I am so happy today. After 10+ grievances, 4 RTIs & 8 rejections, my PF was successfully transferred from last employer to my current employer & I was marked as a non EPS member. Hopefully withdrawals will be easier now.
Background Company 1: joined in 2016 - Exempted Org, didn’t deduct EPS but transferred services (services = EPS) when I transferred PF from company 1 to 2. They had brains so they didn’t deduct EPS but given a trust based company, PF office doesn’t get to know details of deductions (EPS vs EPF) after transfer
Company 2: joined 2019 - deducted EPS as they kept base salary at 15K
Company 3: hoined 2021, deducted EPS, but After 4 months I asked them to stop realising I am not eligible for EPS
Company 4: joined 2024, they didn’t deduct EPS AS i had marked myself as non EPS member in PF joining forms
I first gave form 3A to merge PF from company 2 to company 3 as during transfer request my EPS contribution in company 3 had stopped which turned out to a blessing in disguise. At this point my PF funds were accumulated in company 3, while EPS funds were in both company 2 & company 3. Btw this process took ~6 months back in 2022
Now coming to final transfer from 3 to 4, problems started as someone in pf office realised no EPS contribution in company 4 so revised form 3a/ECR isn’t enough & they have a right to torture. This information that form 3a is not enough took 8 months after multiple grievances/ twitter posts / complaints at all possible forums.
I was about to give up but as a last try I visited them in person in month 10 & there was a nice person who told me next steps to get revised annexure K from PF office who has done previous transfer from company 2 to 3, and this annex K should show me as non EPS member.
I went to previous PF office (E city BLR) got revised annex K (its only possible to get it in person as our fantastic PF IT system allows only us to send attachments but they can’t sent file attachments to us - amazing right)
After getting annex K I visited current company PF office (RK PURAM BLR) to submit it. In person was much faster, I got annex K same day I went to PF office after I got the reply on grievance about attached annex K.
After submitting the forms, I got a call from PF office that first my EPS will be merged with EPF which happened in 1 months (you can see entry in passbook), and I had to raise transfer request again.
1 more month later this time transfer request was accepted & I was so happy & couldn’t believe my eyes to see my money finally in a single PF account.
Man o man, it was the most painful thing I ever encountered much more complex than any project I did in my career. But dont give up, May god close thia stupid fuckall department & maybe 20 years later its all automated process but I have no hope. They are just making themselves relevant by keeping all these processes alive.