Retirement fund body, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), introduced a new window for its subscribers to submit their claim forms directly to the body without attestation of employers. The new Composite Claim Forms (CCF) do not require employers' attestation, but only for those subscribers whose Aadhaar number and bank account details have been seeded with their Universal Account Number (UAN).
"Subscribers, who seed Aadhaar and bank account details to their UAN have the facility to submit claim forms directly to EPFO without the attestation of employers by preferring claims in Forms 19 (UAN), 10C (UAN) and 31(UAN)," the retirement fund body said in a statement dated February 20, 2017.
"To add further convenience, these forms now have been further simplified and replaced with a single page CCF (Aadhar). This new CCF (Aadhar), can be submitted without the attestation of employers," it added.
"For subscribers who are yet to seed Aadhaar and bank details with their UAN, the new CCF (non-Aadhar) replaces the existing Forms 19, 10C and 31 for filing claims. The new single-page CCF (non-Aadhar), can be submitted with the attestation of employers," the statement said.
The CCF (Aadhar)/ CCF (non-Aadhar) now comes with self-certification and it will replace various certificates prescribed currently.
The "New Declaration Form" required to be appended with Form 31 for housing loan/purchase of site/house/flat or for construction/addition, alteration in existing house/repayment of housing loan is also discontinued. Also, the requirement of "Utilisation Certificate" has also been dispensed with. No document would be required to be submitted by the subscriber in respect of these partial withdrawals.
Similarly, no document is required in case of closure of factories, marriage advance (including marriage card), for availing advance for post-matriculation education of children and property damage.
"Submission of Composite Claim Form (Aadhar) / (Composite Claim form (non-Aadhar) duly signed by the EPF subscriber shall be construed as 'self-certification' for the above said partial withdrawals, for which no document would be required to be submitted to the EPFO offices," the statement added.