To ensure speedy settlement of Provident Fund and pension claims, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation will issue National Social Security Number within a year.
The National Social Security Number will be issued to the 4 crore (40 million) members covered by the scheme on the lines of the Permanent Account Number (PAN) given by the income tax department.
The NSSN would enable an EPF member to carry on with the same account number even if the person changes his job or moves from place to place within the country, V G Divakaran regional provident fund commissioner, Kerala, said.
Over 400,000 establishments covered by EPF scheme have been asked to provide the employee details in a prescribed form based on which NSSN cards would be prepared by EPFO's regional offices.
"This will reduce the accounting problems and enable workers to have the claim settled early," he said.
The preparation of the cards would be outsourced to competent agencies to avoid delay.
In Kerala, NSSN has collected details of 160,000 subscribers out of a total of 12,77,042 accounts. The total arrears of payment from employers in the state stood at about Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion). The defaulting employers included state public sector units.
Sector-wise, the biggest chunk of arrears was due from the crisis-ridden plantation sector which stood at Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million). About 45 per cent of the amount was pending due to litigations.