Hyderabad: The Union labour ministry’s move of investing EPFO funds in Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) is paying dividends. Five per cent of increment on PF corpus fund for 2015-16 was put into equity investment and the returns have been positive, said Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Monday.
“As on March 31, 2016, an amount of Rs 6,577 crore was invested in stock markets. The return was Rs 6,601 crore, which is up by 0.37 per cent. On April 30, 2016 the amount invested was Rs 6,674 crore and the return was '6,686 crore, which is up by 1.68 per cent,” he said, adding that previously the return on investments had been negative.
The corpus fund with the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is Rs 7,53,000 lakh crore while increment on the corpus fund for 2015-16 was Rs 1,15,000 lakh crore. The minister hinted on increasing investments in ETFs saying that performance of the investments in ETFs would be discussed in the forthcoming meeting of the Central Board of Trustees.
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Mr Dattatreya noted that the Finance ministry had issued a notification to make 5 to 15 per cent of equity investment. The investments, as part of Exchange Traded Funds, are going into the National Stock Exchange (75 per cent) and Bombay Stock Exchange (25 per cent).
At present, the fund management is being done by equity participation resulting in higher interest rates. The good returns should put an end to all apprehensions on equity investments of EPFO funds, he felt.
Commenting on interest on PF accounts, Mr Dattatreya said that he had finalised 8.8 per cent rate of interest although finance wing officials had recommended 8.75 per cent.
He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to Qatar, had interacted with Indian workers, including those from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and had taken up their problems and issues with the Qatar government.
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The minister said that he would be leading a delegation of state ministers and higher officials for the 105th Internat-ional Labour Conference to be held in Geneva from June 7 to 9.
India has got the chairmanship of Asia Pacific countries, the minister said, adding that initiatives by the NDA government like “Made in India” would be highlighted at the conference.
Additional Central PF commissioner Mr P.D. Sinha, regional PF commissioner-1 Mr M.S.K.V.V. Srikrishna, regional PF commissioner-2 Mr Kondru Ravindra Kumar and other officials were present.
