Reunite

What is PF?

"PF" stands for "Provident Fund", which is a mode of savings for the salaried employee for her / his retirement. The employee contributes 12 percent of her / his basic salary and the company contributes an equal amount.

What is my PF number?

Every employee who joins the company is allotted a PF number, so her / his contributions can be accumulated in that number. This number is unique to each employee and is generated when the first pay for the employee is processed. The number would be reflected in the pay slip generated.

The PF number would look as follows:

KN / BN / 34177 / 12345 and KN / BN 34177 are the identifying codes for the company and are common for all employees. The last 5 digits "12345" represent the individual employee’s code and this code is most important as this is the unique number for the employee and is different for each employee.

I already have a PF code from my previous employment. Can I use that same code?

Each code will have the employer identification (KN/ BN/ 34177 in case of Infosys BPM) and the contribution made from the company has to be remitted to that code only. Hence it is not possible to use the previous employer’s code for your contributions at Infosys BPM. Therefore you are allotted a fresh code and number at Infosys BPM. However you can transfer the contributions from your previous code to your Infosys code.

Who keeps the PF amount? Does the company manage the PF fund?

There are two types of PF funds – "exempted" and "unexempted". Generally all companies are unexempted companies, and they have to collect the PF amount and remit the same to the central government PF authorities. The government authorities maintain the PF account and provide interest every year at the rate declared by the ministry. However some companies apply to the government for exemption and once exemption is granted, they manage the PF on their own. Infosys figures among the few companies with exempted PF trusts. Infosys BPM, however, is an unexempted organization and has to remit the PF with the government PF authorities.

I do not want to contribute to PF. Can I get my salary without PF deduction?

As per the law, once a company has more than 20 employees it has to necessarily obtain a PF code from the government and deduct PF from every employee and also contribute equal amount to the fund. Hence there is no question of not wanting to contribute to the fund. It is compulsory as per law.

Can I contribute more than 12 percent?

Yes, an employee may choose to do so; however the employer is not expected to contribute more than 12 percent. You would have to give a letter to payroll to increase your contribution and it would be effective from the next month. The increased contribution should be as a % of your basic and not a lump sum amount. The additional contribution cannot be round sums like Rs. 500 or Rs. 1,000, but expressed as a percent to the basic.

For instance if your basic is Rs. 6,000 and you wish to contribute Rs. 500 per month extra. In this case you will have to specify the nearest round percent to Rs. 500. So you can either contribute 8 percent additionally (Rs. 480) or 9 percent (Rs. 540). However if your basic is Rs. 5000, you can contribute Rs. 500 as this amount coincidentally works out to exactly a round percent of the basic (i.e., 10 percent). This percent would continue on your revised basic at the time of increment.

Once I have given a request for additional contribution, will it be forever or can I stop it at a later point of time?

You can increase or reduce or stop the voluntary contribution anytime as per your requirements. The only condition is that once a request is given for addition or increase or decrease, it cannot be changed for a minimum period of 6 months. Thus if you want to stop voluntary contribution, you will have to wait for a minimum period of 6 months before giving a request for stoppage. A letter has to be forwarded to payroll for stoppage or change.

As payroll would not keep track of letters, any request given before the completion of 6 months would not be processed during that month and it will not be retained for the subsequent month’s processing. Hence one more letter would have to be given after the completion of 6 months for effecting the change.

How can I transfer my earlier PF balance to the current PF account?

For transferring the PF amount from the previous balance, you would have to submit an application for transfer in the relevant form. This form is referred to as Form 13 or transfer form.

Where can I get the Form 13 and where should I give my transfer form?

The transfer form can be collected at the PF help desk at the Bangalore Towers office, which is operational every Wednesday and Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM. Soft copy of this form is also available on the Panorama in the Facilities section. The transfer form has to be properly filled up and handed over to the PF help desk or to the local HR single point of contact (SPOC) for onward transmission to the PF help desk. The PF help desk would then process the form for transfer.

How does the transfer happen and how long does it take?

PF transfer involves four different agencies. Firstly after receiving the duly filled up form at the PF help desk, the form has to be attested by the authorized official of the company.

Next the attested form is sent to the previous company for verification and onward submission to their PF office. If the previous company is an unexempted trust, it has to send the application form along with a contribution statement called Form 3A to the government PF office. In case of an exempted company, it can process the transfer immediately. Some organizations send the Form 13 back to us along with their Form 3A for sending it directly to the PF office. In such cases, we again send the form directly.

Next the PF office receives the transfer form from the previous company or from us directly, They will send the form to the PF office, where the Infosys BPM PF account is maintained for verification of the authorized signatory. The Infosys BPM PF is maintained by the Bangalore Bomanahalli PF office located at Begur Road, off Hosur Road. The Bangalore Bomanahalli PF office will then verify the authorized signature on the PF form and then send the form back to the previous company’s PF office.

Once the PF office receives the confirmation from the Bangalore Bomanahalli PF office, it will process the transfer, calculate the interest till date and send it via check to the Bomanahalli PF office. The Bomanahalli PF office will then credit the amount to the individual account number mentioned in the transfer form.

The PF office does not provide details of the transfer till they give the annual statement once a year in which the transfer would be reflected. The PF office also does not encourage repeated enquires about the transfer and only in case of large amounts transferred it would be feasible to follow up with them. Once the form has been sent to the previous employer, the employee has to follow up with her/his previous company to expedite the onward submission to the PF office. Due to this long-drawn process involving multiple agencies, the transfer may take anywhere from 45 days to six months. If rigorous follow-up is done with the previous employer within a month of submission of the form, the transfer can be generally expected in 3 months’ time.

I was working earlier in a company where they were deducting PF. I do not want to transfer but withdraw it. Can I do it?

Generally the rule states that if a person is joining another organization within 60 days of leaving the previous organization, then she / he has to transfer her / his balance to the new organization. In such a case, the transfer process explained above is applicable. In case of withdrawal, the employee has to directly approach the previous employer for the withdrawal.

I want to withdraw my PF during my service. Can I do it?

PF is a social security measure by the government to help a salaried employee to have a big lump sum amount at the time of retirement when there will be no regular income. Hence they generally discourage withdrawal from the fund during the tenure of employment and have made withdrawal very stringent. A person can withdraw from her / his PF fund only for three reasons:

a) For marriage of self or children

b) For construction of a house or purchase of a house for the purpose of residence

c) For medical treatment of grave illness

Here the employee should have completed a certain number of years of service, which number is specified for each of the above reasons under the Employees PF Scheme.

The service includes the service in the previous company provided the previous amount has been transferred to the current PF account. For each type of withdrawal, there is a set of documents to be submitted, which is dealt with separately.

I am leaving Infosys BPM. What happens to my PF contribution?

As explained earlier, in case a person leaves to join another organization, she / he is supposed to transfer her / his PF. In such a case, the employee will submit a form 13 to her / his new employer and the same transfer process applies. In case a person is not in employment, then, after completion of 60 days, she / he can submit a withdrawal application form to Infosys BPM after filling it up. The withdrawal form consists of 3 sets of forms namely Form 19, Form 10C and Form E5. These have to be signed and submitted to the PF help desk at the Towers office on Wednesday or Saturday.

Employees who are not based in Bangalore can send the form to the following address:

PF Help Desk

Infosys BPM Limited.

No 27, SJR towers

Bannerghatta Main Road

Bangalore 560078, India

How soon can I get my PF once I leave Infosys BPM?

In the first place, the application for withdrawal has to be submitted only after 60 days of leaving the company. Once the withdrawal form is submitted,It will take about 10 working days to process the form, prepare the contribution statement and submit it to the government PF department. After this, the government authorities generally take 45 to 60 days to process the claim and settle the same, provided the claim is correct in all respects. However in recent days, the authorities have taken more than 120 days to settle some claims as they are overburdened and understaffed. The company cannot commit a settlement date on behalf of the government and it can only provide the tentative date of settlement based on the date on which the form was submitted to the PF department. It is the responsibility of the employee to follow up with the PF department for their settlement.

In Infosys Limited, one has to just send an email with relevant details and the withdrawal is processed within a month. Why is it different in Infosys BPM?

Infosys Limited is an exempted organization with its own PF trust. Hence it is internally managed. As all activities are within the control of the company, it is easier and faster to get the PF withdrawal amount. Infosys BPM is an unexempted organization and the withdrawal has to happen through the government PF office. The process is under the control of the company only till the submission of the form to the PF department. After this it is the PF department which finally settles the claim.

I have left the company long back. Is there any time limit to withdraw or transfer?

No. There is no time limit either for withdrawal or transfer. However settlement in older cases may be delayed a little as the PF authorities will have to double-check the form to ensure that it is a genuine withdrawal. Further in case of applications made after 3 years of leaving, an affidavit on a Rs.100 rupee stamp paper is required to be submitted along with the application of withdrawal.

How can I know what is the balance in my account?

The PF balance would mean the employer’s contribution and employee’s contribution along with interest thereon. The detailed account is maintained only at the PF department and they provide the balance in the account only once a year in the form of an annual statement in Form 23. It is possible to calculate the approximate balance by totaling the deductions in the monthly pay slip.

What is Pension Fund and how is it different from PF?

It was observed by the government authorities that a lot of persons were withdrawing their PF amounts during the service or at the time of changing employment by incorrectly stating they are not employed elsewhere and the whole purpose of a retirement benefit was being defeated. Hence they introduced the Employee's Pension Scheme, 1995, where it was not possible to withdraw the amount till retirement. The rules were framed such that out of the total contribution from the employer, a portion was diverted to pension fund. From the 12 percent contribution from the employer, 8.33 percent was allocated to Pension Fund and 3.67 percent was kept in PF. The Pension Fund cannot be withdrawn but it can be commuted. Commutation means only a smaller portion of the total contribution will be returned to the employee.

Why is there a difference between my contribution and the company contribution in Form 23?

As explained in the question above, a portion of the company contribution is diverted to Pension Fund. This is not reflected in the PF statement and hence there is a difference between the employee contribution and company contribution.

How will I get the PF settlement from the PF office? Will they send it by check to my residence?

The PF department will send the check directly to the bank specified in the application form. Hence it is essential to correctly fill up this address along with full Pin code. The PF amount and the Pension amount are sent by two separate checks generally within a gap of 2 – 3 days of each other.

What happens if the employee dies? Can the family member draw the amount?

Every employee submits a nomination form at the time of joining the company wherein she / he specifies whom the PF contribution is to be paid in case of her / his death. The person mentioned in the nomination form can apply for withdrawal of the PF amount on death of the employee. In case of unmarried employees, the nomination automatically gets cancelled on marriage and the spouse would automatically become the nominee. The employee has to submit a fresh nomination form in case she or he does not want the spouse to be the 100 percent nominee. The employee can also nominate more than one person to receive the PF amount and can specify the percentage share for each nominee. The forms to be used are Form 20, Form 10D and Form E5 in place of Form 19/10C/E5.

I have heard that there is something called NSSN that will replace PF. What is this?

The government has realized that the transfer process is taking a long time and there are a lot of shortcomings in the procedure. Hence they have launched an ambitious program to totally make PF online. One of the first requirements is that like Income tax PAN Number, each employee will have a unique number which is called the NSSN (National Social Security Number). Once an employee gets an NSSN number she / he will also get an NSSN card like the PAN card. Whichever company she / he goes to, her / his PF will get remitted to this number. Hence there is no need to transfer the PF. Plus there are other facilities like online balance enquiry. Currently the PF department has covered only a few companies under NSSN. Infosys BPM is still not covered under NSSN. Once Infosys BPM gets covered, which may happen in the coming years, then the entire transfer and withdrawal process will be totally simplified.

When an employee wishes to withdraw her / his PF amount the following procedure is to be followed:

• She / he has to wait for 60 days before she / he can submit the withdrawal form
• She / he will have to submit a set of forms namely 19, 10C and E5 (Mandate Form) along with a cancelled check leaf and a latest bank statement of her / his bank account

Detailed instruction as to how to fill up the forms relating to PF is given below:

Form 19

1. Name in full (Block Letters) - Full name as appearing in the pay slip should be filled in

2. Name of parent / spouse - Here only the father’s name should be entered. Even in case of married persons or in cases where the father is deceased, only the father’s name is to be filled up

3. Name and address of the factory / establishment in which the member was last employed:

Infosys BPM Limited.

Plot No 26/3, 26/4 and 26/6

Electronics City, Hosur Road

Bangalore 560 100, India

4. Code No. and Account No:

Here the PF number as reflected in the pay slip to be entered

The PF will be as follows KN/BN /34177 / XXXXX

The last five digits marked XXXXX above is the most important part as this indicates the individual’s unique number. The rest of the numbers (concerned with Authorizing Hand 1 Centralized Desk Authorizing Officer) are common for all employees of Infosys BPM.

5. Date of leaving service:

Here enter the relieving date

6. Reason for leaving service:

Here enter the reason as "resigned" or "personal" or "going abroad". Do not write any other reason like "better prospect" or getting married or any other reason. The form is liable to be rejected if a wrong reason is mentioned.

7. Full postal address (in Block Letters):

Here the current address should be given. The full postal address with Pin code should be given because any correspondence will be to this address only. Do not give your current employer’s office address because in case you are employed elsewhere you are not supposed to withdraw your PF but to transfer it and the PF office will insist you to transfer in case they notice another office address here.

8. Mode of remittance:

Place a check mark (tick mark) against the "By check" option

a. By postal money order at my cost if amount payable exceeds Rs. 500/- (if the amount is less than Rs. 500, money order commission will be borne by the PF Office): Leave this column blank

b. By account payee check sent direct for credit to my savings bank (SB) account (any Scheduled Bank / post office / cooperative bank) under intimation to me (Advanced stamped receipt furnished below):

Here fill up the name of the bank and full address of the branch in which you have your account. The full address with Pin code should be given because the settlement amount will be sent directly by the PF office to this bank address. Secondly the canceled check leaf should be of this account only.

Signature / left hand thumb impression of the member:

You should sign here.

Date of joining the establishment:

Here fill up the date of joining Infosys BPM

Date of birth / age:

Here fill up your date of birth

Date of leaving service:

Here fill up the date of leaving

Signature of employer / authorized official with rubber stamp:

Here Infosys BPM officials will sign. Do not sign here

Advanced stamped receipt

One more signature is required near the Rs. 1 stamp box. Revenue stamp is not required to be fixed but signature is a must. Form will be rejected if it is not signed here.

The rest of the form should be left blank. It will be filled up by the PF office itself.

The form should have full address of the employee and the bank including Pin code.

The form can be submitted at the PF help desk at the Bangalore Towers office every Wednesday or Saturday between 10 AM and 5 PM. Alternatively the ex-employee can walk in to the help desk with a canceled check leaf and get assistance in filling up the form at the help desk.

Once the form is received at the help desk, internal processing would take about 7 working days and the form would be submitted to the PF office referred above.

The PF office would generally take 75 to 90 days to clear the payment directly to the bank provided in the form.

After the form is submitted to the PF office, follow-up should be done directly with the PF office whose contact details are given above.

The Commissioner,

Employee’s Provident Fund

Regional Provident Fund Office

Bomanahalli Sub Accounts Office

CMC Building, 2nd Floor

Begur Road, Bangalore 560068, India

Phone: 080-25734590 / 25734492

Fax : 25733817

E-mail: saobmsbglr@rediffmail.com

• How is the full and final settlement amount calculated?

  Salary that is kept on hold will be considered as salary payable, leave encashment (Basic + DA + Basket of Allowance)*(No of days of leave balance)/22, less deductions as advised by the various departments like facilities, loan, and library.

• What are the components included while calculating full and final settlement amount?

  Salary payable, leave encashment, loan dues not settled, library deduction, transport deduction, ID card deduction, etc.

• Will gratuity be part of full and final settlement amount? How is the breakup of gratuity sent to the employees?

  Gratuity is not part of final settlement; it is paid separately within 30 days from the last working day of the employee. Employees will get the soft copy of the gratuity computation for the amount settled to the account.

• If notice period is not served, what are the salary recovery components?

  (Basic + DA + Basket of Allowance) * (No of days not served)/22

• Suppose there are bills or claims submitted while on notice period,how are these going to be settled?

  Bills or claims that are not settled during notice period will be settled along with the full and final settlement amount.

• What is the amount deducted if assets like access card and mobile phone are not surrendered?

  Amount will be advised by the respective team in E-Separation tool. For example,if access card is not submitted, the recovery amount will be Rs.500*. If transport / bus pass is not surrendered, the recovery amount will be Rs.500*. (*This amount is applicable for employees at the India location and is subject to change.)

• How long will it take to settle the employee dues?

  After the clearances from the concerned departments, employee will receive the full and final settlement amount as per the below timeline:

  • If the last working day (LWD) is between the 1st and 15th of the current month, final settlement will be processed and paid by 10th of the following month.
  • If the LWD is between the 16th and 30th of the current month, final settlement will be processed and paid by 25th of the following month.

  Full and final will not be released if you do not have a PAN card.

• Are JL4 and above employees eligible for CPI and IPI while they are on notice period?

  CPI – Eligible only if the employee has served the notice period for the full month. No partial payout of CPI is made for the number of days of notice period served.

  IPI - Eligible only if the employee has served the notice period for the quarter and the percentage of payout is dependent on the declaration made by the Board.

• When and how will the ex-employee get Form 16?

  Form 16 for ex-employees will be generated after the closure of the financial year. For example, Form 16 for the FY 2010-11 will be issued during May / June 2011. Ex-employees can write to bpm_salary@infosys.com to get Form 16.

• What do I need to do in case I need income and tax details for my new employer? When will I get the provisional tax certificate?

  Along with the full and final settlement breakup, tax computation letter is sent to the email ID of the ex-employee updated on the E-Separation tool, which can be provided to the new employer.

• How will the ex-employees get the breakup of amount credited to their account?

  A soft copy of the PDF along with the tax computation statement is sent to the email ID of the employee, which is updated on the E-separation tool.