EPFO gives nod to hike in stock investment to 15 per cent

The Employees Provident Fund

Organisation has approved hike in investment limit in exchange

traded funds (ETFs) to 15 per cent, from the existing 10 per

cent, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said today.

The decision was taken during the meeting of the Central

Board of Trustees (CBT) here today.

"Seeing the rate of return during the meeting of the CBT,

we have increased the investment into ETFs to 15 per cent,

from the existing 10 per cent," said Dattatreya, who was here

to chair the CBT meeting.

He said the government in 2015 had taken a decision to

invest in ETFs and 5 per cent was invested then.

In 2016, the investment was raised to 10 per cent.

"First year, we had invested Rs 6,577 crore and in the

second year, the investment was Rs 14,982 crore. Now, the

total investment as on April 2017 is Rs 22,858.69 crore. I am

happy to inform you that the rate of return on our investment

in ETF is 13.72 per cent," said the minister while addressing

the media.

He said Rs 234.86 crore have been earned as a dividend

with this pattern of investment.

Asked how the EPFO will distribute the gains to its

subscribers, Labour Secretary M Sathiyavathy said, "The money

which is being invested is in the Sensex, the Nifty and

central public sector ETFs. These are the three ETF where we

are allowed to invest."

She added: "Now, we need to frame an exit policy. Once we

get revenue out of it or an income, that will be deposited and

the money will be given to the members."

This exit policy, the secretary said, was discussed today

and the members sought some clarification. So, the EPFO

intends to make one more presentation at the next CBT meeting.

"We had requested IIM Bangalore to do a study on this

and give us the options. They have given us the options and we

presented it before the members today," she said, adding that

the members want some more time to examine them. "We will be

bringing the exit policy at the next CBT meeting to take a

final call."

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)