NDA Govt. allows investing 5 per cent of EPFO corpus in stock markets

 

The Central Government has allowed retirement fund body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to invest 5 % of its corpus in Exchange Traded Funds (ETF), which will result into an inflow of around Rs.5,000 crore into the stock markets during this fiscal.

Labour Ministry has notified a new investment pattern for the EPFO, which allows the body to invest 5 per cent of its funds into ETFs.

“We will invest 5 per cent of the investible funds of EPFO into the ETF. The new investment pattern has been notified about two-three days ago,” Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal told

Earlier, the EPFO, which has over 6 crore subscribers, has been investing primarily in State and Central government securities.

Unionists had opposed any investment in equity or equity-related instruments during the meeting of Central Board of Trustees — EPFO’s apex decision making body — on March 31,2015


As per estimates, the EPFO’s incremental deposits for 2014-15 would be around Rs.80,000 crore. During the current fiscal, the incremental deposits could be around Rs.1 lakh crore as the body had increased the monthly wage ceiling for coverage under its social security schemes to Rs.15,000 from Rs.6,500 in September 2014