The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation on Friday extended the deadline for submitting Aadhaar numbers from February 28 to March 31, PTI reported. In January 2017, the retirement fund body had made it mandatory for its 4 crore subscribers and around 50 lakh pensioners to submit their Aadhaar numbers.

The deadline for submitting Aadhaar-linked digital life certificates has also been extended till March 31. The EPFO has ended the system of accepting life certificates manually through banks. Pensioners can only provide life certificates digitally. The Aadhaar card has been made mandatory to avoid any cases of fraud in disbursing pension, VP Joy, central provident fund commissioner, EPFO, told The Times of India.

While the Centre puts 1.16% of an employee’s basic salary towards the scheme, the employer contributes 8.33% of the employee’s salary. In total, the Centre gives Rs 850 crore every year as annual budgetary support to the scheme. Currently, the minimum pension under EPS is Rs 1,000 a month and an employee can receive the amount only after a minimum of 10 years of service.