New Delhi: Retirement fund manager Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has sought the Election Commission of India’s (ECI’s) permission to hold a key board meeting so that it does not fall foul of the model code of conduct in force in several states.
EPFO’s central board of trustees (CBT), which met last in June, was expected to meet again between mid-October and early November, and discuss key issues, including investing in stock markets and linking provident fund (PF) accounts with Aadhaar.
“EPFO has written to the election commission seeking its permission. We need to streamline and bring in clarity in a number of key issues related to the provident fund and submit those to the government and the Parliament in December,” said Prabhakar Banasure, a member of the CBT, the apex decision making body of EPFO.
Currently, the model code of conduct is in force in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram, which elect new Assemblies between the second week of November and the first week of December.
A central government official, who declined to be named, said there has been a talk on expanding the equity basket of EPFO by bringing in more exchange traded funds (ETFs), and decide on implementing a formula that seeks to give cash and equity components separately while withdrawing the PF corpus. EPFO has so far invested more than ₹ 45,000 crore in ETFs since August 2015 when it entered the stock market.
The official said as there has been a discussion in the government on how EPFO should increase its scope by managing other social security funds, it needs to be by the CBT.NextMAds
Besides, the drive to link all PF accounts with Aadhaar needs a relook after the Supreme Court last month ruled that the biometric ID can be mandatory only to access welfare schemes and government subsidies. “We have to look at the future in the light of the Supreme Court judgement,” said Banasure, who is also a member of the organisation’s finance advisory committee.
EPFO has an active subscriber base of nearly 60 million. Last month, it had asked its 120-plus regional offices to take up Aadhaar linking with accounts on a priority basis. It manages retirement savings of more than ₹ 11 trillion.
The CBT is also required to take a call on demands whether it can enhance the minimum pension it offers to subscribers and a rule that will revisit the eligibility criteria of the board members.thirdMAds
“EPFO is very unclear on several issues. At times, it is taking calls which are not very employee-friendly. Now, they want to move some CBT members out to reduce friction at the board level. Clarity in fund management, in employee friendliness must improve...how they wish to do it is completely up to them,” said A.K. Padmanabhan, president of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions, a central labour union, who tracks the retirement fund manager closely.
