EPF revamp costs mountain of paper

What's in a name? For the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), it could mean wastage of about 10 million forms and 1 million cards which were distributed as part of the National Social Security Number (NSSN) drive. Not to mention the time and money spent on publicity done across the country over the last few years in the name of NSSN.

The EPFO, when it meets on Monday, would decide on the ministry of labour's directive for changing NSSN to the EPF Social Security Number (EPFSSN).

"The change in nomenclature is due to the inter-ministerial spat over whether the home or the labour ministry is the right authority for issuing a 'national' identification number," said senior officials.

The change would also require a modification in the software programmes at all levels. The drive to allot NSSN under the 'Re-investing EPF' project aims to provide a unique number for members so that their account can be operated smoothly, irrespective of geographical movement and change in organisation.

EPFO has till recently collected data for about 30 lakh individuals.

With the change in name, a new publicity drive would be undertaken to familiarise the public with EPFSSN.

EPFO till now had publicised the drive in the name of NSSN.

A roll out of the SSN initiative in 28 centres in addition to six centres approved for the pilot project is now in progress.

The process for implementing the SSN project would also be revised as setting up of camps at the employers premises is no longer considered necessary. This is because the camps were primarily set up to collect finger prints of members and this drive ran into trouble due to technological reasons and was dropped.

As the new procedure would drastically reduce cost the board is expected to negotiate with UTI Investor Services Limited for lower rates for cards. A decision on collection of finger prints would be taken later on.