Employee Provident Fund (EPF) is administered and run by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) of India. A company, organization or establishment with 20 and more employees or workers who are working in any of the 180 industries, enlisted by the EPFO are eligible for EPF and hence should register themselves for the same.
Benefits of EPF SMS Services
SMS is generally a one-to-one communication medium which is less time to consume compared to other means of instant information delivery. In other words, it delivers the message straight into the hands of the intended user. SMS is a widely used tool for B2C communications, and at the same time it is also one of the most preferred channels of attending user requests by various organizations such as financial institutions and governmental bodies. The SMS service launched by EPFO exemplifies the same.
SMS Service of EPFO
To enhance the convenience of their subscribers, the EPFO has rolled out the SMS facility to carry out few basic EPF processes. Once such process that can be carried out through the SMS facility is checking their PF balance in one’s account. All that the employee needs to do is use his/her UAN registered mobile number and SMS their details in the following format – EPFOHO UAN ENG – to 7738299899. ENG stands for English. Since employees can use the SMS facility in 10 different languages – English, Hindi, Telugu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, and Bengali. Listed below are the language codes that the customer is required to use in the SMS format when carrying out the request for PF balance.
| Language | Code |
|---|---|
| English | ENG |
| Bengali | BEN |
| Hindi | HIN |
| Marathi | MAR |
| Gujarati | GUJ |
| Malayalam | MAL |
| Punjabi | PUN |
| Telugu | TEL |
| Tamil | TAM |
| Punjabi | PUN |
Once the details have be messaged using the above-mentioned codes to 7738299899, the subscriber will receive the following details in the following format:
- Name of the PF account holder
- Date of birth
- Last contribution made by both the employer and employee
- Total balance in the PF account
Other Ways to Enquire PF Balance Instantly
Apart from the PF balance SMS service, subscribers of the EPF scheme can check their PF balance via the missed call facility, online on the EPFO member portal, through the UAN app, via the EPF mobile app, or through the UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-Age Governance) app. Subscribers can follow the steps mentioned for each of the following ways to check their PF balance.
Enquire EPF Balance by Missed Call:
- The subscribers has to ensure that his/her KYC details are integrated with their UAN to carry out this process.
- Using the UAN registered mobile number, the subscriber has to give a missed call to 011-22901406.
- As soon as the subscriber has done that, he/she will receive a message of the PF balance in the account.
Checking EPF Balance through the UMANG app:
Since the UMANG app is a recent introduction of the Government of India, subscribers will have to first download and install the app to carry out the process of checking the PF balance in their account. To download and set up UMANG app, follow the steps mentioned below:
- Visit the EPFO website and click on the UMANG app download link – https://web.umang.gov.in
- To proceed, enable your location, calls data and SMS service.
- Click on “download app”.
- Enter the OTP you receive on your registered mobile number.
- Answer two security questions.
- Next, link your Aadhaar card.
- Once you link your Aadhaar card, your KYC details will automatically integrate into the app.
- You can now, carry out several EPF processes through the UMANG app including checking your PF balance.
Steps to Check PF Balance through the UMANG App:
- Click on the “EPFO option on the UMANG app homepage.
- Choose the ‘Employee Centric Services’ option.
- Enter your UAN.
- Enter the OTP sent to your registered mobile number.
- Click on “view passbook” on the EPFO section.
- As soon as that is done, the UMANG app will display the PF account in your balance.