EPF Act-amendments mooted for efficient service to employers, members

The Labour Department and the Employee Provident Fund ( EPF) of the Central Bank have jointly proposed certain legal amendments to the EPF Act to provide an efficient service to employers as well as to its members.

According to a spokesman for the EPF they are now giving special attention to obtaining member contribution details electronically to reduce administrative expenditure and provide an efficient service to the members. With this initiative information will be collected electronically from large employers monthly instead of once in six months as is the practice at present.

In addition the EPF has also commenced a program to re-register the currently contributing members by allocating a unique identification number to each member.

This will enable the EPF to provide a better service to its members in the future.

The EPF has also taken measures to send member refunds through SLIPS while a website is there for the convenience of the members. Under slips member payments are credited to their bank accounts directly, instead of drawing cheques and posting them to members' addresses. Therefore, the staff requirement for the manual writing of cheques and their subsequent posting can be reduced, saving the time involved in handling these activities.