Mariyam Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 (edited) I always thought India was a software super power. People like @coffee_rules @Muloghonto and his ilk are the Kohli/RoSha equivalent of software, na? There is a branch of our government called as the Employees Provident Fund Organisation. A noble concept. As an employer, one has to add a certain percentage of funds to each employees EPF account for posterity. While the transfers to the individual EPF accounts from the parents company current account is automated, there used to be this process where the employer has to upload his/her digital signature (matching with the one at the time of company registration) after each transaction before the End of the financial year. So if you have 50 employees and you pay them a PF amount every month, that is 600 uploads. Naturally, a lot of people thought that this was a total waste of time. So many people wrote to the EPFO over the course of the last decade and a half. Finally the EPFO saw some merit in their argument or just got tired of reading long emails and decided to simplify the process. You only have to upload the digital signature once. When you link the company account to the individual PF account. Here is where all hell breaks loose. Earlier this month the mantle of responsibility of handling the PF accounts fell on my kamzor shoulders. Had to add a proprietor (me) to the company and had to upload my Digital Signature and link it to each of the PF accounts. Initially to log in, there is a 2 factor log in process. My username, my password, an OTP (which is sent after 4 mins and 55s, and the page times out after 5 mins). Why do I need so much security to sign nto my own accunt? After getting timed out twice, I finally managed to sign in. Time lost almost 15 mins. Then I have to upload my digital signature to each PF account. And I have to do this 85 times. So I open the first PF account and I upload the picture of the sign. Again, the OTP takes 3 mins to show up. Finally it accepts the picture and after another 2 mins of uploading the sign is linked to the 1st account. Now I go to the second account and do the same, Except this time the OTP doesn't show up and after 5 mins I get a message "server error, please try again after a few minutes". I try some random accounts and I get the same message. I wrote an email to the grievance section of the EPFO only to get an automated reply with a grievance number and number to call. When I have an assistant call the helpline and provide the grievance number they keep saying that they are sorry and that their server is down and they can't even open the portal that has the log of all the complaints. Then they ask me to visit their office in Bandra. Bandra. Eww. Surely there must be an easier way to do this. What has been your experience with the EPFO? Edited January 23 by Mariyam diga 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 3 minutes ago, Mariyam said: I always thought India was a software super power. People like @coffee_rules @Muloghonto and his ilk were the Kohli/RoSha equivalent of software. There is a branch of our government called as the Employees Provident Fund Organisation. A noble concept. As an employer, one has to add a certain percentage of funds to each employees EPF account for posterity. While the transfers to the individual EPF accounts from the parents company current account is automated, there used to be this process where the employer has to upload his/her digital signature (matching with the one at the time of company registration) after each transaction before the End of the financial year. So if you have 50 employees and you pay them a PF amount every month, that is 600 uploads. Naturally, a lot of people thought that this was a total waste of time. So many people wrote to the EPFO over the course of the last decade and a half. Finally the EPFO saw some merit in their argument or just got tired of reading long emails and decided to simplify the process. You only have to upload the digital signature once. When you link the company account to the individual PF account. Here is where all hell breaks loose. Earlier this month the mantle of responsibility of handling the PF accounts fell on my kamzor shoulders. Had to add a proprietor (me) to the company and had to upload my Digital Signature and link it to each of the PF accounts. Initially to log in, there is a 2 factor log in process. My username, my password, an OTP (which is sent after 4 mins and 55s, and the page times out after 5 mins). Why do I need so much security to sign nto my own accunt? After getting timed out twice, I finally managed to sign in. Time lost almost 15 mins. Then I have to upload my digital signature to each PF account. And I have to do this 85 times. So I open the first PF account and I upload the picture of the sign. Again, the OTP takes 3 mins to show up. Finally it accepts the picture and after another 2 mins of uploading the sign is linked to the 1st account. Now I go to the second account and do the same, Except this time the OTP doesn't show up and after 5 mins I get a message "server error, please try again after a few minutes". I try some random accounts and I get the same message. I wrote an email to the grievance section of the EPFO only to get an automated reply with a grievance number and number to call. When I have an assistant call the helpline and provide the grievance number they keep saying that they are sorry and that their server is down and they can't even open the portal that has the log of all the complaints. Then they ask me to visit their office in Bandra. Bandra. Eww. Surely there must be an easier way to do this. What has been your experience with the EPFO? I think u tagged wrong people didi. Even when i was 15, i was better coder than the mug guy can ever be :) Vicks57 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vicks57 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 "People like @coffee_rules @Muloghonto and his ilk are the Kohli/RoSha equivalent of software, na?" @Mariyam Since MAGA ideology has swept through USA, those 2 people you tagged would be considered by DEI hires by the majority of Americans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muloghonto Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 26 minutes ago, Vicks57 said: "People like @coffee_rules @Muloghonto and his ilk are the Kohli/RoSha equivalent of software, na?" @Mariyam Since MAGA ideology has swept through USA, those 2 people you tagged would be considered by DEI hires by the majority of Americans. No, we are the Rahul Dravids and veerù of software industry compared to your kind of dravidian idiots. What majority of Americans consider us isn't relevant, retarded liberal. You are just butthurt that maga candidate is giving us more power than liberals and Indians are gonna vote maga as a result. Cope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diga Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 DEI candidate and coming from someone whose state has the highest reservation? They probably went to US on merit and somebody is having a heartburn. Muloghonto 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 5 minutes ago, diga said: DEI candidate and coming from someone whose state has the highest reservation? They probably went to US on merit and somebody is having a heartburn. Funny coming from u. Fyi more maga than u. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vicks57 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 57 minutes ago, diga said: DEI candidate and coming from someone whose state has the highest reservation? They probably went to US on merit and somebody is having a heartburn. You are so slow Chaos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diga Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 3 hours ago, Mariyam said: I Surely there must be an easier way to do this. What has been your experience with the EPFO? Hire a PF consultant if you want to go through the back channels or tag the FM/PM as you are powerful enough. Unfortunately my experience has been the same but as an employee Mariyam and coffee_rules 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffee_rules Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 4 hours ago, Mariyam said: I always thought India was a software super power. People like @coffee_rules @Muloghonto and his ilk are the Kohli/RoSha equivalent of software, na? There is a branch of our government called as the Employees Provident Fund Organisation. A noble concept. As an employer, one has to add a certain percentage of funds to each employees EPF account for posterity. While the transfers to the individual EPF accounts from the parents company current account is automated, there used to be this process where the employer has to upload his/her digital signature (matching with the one at the time of company registration) after each transaction before the End of the financial year. So if you have 50 employees and you pay them a PF amount every month, that is 600 uploads. Naturally, a lot of people thought that this was a total waste of time. So many people wrote to the EPFO over the course of the last decade and a half. Finally the EPFO saw some merit in their argument or just got tired of reading long emails and decided to simplify the process. You only have to upload the digital signature once. When you link the company account to the individual PF account. Here is where all hell breaks loose. Earlier this month the mantle of responsibility of handling the PF accounts fell on my kamzor shoulders. Had to add a proprietor (me) to the company and had to upload my Digital Signature and link it to each of the PF accounts. Initially to log in, there is a 2 factor log in process. My username, my password, an OTP (which is sent after 4 mins and 55s, and the page times out after 5 mins). Why do I need so much security to sign nto my own accunt? After getting timed out twice, I finally managed to sign in. Time lost almost 15 mins. Then I have to upload my digital signature to each PF account. And I have to do this 85 times. So I open the first PF account and I upload the picture of the sign. Again, the OTP takes 3 mins to show up. Finally it accepts the picture and after another 2 mins of uploading the sign is linked to the 1st account. Now I go to the second account and do the same, Except this time the OTP doesn't show up and after 5 mins I get a message "server error, please try again after a few minutes". I try some random accounts and I get the same message. I wrote an email to the grievance section of the EPFO only to get an automated reply with a grievance number and number to call. When I have an assistant call the helpline and provide the grievance number they keep saying that they are sorry and that their server is down and they can't even open the portal that has the log of all the complaints. Then they ask me to visit their office in Bandra. Bandra. Eww. Surely there must be an easier way to do this. What has been your experience with the EPFO? My experience is not in IT, but mainly telecom s/w. I have now switched Full-Stack webApps, so can understand your hair-pull effort. It is not s/w, but the BPO that is issue. When I was in India from 15-17, my company had a consultant company to deal with EPF stuff. I would open a support ticket and they would deal with all the EPFO stuff. It is great convenience to deal with GoI / EPF website. It is called "Mynd Solutions Pvt. Ltd". There are 100s of companies, I am sure there will one in South Mumbai too, I recently was aksed to access EPFO website, I tried and went through a lot of hoops and finally, I just dealt with MyInd for a nominal fee. Mariyam 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prakat Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 11 hours ago, Mariyam said: I always thought India was a software super power. People like @coffee_rules @Muloghonto and his ilk are the Kohli/RoSha equivalent of software, na? There is a branch of our government called as the Employees Provident Fund Organisation. A noble concept. As an employer, one has to add a certain percentage of funds to each employees EPF account for posterity. While the transfers to the individual EPF accounts from the parents company current account is automated, there used to be this process where the employer has to upload his/her digital signature (matching with the one at the time of company registration) after each transaction before the End of the financial year. So if you have 50 employees and you pay them a PF amount every month, that is 600 uploads. Naturally, a lot of people thought that this was a total waste of time. So many people wrote to the EPFO over the course of the last decade and a half. Finally the EPFO saw some merit in their argument or just got tired of reading long emails and decided to simplify the process. You only have to upload the digital signature once. When you link the company account to the individual PF account. Here is where all hell breaks loose. Earlier this month the mantle of responsibility of handling the PF accounts fell on my kamzor shoulders. Had to add a proprietor (me) to the company and had to upload my Digital Signature and link it to each of the PF accounts. Initially to log in, there is a 2 factor log in process. My username, my password, an OTP (which is sent after 4 mins and 55s, and the page times out after 5 mins). Why do I need so much security to sign nto my own accunt? After getting timed out twice, I finally managed to sign in. Time lost almost 15 mins. Then I have to upload my digital signature to each PF account. And I have to do this 85 times. So I open the first PF account and I upload the picture of the sign. Again, the OTP takes 3 mins to show up. Finally it accepts the picture and after another 2 mins of uploading the sign is linked to the 1st account. Now I go to the second account and do the same, Except this time the OTP doesn't show up and after 5 mins I get a message "server error, please try again after a few minutes". I try some random accounts and I get the same message. I wrote an email to the grievance section of the EPFO only to get an automated reply with a grievance number and number to call. When I have an assistant call the helpline and provide the grievance number they keep saying that they are sorry and that their server is down and they can't even open the portal that has the log of all the complaints. Then they ask me to visit their office in Bandra. Bandra. Eww. Surely there must be an easier way to do this. What has been your experience with the EPFO? Wait, a digital signature for this process is a jpeg of your inked signature on a piece of paper? Chakdephatte 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariyam Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 13 hours ago, diga said: Hire a PF consultant if you want to go through the back channels or tag the FM/PM as you are powerful enough. Unfortunately my experience has been the same but as an employee 11 hours ago, coffee_rules said: My experience is not in IT, but mainly telecom s/w. I have now switched Full-Stack webApps, so can understand your hair-pull effort. It is not s/w, but the BPO that is issue. When I was in India from 15-17, my company had a consultant company to deal with EPF stuff. I would open a support ticket and they would deal with all the EPFO stuff. It is great convenience to deal with GoI / EPF website. It is called "Mynd Solutions Pvt. Ltd". There are 100s of companies, I am sure there will one in South Mumbai too, I recently was aksed to access EPFO website, I tried and went through a lot of hoops and finally, I just dealt with MyInd for a nominal fee. Thanks for the advice re: a PF consultant. Thought this is something I could handle myself, but clearly this requires a consultant. coffee_rules 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariyam Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 4 hours ago, Prakat said: Wait, a digital signature for this process is a jpeg of your inked signature on a piece of paper? Almost. It is the Digital Signature Certificate, the one set up when the company is incorporated. Basically the DSC is linked to your company PAN. coffee_rules 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prakat Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 23 hours ago, Mariyam said: Almost. It is the Digital Signature Certificate, the one set up when the company is incorporated. Basically the DSC is linked to your company PAN. "So I open the first PF account and I upload the picture of the sign. Again, the OTP takes 3 mins to show up. Finally it accepts the picture and after another 2 mins of uploading the sign is linked to the 1st account." ah. this is the bit that threw me off. Mariyam 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jf1gp_1 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 On 1/23/2025 at 6:12 PM, Mariyam said: I always thought India was a software super power. People like @coffee_rules @Muloghonto and his ilk are the Kohli/RoSha equivalent of software, na? There is a branch of our government called as the Employees Provident Fund Organisation. A noble concept. As an employer, one has to add a certain percentage of funds to each employees EPF account for posterity. While the transfers to the individual EPF accounts from the parents company current account is automated, there used to be this process where the employer has to upload his/her digital signature (matching with the one at the time of company registration) after each transaction before the End of the financial year. So if you have 50 employees and you pay them a PF amount every month, that is 600 uploads. Naturally, a lot of people thought that this was a total waste of time. So many people wrote to the EPFO over the course of the last decade and a half. Finally the EPFO saw some merit in their argument or just got tired of reading long emails and decided to simplify the process. You only have to upload the digital signature once. When you link the company account to the individual PF account. Here is where all hell breaks loose. Earlier this month the mantle of responsibility of handling the PF accounts fell on my kamzor shoulders. Had to add a proprietor (me) to the company and had to upload my Digital Signature and link it to each of the PF accounts. Initially to log in, there is a 2 factor log in process. My username, my password, an OTP (which is sent after 4 mins and 55s, and the page times out after 5 mins). Why do I need so much security to sign nto my own accunt? After getting timed out twice, I finally managed to sign in. Time lost almost 15 mins. Then I have to upload my digital signature to each PF account. And I have to do this 85 times. So I open the first PF account and I upload the picture of the sign. Again, the OTP takes 3 mins to show up. Finally it accepts the picture and after another 2 mins of uploading the sign is linked to the 1st account. Now I go to the second account and do the same, Except this time the OTP doesn't show up and after 5 mins I get a message "server error, please try again after a few minutes". I try some random accounts and I get the same message. I wrote an email to the grievance section of the EPFO only to get an automated reply with a grievance number and number to call. When I have an assistant call the helpline and provide the grievance number they keep saying that they are sorry and that their server is down and they can't even open the portal that has the log of all the complaints. Then they ask me to visit their office in Bandra. Bandra. Eww. Surely there must be an easier way to do this. What has been your experience with the EPFO? They need an overhaul. They have made few adjustments but largely useless. Mariyam 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariyam Posted February 6 Author Share Posted February 6 On 1/25/2025 at 9:31 AM, Prakat said: "So I open the first PF account and I upload the picture of the sign. Again, the OTP takes 3 mins to show up. Finally it accepts the picture and after another 2 mins of uploading the sign is linked to the 1st account." ah. this is the bit that threw me off. The PAN card *has* a picture of your sign. That is also a part of your digital signature and has to be uploaded. Heard that the GoI is making a new PAN card with a QR code. I am guessing that will make this process easier too. Prakat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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