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Informist, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024

 

NEW DELHI – The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's Central Board of Trustees met on Saturday and approved its annual report for 2023-24 (Apr-Mar), according to a release. It also recommended the annual report to the government, as well as a host of measures on labour and employment.

 

In FY24, EPFO settled 44.5 million claims for a total amount of INR 1.82 trillion, the release said. So far in FY25, the organisation had already settled 38.3 million claims worth INR 1.57 trillion. Of these, around a third had been settled in the automatic mode. The rejection ratio had come down to 14% in November, the release said.

 

As part of its technological upgrade, the EPFO plans to roll out the Centralised Pension Payment System nationwide by Jan. 1, following two successful pilots, the release said. This would be under its CITES 2.01 project, which is looking to upgrade both hardware and software to enable only one account per member. Informist reported on Thursday that the organisation was looking to roll out this information technology system in December.

 

Among other key recommendations to the government was the EPFO Amnesty Scheme 2024 for employers. This scheme would enable employers to voluntarily rectify past non-compliance with provident fund norms without facing penalities for a limited window. It would also support the implementation of the Employment-Linked Incentive scheme announced in the FY25 Union Budget, by incentivising the formalisation of jobs, the release said.

 

"It is expected that several small establishments (under MSME sector or otherwise) may wish to avail of the benefits under the ELI Scheme but would be worried in enrolling under EPFO," the release said. "This Amnesty Scheme would provide the confidence to such employers to enrol without any fear or additional financial burden."

 

EPFO will now empanel all Reserve Bank of India's agency banks for centralised collection of contributions into the provident funds, after the central board's approval. Other scheduled commercial banks will also be added as long as they have 0.2% of the total EPFO collection, a relaxation from the earlier norm of 0.5%.

 

The central board of trustees also approved the guidelines for investment into public sector undertaking-sponsored Infrastructure Investment Trusts and Real Estate Investment Trusts. The investment trusts must be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the release said. The board also approved a redemption policy for exchange-traded fund investment in central public sector enterprises and Bharat 22, which mandates a holding period of at least five years. Both these measures were taken to enhance the returns of members while also deploying the investment corpus prudently, the release said.

The board also approved two additional benefits for members, the release said. Claims would be processed through the month, against the earlier norm of only the 24th day of the month. In addition, members would now be eligible to earn interest until the settlement of their claims, rather than interest only till the last day of the previous month.   End

 

Reported by Aaryan Khanna

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

 

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