INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
EPFO has recently revised rules related to filing of EPF claims.EFPO or Employees' Provident Fund Organisation has around six crore
subscribers and manages a corpus of Rs 10 lakh crore
The retirement fund body receives over 1 crore claims every year including those pertaining to EPF withdrawal, pension fixation and
The EPFO has been taking many steps for easing the process of claims settlement
While an employee's 12 per cent contribution goes toward EPF kitty, 8.33 per cent out of the total 12 per cent of the employer's
contribution is invested in EPS or pension scheme
10 lakh don't have to be filed online
The EPFO has revised its rules related to provident fund claims
In a circular dated April 13, EPFO said offline claims will also be accepted in all cases
EPFO subscribers have the option of filing online as well as manual claims for provident fund withdrawals.2) Earlier, in a April 13
circular, EPFO had said that "in case the amount of claim settlement is above Rs
10 lacs for PF claims and Rs
5 lacs in respect of EPS withdrawal claims, the claim form must be accepted through online mode only." EPFO in the April 13 circular said
that "considering the grievances raised by members, this stipulation will be kept in abeyance so that offline claims will also be accepted
in all cases."3) EPFO subscribers may soon get an option to increase or decrease investments out of their provident fund into stocks through
exchange trade funds (ETF)
The EPFO has been investing in stock markets through ETFs since August 2015
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are funds that track indexes such as Sensex and Nifty
In 2015-16, EPFO invested 5 per cent of its investible deposits which was subsequently increased to 10 per cent 2016-17 and 15 per cent in
2017-18.4) In a recent meeting of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees (CBT), it was
decided to explore the possibility of giving an option of enhancing equity allocation beyond mandated equity investment limit (presently 15
would have two separate member account heads: Fixed Income - where fixed annual interest gets credited to members account - and Equity (ETF)
- where investment in equity is reflected as units and the return is marked to market.6) This accounting policy of investment in Exchange
Traded Funds was recently approved by Central Board of Trustees or CBT, the apex decision body of EPFO or Employees' Provident Fund
