2025.
“A last chance is being given to the employers till January 31, 2025 to ensure that employers process and upload these pending applications for validation of option/joint options,” EPFO said in a statement.
In addition, the EPFO has also asked employers to provide the clarification requested by EPFO before January 15, 2025 to process the higher pension claims.
The EPFO has sought additional information or clarification on 4.66 lakh cases among the applications received.
Higher pension provision
In 2022, a Supreme Court ruling allowed existing members of the Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) to contribute almost 8.33 percent of their salaries as pensions from September 1, 2014.
Following the SC order, an online facility was launched on February 26, 2023 to apply for validation of options or joint options till May 3, 2023. This deadline was later extended to June 26, 2023, to allow eligible retirees to complete the application. applications. This date was further extended to July 11, 2023. Around 17.49 lakh applications were received till July 2023.
The date on which employers must provide wage data has been extended following requests from employers and employer organizations to extend the period for uploading wage data of applicant pensioners/participants.
Following this request, the deadline for submitting payroll data was September 30, 2023. This was later extended to December 31, 2023 and later to May 31, 2024, so that employers could process the applications.
Despite these extensions, the EPFO has stated that more than 3.1 lakh applications are still pending with the employers. Therefore, the EPFO has extended the date for submission of wage data by employers to January 31, 2025.
