 "EPFO")
The Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has extended the timeframe to apply for the higher pension to June 26, considering the various demands received from employees, employers, and their associations.
The subscribers of the social security organisation will be able to exercise the option via the online facility, which has been created to avail the benefits of the apex court ruling on November 4 last year.
Till now, more than 1,200,000 applications have been received for availing of the higher pension option.
Earlier, the online facility was to remain available only till May 3, after EPFO had earlier extended the timeline in late March, after receiving multiple requests from employee organisations.
"In the meantime, many representations have been received from various quarters seeking an extension of time. The issue has been considered and it has been decided that in order to provide a larger window of opportunity and in order to enable all eligible persons to file their applications, the timeline for filing applications would now be till 26th June," labour ministry said in a statement.
The timeline has been extended to facilitate and provide ample opportunity to the pensioners/members so as to ease out any difficulty being faced by them, EPFO added.
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Earlier, in a letter to Union labour and employment minister Bhupender Yadav, 10 central trade unions sought a six-month extension in the deadline.
“The requirement of applying online is discriminatory and prevents a large section of employees who are not familiar with online procedures from exercising their option,” they said in the letter.
