Government decision to issue Universal Accounting Numbers to benefit 30 million workers: Ficci

NEW DELHI: Terming the government's decision to issue Universal Accounting Numbers to EPF account holders as a "landmark" step, industry body Ficci today said the move will benefit over 30 million contract workers and other short-term employees.

"These workers have been resisting coverage under the EPF Act for the fear of forfeiting their dues as withdrawal is not possible due to their frequent changes in job as well as migration from place to place".

"This is also true in the case of all the informal sector workers which account for 94 per cent of the total Indian labour force," said Y K Modi, Past President Ficci and Member ILO (International Labour Organisation) Governing body.

Unveiling the maiden budget proposals of the Narendra Modi-led government earlier this month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that for the convenience of the subscribers, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will launch the "Uniform Account Number" (UAN) Service for contributing members to facilitate portability of Provident Fund accounts.

EPFO has planned to launch the UAN for its over five crore subscribers by October this year.

UAN will help EPFO to provide services to the subscribers at par with core banking services. Thereby the subscribers would not have to apply for PF account transfer claim on changing jobs.