Any person who joins a company with more than 40 employees has to become a member of the EPF (Employee Provident Fund) of India. This is a Government Pension Fund . The most astonishing thing about this is the total lack of transparency in this account, which you hold for life, and pays your family after death.
You get to know that you hold a EPF account because your pay slip will have a alphanumeric number as your EPF account number.
That is the only piece of data i have after all these years. I have tried to close my account and withdraw my balance since i have some financial difficulties. You cannot approach the EPF office directly. You are supposed to request your last company to close it for you.
They supposedly apply to EPF asking that this persons account be closed. You dont get any copy - you are simply not in the loop.
My request for the closure has not been met, and i do not have any reference to pursue my case in the EPF office !
If as a lower middle class Indian there is one thing that represents the lack of transparency in the Government, it is surely the EPF office. The black box of India.
