Good news for Provident Fund A/c holders, Interest Rate on PF Deposits Raised to 8.75% for 2013-14

Retirement fund body EPFO Monday announced a hike in interest rate on Provident Fund deposits to 8.75 per cent for 2013-14, a decision that will benefit over 5 crore subscribers.

The interest rate on PF deposits in the previous financial year was from 8.5 per cent.

The decision to raise interest rate was taken by the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the apex decision making body of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisaton (EPFO).

"We have decided to recommend to the government 8.75 per cent rate of interest for 2013-14 to its subscribers," Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes, who chaired the CBT meeting, told reporters here.

EPFO Makes Further Progress MORE than 10 Lakh Claims Settled by EPFO in October, 2013 EPFO Stresses on Complaint Resolution.

               The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) settled 10,21,922 claims during the month of October, 2013.  This number is 28% higher than the claims settled in the month of September, 2013. 72% of these claims were settled within 10 days while remaining 28% were settled within 30 days.  EPFO’s efforts in grievance redressal has paid dividends.  Number of complaints in Central Public Grievances Redressal System (CPGRAM) has come down to less than 100.  No. of grievances in Employees Provident Fund internet Grievance System (EPFiGMS) which has been activated lately have also got reduced from more than 25,000 to less than 5,500. Shri K.K. Jalan, Central Provident Fund Commissioner expressed his happiness over the fact that 108 offices out of 123 offices of EPFO do not have a single complaint pending for more than 30 days.
 
               These data were revealed during  a meeting convened today by the Central Provident Fund Commissioner (CPFC) Shri K.K.Jalan.  He also informed that the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation got a receipt of 5,689 crores as remittances during the month of October, 2013 through 4.86 lakh establishments, which filed electronic challans cum return. He was also happy to note that a annual account updation software which was launched in September, 2013 has resulted into updation of 8.21 crores annual accounts till October, 2013.

EPFO Rerformance in September 2013

   While reviewing the work of Employees Provident Fund Organisation during September 2013, it has been observed that the Organisation settled 7,96,759 claims in its 123 offices located throughout the country compared to 7,49,639 claims settled during September 2012. More than 50 % of the offices settled more than 80% of the claims within 10 days of receipt. Offices such as Ujjain, Gwalior, Udaipur, Jabalpur, Agra and Laxmi Nagar among many others are settling 80% of the claims within 3 days. The review meeting was taken by Shri K. K. Jalan, CPFC recently.

   In addition to the above, the Organisation responded to 16,586 grievances in the month of September. As a result, the number of total grievances has come to around 6,000. The earlier number was more than 25,000. It is also relevant that 101 of the 123 offices have no grievance pending for more than a month.

Declaration of Productivity Linked Bonus (P.L.B.) for the year 2012-2013.

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation
(Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. Of India)

No. WSU/12(1)12012-13/PLB/13048

Date: 09 Oct 2013

All Regional P.F. Commissioners
In-charge of the ROs/SROs
Regional P.F. Commissioner-I(ASD), Head Office

Sub: Declaration of Productivity Linked Bonus (P.L.B.) for the year 2012-2013.

Sir,
   The Central Government, under Section 5D(7) of the Employees' Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 has conveyed its approval to the extension of the existing Productivity Linked Bonus Scheme 1998-2004 (Revised) for the year 2012-2013 vide their letter No A-26022/1/1994-SS.1 dated 07th October 2013.

Increase in Death Relief Fund in the 23rd meeting EPF CSWC .

Provident Fund organization
(Ministry of Labour, Govt. of India)
Head Office Bhavisnya Nidhi Bhawan, 14, Bhikaji Carna Place,
New Delhi-110 066.

No. Welfare/23rd Annual Meeting/CSWC/2013/6846

Dated: 14.6.2013

To
Regional Provident Fund Commissioners,

Subject: Increase in Death Relief Fund in the 23rd meeting EPF CSWC .

Sir,
   Kindly refer to this Office letter No. Welfare/2(1)20th meeting/09/87631 dated 13-2-2009 through which it was circulated that Death Relief Fund will be given to the tune of Rs.2,00,000/.-(Rupees Two Lakh Only) in case of Natural Death during the service and Rs. 2.50 Lakh in cases of accidents and Cancer.

Passbook for PF Account Holders.

Press Information Bureau
Government of India

   Passbook for PF Account Holders

   There are no dormant accounts in Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). However, as per provision of para 72(6) of the Employees’ Provident Funds (EPF) Scheme, 1952, a member’s account under certain condition is classified as Inoperative Account. All such Inoperative Accounts have a definite claimant.

   As per Para 73(1) of the EPF Scheme, 1952, a statement of account to each member through his last employer will be sent after the close of each year, showing opening balance, contribution during the year, interest credited, amount debited and closing balance of the year.

   Following initiatives have been taken by the EPFO to provide details to the PF account holders:-

   1)    Online access has been given to the EPF members to ‘Know their EPF Balance’ through the website of the EPFO at http://epfidia.gov.in

   2)    Facility of e-passbook has been provided to the EPF Members. It is an online version of the employee’s Provident Fund account. Transactions are recorded and can be tracked easily by the members by registering themselves on the website of EPFO.

   However, in the event of change of employment, a new PF number is issued to the employees as on date.

   This information was given by Minister of State for Labour & Employment Shri Kodikunnil Suresh in the Rajya Sabha today in reply to a written question.

DA to EPF Pensioners.

   As per the statistics available upto  31.03.2012, the number of pensioners receiving pension less than Rs. 500/- p.m. is  around 12 lakh and those receiving more than Rs. 500  and less than Rs.1000/- is around 16.05 lakh.
 
   A number of representations have been received against meager pension and demanding increase in the pension. In order to address this issue, the Government of India constituted an Expert Committee for reviewing the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 on 12.06.2009.  The recommendation of the Expert Committee was considered by Pension Implementation Committee (PIC), a sub-Committee of Central Board of Trustees (CBT), Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), which inter-alia recommended that a minimum monthly pension under Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 be increased to Rs. 1000/- per month as an interim measure. The recommendation of the PIC was considered by CBT, EPF. However, the discussion remained inconclusive. A proposal for providing minimum pension of Rs. 1000/- under EPS, 1995 is under consideration of the Government.
            
   Central Government appoints Valuer under Para 32 of the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 for annual valuation of Employees’ Pension Fund. Depending on the valuation report, the Central Government declared additional relief whenever Pension Fund permitted to do so. From 5th valuation of Employees’ Pension Fund as on 31.3.2001, the fund is showing continuous deficit, therefore, pension could not be revised by the Central Government.

   However, the following categories of pension were increased w.e.f. 29.01.2000 in the following manner:

Category of Pension	Increased from	Increased to
Widow/Widower Pension	Rs. 250/-	Rs. 450/-
Children Pension	Rs. 115/-	Rs. 150/-
Orphan Pension	Rs. 170/-	Rs. 250/-

   On the basis of the annual valuations carried out by the valuer appointed by the Central Government, the Central Government grants relief to pensioners, if the Employees’ Pension Fund shows surplus. The first four valuations showed surplus and accordingly relief of 4%, 5.5%, 4% & 4% was granted during 1996 to 2000. However, no relief has been declared by the Central Government after 31.03.2000 as the fund is showing continuous deficit thereafter.
 
   This information was given by Minister of State for Labour & Employment Shri  Kodikunnil Suresh in the Rajya  Sabha today in reply to a written question.

PIB

PF Cases Awaiting Settlement

   As on 13.12.2012 (for the period from 01.04.2012 to 13.12.2012), out of 107.16 Lakh claims received for settlement order, only 6.96 Lakh claims are pending for settlement.

   The obstacles faced in settlement of claims inter-alia include:

   (i) Incomplete claims (no bank account number,incomplete employee details, etc.)
   (ii) Incorrect claims (wrong account number, incorrect personal details, etc.)

Nationalised Bank for EPF Deposit.

   Provident Fund contribution of private sector labourers covered under the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 is deposited in the State Bank of India.

   As per the provision of Para 52(1) of the Employees` Provident Funds Scheme, 1952, all monies belonging to the Fund shall be deposited in the Reserve Bank of India or the State Bank of India or such other Scheduled Banks as may be approved by the Central Government from time to time. No other Scheduled Bank has been approved by the Central Government for this purpose.

NPS performed better that GPF in the last year.

   The three NPS managers handling the pension funds of Central and state government employees have delivered average returns of 9.33% in the past one year, outperforming the state-run government provident fund (GPF), employees provident fund (EPF) and the public provident fund (PPF). The three-year annualised returns are also quite decent at 8.47%, though not as spectacular as in the past one year.

   More than 16 lakh central and state government employees have almost Rs 8,500 crore invested in the NPS. This money is managed by three pension fund managers - SBI Pension Funds, LIC Pension Fund and UTI Retirement Solutions. Each of the three funds manages roughly one-third of the NPS corpus.

   Though three years is a very short time to judge long-term instruments such as pension funds, the impressive performance is likely to silence the criticism that NPS is not allocating enough to growth assets. Central and state government NPS funds can invest a maximum of 15% in equities. Even in NPS for the general public, where investors can choose their own asset allocation, a maximum of 50% can be put in equities.