Central Board of Trustees (CBT) gave in-principle approval to retirement fund body, Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to invest in public sector InvITs and bonds, according to a report in Economic Times. The decision would widen the investment options available with the central body. The publication added that the approval was on a case-to-case basis which would be decided by the Finance Investment and Audit Committee (FIAC).
In August, Minister of state for labour and employment Rameshwar Teli had informed parliament that the retirement fund body had invested Rs 7,715 crore in equity until June 30, this year. He stated that the EPFO invests only in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) via ETF manufacturers (SBI Mutual Fund and UTI Mutual Fund) and not in individual shares.
The retirement body can invest up to 15 per cent of investment in equity as per guidelines laid out in the Pattern of Investment notified by the central government and internal guidelines of the EPFO approved by the Central Board of Trustees, Employees' Provident Fund (EPF).
CBT is the apex decision making body of the EPFO. The organisation is currently spearheaded by Union Minister for Labour and Employment, Bhupender Yadav.
At the 229th meeting of the CBT today, the body also approved the development of centralised IT-enabled systems by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). The press statement, released after the meeting, stated that this would prevent the de-duplication and merger of all provident fund accounts. Further, removing the requirement of transferring the account in the event of a job change.
EPFO added 14.81 lakh subscribers in August continuing on a growing trend in payroll enrollments in the first five months of the fiscal. This was an approx 12.6 per cent increase in enrolments compared to July.
In October, the government approved an 8.5 per cent interest rate on employees provident fund for 2020-21 fiscal. In March 2020, the EPFO had lowered their interest rates to a seven-year low of 8.5 per cent from 8.65 per cent in 2018-19.
