EPFO's interest pay dues over Rs 9,700 cr at March-end 2016

New Delhi: Retirement body EPFO had over Rs 9,700 crore to be paid as interest to subscribers by March 2016, the government said in Parliament on Monday.

As per the consolidated annual accounts of the EPFO, till March 31, 2016, Rs 9,737.46 crore are available to be credited to the subscribers' account, Minister of State (independent charge) for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya said in the Lok Sabha today.

He was responding to a question on undistributed interest lying in the EPFO account. The closing balance in interest account of the EPFO was Rs 45,135.25 crore as on March 31, 2016.

Dattatreya said the ministry is taking several steps for speedy settlement of claims and a campaign is on till the end of this month to bring in more workers under the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

Under the campaign that started in January this year, an employer either already covered or yet to be covered can enrol employees who remained un-enrolled for any reason between April 2009 to December 2016.

EPFO had 17.14 crore subscribers under the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) as on March 31 last year.

The labour minister said as many as 12.21 lakh accounts were pending for an update as on March 31, 2016.

He also informed the House that the claim settlement process has eased and settlements are done in 20 days.

Online transfer claim portal (OTCP) has been introduced for seamless transfer of claims, he said, adding that National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) has been set in motion for payments.