Ministry directive on new EPF system

by Ananda Kannangara

The Labour Ministry last week directed employers countrywide- private sector and semi-government institutions to use the National Identity Card numbers (NICs) as the register number of the Employment Provident Funds (EPF) of their employees, in future.

The decision of replacing the EPF number with the NIC number was taken following complaints received by the Labour Department that illegitimate parties in the past had submitted fraudulent numbers to obtain payments.

According to the program, about 2.1 million members of the EPF at present will benefit under the new scheme, since all accounts functioning at the EPF division at Narahenpita will be amalgamated to the newly created number accounts.

Labour Minister Athauda Seneviratne told a media briefing in Colombo that using NIC numbers instead of the currently used numbers in the EPF claims, would help the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the EPF division to identify the authenticity of persons when payments are submitted for claims.