Online settlement of PF claims and getting other related information through the net may not happen until March next year as the National Informatics Centre has sought time till then to computerise the operations of the EPFO.
The trustees of EPFO in a meeting on December 5 pulled up the NIC authorities, who claim to have computerised five of the 119 EPFO offices, but to date not a single claim has been settled online.
The first phase of computerisation of the EPFO offices were to be completed within a year of the EPFO’s apex body — Central Board of Trustees’ (CBT) — approval of the project in April last year. However, NIC has now sought time till March 2010 after having missed the April deadline.
The Informatics Centre has now assured the EPFO that by March next year phase I would be completed, which would enable settlement of PF claims in 7-10 days and also allow subscribers to view information on their PF accounts online.
EPFO trustees, including Secretary Hind Mazoor Sabha A D Nagpal and Secretary All India Trade Union Congress D L Sachdev also expressed concern over the increase in project cost during the first phase from Rs 15 crore to Rs 96 crore.
However, later the trustees allocated Rs 96 crore for the project, sources close to development said.