"As on February 29, 2016, out of 6.38 crore UANs allotted, 2.42 crore have been activated by individual members. However, of these activated UANs, in absence of either Aadhaar or permanent account number (PAN), only 1.09 crore members are eligible for portability," Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
Portability is an inherent feature of the UAN programme. UAN provides automatic portability of PF account on change of employment if the employee has activated his UAN by seeding his know your customer (KYC) details through the employer.
The minister also said that as per annual accounts of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) for 2014-15, Rs 35,531.39 crore have been classified as inoperative accounts as on March 31, 2015.
As per the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 1952, an account is classified as inoperative one in which contributions have not been received for 36 months continuously. All such accounts have, however, definite claimants.
The minister also informed the House that in the Union Budget 2015-16, the government proposed the creation of a Senior Citizen Welfare Fund by, inter alia, appropriation of unclaimed deposits of approximately Rs 6,000 crore in the EPF corpus to be used to subsidise the premiums of vulnerable groups such as old age pensioners, below poverty line (BPL) cardholders, small and marginal farmers and others.