EPFO to deactivate, block one of Universal Account Numbers to avoid duplication

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to deactivate all Universal Account Numbers  (UANs) from which provident fund transfer has been effected to another PF account having different UAN. The earlier UAN would be simultaneously blocked for further use. The move will eliminate the problem of duplicate UAN.

In a communication to all its offices on Wednesday, Jag Mohan, Additional Central Provident Fund Commissioner, EPFO, has said that the process would be implemented in respect of all identified UANs even when no request has been received from the member.
It has said that the member would be informed of the deactivated status of his previous UAN by SMS to the registered mobile number. The member would be requested to activate the new UAN to get the updated status of his EPF account.

The EPFO has said that though UAN have been allotted legitimately i.e. under the prescribed criteria, there have been cases where duplicate UANs have been issued. This could be due to the fact that at the time of initial allotment, the employer has not furnished the date of exit in the ECR (electronic challan cum return) even if the member has left the employment and joined some other establishment. Thus, two UANs have resulted to such members for both the employments. Secondly, at the time of joining the present employment, a new UAN has been allotted to the member due to wrong declaration by member/employer under the UAN programme.

EPFO has asked it offices to identify such cases on periodic basis where the PF transfer has been effected from one EPF account to another, both having different UANs attached to these EPF accounts.

However, it has said that there is a possibility of arrear payment by the previous employer for the member. In such cases, since the system knows the new UAN against deactivated UAN, the system would automatically populate the new UAN in the ECR (on punching of previous UAN or member ID by the employer) and the statutory contribution by the employer against the arrears can be remitted against new UAN only.

Source : http://www.financialexpress.com/personal-finance/epfo-to-deactivate-block-one-of-universal-account-numbers-to-avoid-duplication/384934/