Parizad Sirwalla, a senior tax partner at KPMG India, advised employees with multiple provident fund accounts to merge them under a single active Universal Account Number. She flagged that withdrawing funds directly from an older account could still trigger tax liabilities. Sirwalla emphasized that “the latest UAN linked to your last employer should be retained, and the older one linked to your first employment must be merged.” https://www.livemint.com/money/how-to-merge-two-pf-accounts-and-is-a-withdrawal-taxable-employee-employer-uan-11769281992957.html The timing is crucial as India’s Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation pushes to speed up access to PF funds and reduce reliance on employer paperwork. This shift raises the stakes for maintaining clean account records and current identity details. If duplicate UANs remain unresolved, transfers and withdrawals risk getting stuck just when they’re needed most.