Employees Provident Fund Organization or EPFO has recently given a green signal to the development of centralized IT-enabled systems. This will ensure that employees do not have to transfer money to their provident fund when they change jobs. After the move of development of the system by Center for Development of Advanced Computing or C-DAC, the provident fund number of an employee will remain the same even if they change their job. This means that they will not have to worry about transferring the account. The decision was taken in the 229th meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the apex decision-making body of the EPFO.
The meeting held on 20 November was presided over by Union Minister of State for Labor Bhupendra Yadav. “Post this, field functions will move to a central database in a phased manner, to enable smooth operation and better service delivery. The centralized system will facilitate de-duplication and merger of all PF accounts of any member. This will remove the need for transfer of account on change of job,” the government said in a statement.
The retirement fund body has decided to give more power to its advisory body, the Finance Investment and Audit Committee (FIAC), with regard to decision making on investments in new asset classes.
“At present, we have decided to invest only in newly added government instruments (Bonds and InvITs). There is no percentage for that. This will be decided by the FIAC on a case to case basis,” Yadav was quoted as saying after the meeting.
The Board decided to empower the Finance Investment and Audit Committee (FIAC) to take decisions on a case-by-case basis for investments in all such asset classes included in the pattern of investment notified by the Government of India. , according to a press release.
“If we want to provide higher interest rate then we have to follow the guidelines of the Ministry of Finance. There are certain instruments (determined in the norms) where we were not able to invest due to various reasons. Now, we will be in a position to invest in those equipment,” Union Labor Secretary Sunil Barthwal said after the meeting.
Presently, National Highways Authority of India India (NHAI) and Power Grid Corporation (PGCIL) have launched public sector infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs). EPFO will also go for public sector bonds.
The government has recently added new instruments like InvITs to the investment pattern for pension funds. “It has basically been decided that on a case-by-case basis, FIAC will take a decision in this regard. The CBT has authorized the FIAC to do so. FIAC will take a decision like in the case of NHAI and Power Grids (InvITs),” he said.
The government has recently added new instruments like InvITs to the investment pattern for pension funds. “It has basically been decided that on a case-by-case basis, the FIAC will take a decision in this regard. The CBT has authorized the FIAC to do so. FIAC will take a decision like in the case of NHAI and Power Grids (InvITs),” he said.
In a separate development, the EPFO on Saturday said it has added 15.41 lakh subscribers in September 2021, reflecting a rising trend in net payroll additions after the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(with inputs from PTI)
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