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Union members in the tripartite body of EPFO, entrusted with nearly ₹6 lakh crore retirement funds belonging to 7 crore workers, seem divided over the Finance Ministry’s proposal to invest the corpus in stock markets to get higher returns.
The Ministry feels this would ensure higher interest rates than the existing 8.75 per cent on PF deposits.
While Central Board of Trustee members of the EPFO belonging to Left–backed unions – CITU, AITUC, UTUC – said they would oppose any such move, Congress-backed INTUC said it was open to it, provided the Government guaranteed that workers’ investment would be protected.
G Sanjeeva Reddy, CBT member and President of INTUC, told BusinessLine that his union was open to investing PF money in “anything that gets higher returns” but on the condition that it should be backed by Government guarantee to the workers.
However, AK Padmanabhan, another CBT member and President, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), said all Left unions, along with the HMS, were united in their opposition to the Finance Ministry’s proposal being pushed since the time the UPA-II was in power.
We will oppose any such move, as these life-time savings are the only fall-back for workers after retirement, said Padmanabhan, President of CITU. DL Sachdev, Secretary, All India Trade Union Congress, said, “We are not in favour of investing EPFO funds in any kind of equity. EPFO had invested in HMT, a public sector firm, but everybody knows about the status of HMT (Government recently announced closure of HMT).”
According to reports, the proposal to invest PF money in equity markets was discussed at a recent informal meeting of non-official members of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s trustees (CBT) with Labour Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
Ashok Singh of INTUC and PJ Banasure of the BJP-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh reportedly were in favour of investing in public sector equity. BMS members in CBT, who have so far opposed the proposal, could not be reached for their comment.
Correction
An earlier version incorrectly said Ashok Singh is of INTUC's breakaway faction. Ashok Singh is a member of the INTUC.
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