Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Monday, September 25, 2017
100%
AADHAAR LINKING OF GPF, PPF & EPF BY DEC, 2017 AND USING AADHAAR FOR
PORTABILITY: DECISION OF CABINET SECRETARIAT MEETING
No.
D-11011/36/2016- DBT (Cab.)
Govt.
of India
Cabinet
Secretariat
DBT
Mission
Subject: Aadhaar linking and interoperability of General Provident Fund (GPF), Public Provident Fund (PPF) and Employees’ Provident Fund (EFF) accounts regarding.
A
meeting was held under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary, DBT Mission, Cabinet
Secretariat on 25th August, 2017 at 11:00 A.M in the Conference Hall, 4th floor,
Shjvaji Stadium Annexe Building, Rajiv Chowk, New Delhi on the subject mentioned
above. The list of participants isplaced at Annexure I.
2. Joint
Secretary, DBT Mission welcomed
the participants and stated that the objective of the meeting is to deliberate
on Aadhaar linking of GPF, PPF and EPF accounts of employees, examine the
possibility of a centralised repository of employees" fund details with Aadhaar
as the primary identifier and establishing portability of fund accounts across
organisations. He requested all stakeholders to share comments and suggestions
in this regard.
3. Deputy
CGA, Govt. Banking Arrangements,
D/o Expenditure informed that an on-line salary application system, Employee
Information System (EIS) is being developed within PF MS for implementation in
all Drawing and Disbursing Offices (DDOS) and Pay Accounts Offices (PAOS) of
Central Ministries. EIS is envisaged to be a central repository of details of
all salaried employees, and it can also maintain details of GPF of
government employees. He fiirther stated that at present, Aadhaar number is not
a mandatory field in employee information records, due to which Aadhaar seeding
may be low. it was discussed that if the employee data on E13 are linked with
Aad’naar, it may serve the purpose of establishing interoperability of salary
and GPF accounts across DDOs. It was highlighted that Railways and Defence
departments are not covered under £18. An example of e-Samarth was cited, which
is a centralised database of CRPP (Central Reserve Police Force) in MHA, which
may be studied for this purpose. Dy CGA also mentioned that M/o Railways
and Defence may also be consulted in this context.
4. Senior
Audit Officer, Office of Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) of
India,
Delhi stated
that at present, State AG (Auditor General) offices assign new GPF numbers
to employees while moving across different FAQs and there is no centralized
mapping system with Aadhaar as the primary identifier. JS. DBT Mission requested
that the matter may be taken up with the Office of C&AG, with the concerned
Dy C&AG to examine the possibility of mapping all State GPF subscribers
across the country. It was suggested that the role of a third party such as NSDL
to create and maintain this database may also be
examined.
5. Assistant
Director, D/o Posts stated
that that presently, around 25 lakh PPF accounts out of 27.2 lakh accounts are
on Core Banking Solution (CBS) network and these accounts are portable across
Post Offices. It was informed that every PPF account is associated with a PPF
number and a Customer Identification Form (CIF) number, which is a unique number
that holds all personal as well as account related information of the customer.
ideally, a customer can have one CIF number in one post office. though the
customer can have multiple accounts under these numbers. It was further informed
that Aadhaar linking with individual accounts and CIF numbers is being
undertaken and 4.7 crore ClFs out of total 56 crore CIFs (which also include
savings certificates, term deposit accounts, etc) have been seeded with
Aadhaar. JS, DBT pointed out that Aadhaar seeding is very low in this
case, and the Department may undertake necessary actions to expedite the same to
achieve 100% seeding by December 31, 2017. It was further suggested that all PPF
accounts and CIF numbers may be linked with Aadhaar and the Department may share
its suggestions on establishing a common repository of all PPF accounts using
Aadhaar as the identifier.
6. Deputy Director, M/o Labour & Employment stated the Universal Account Number (UAN) provides portability for the employees covered under EPF. It was informed that 14 crore out of 4 crore active subscribers’ records have been seeded with Aadhaar. It was discussed that this will enable portability of EPF accounts when the details of Bank Account, Aadhaar and PAN are seeded in UAN database of the employees and are verified by employer on change of job. It was suggested that Aadhaar seeding of all may be taken up priority.
7. Deputy
Secretary, Budget, D/o Economic Affairs stated
that a host of small saving schemes including PPF are Operated by post offices,
public sector banks and select private secror banks and Aadhaar seeding is being
undertaken in all these accounts. JS, DBT Mission enquired if the. Department is
taking any initiative to have a centralised platform for all savings schemes,
given that all banks use different systems and Operate in silos. It
was discussed that the Department may examine the matter and share updates in
this regard.
8. After detailed deliberations, the following were agreed upon.
i.
All stakeholder Departments to ensure 100% Aadhaar seeding of GPF, PPF and EPF
accounts by December 31, 2017.
ii.
All Departments to examine the possibility of developing common platforms for
their respective service subscribers/employees/account holders using Aadhaar as
the unique identifier to ensure portability across the financial
system.
iii. DBT Mission to hold a review meeting with senior officers of all stakeholder Departments in the second week of September. 2017 to discuss the issue further.
