NEW DELHI / AMN
Union Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya today asserted in the Rajya Sabha that there would be no diversion of money from the employees’ provident fund to the stock market.
Replying to a discussion on the Calling Attention Motion, the Minister said all investments in equity are being made as per the guidelines issued by Finance Ministry. He told the House that investment of employees’ provident funds is a world-wide pattern.
The funds are invested in the stock markets by several countries including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Japan in order to fetch higher returns for the employees. Mr Dattatreya said all investments in India have been linked with the Aadhaar card to ensure absolute transparency in dealings. He said State Bank and Unit Trust are fully involved in the investments. The other agencies involved are the Bombay Stock Exchange, NIFTY and the National Stock Exchange, Sensex. The Minister said with all these safeguards there is absolutely no chance of any diversion of workers’ funds. The Government is fully committed to protect their hard-earned money, Mr Dattatreya said.
Earlier, He said Seven thousand 468 crore rupees out of the Employees’ Provident Fund have been invested in the Exchange Traded Funds (ETF). The Minister said the total return on this investment was 7.45 per cent till June this year. Mr Dattatreya said Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) invests money as per Government investment norms. The norms require 5 to 15 per cent investment in Equity and related investments.
He said as decided by the EPFO, 5 per cent of the incremental allocation is being invested in Exchange Traded Fund based on Nifty-50 and Sensex Indices since August last year. Opposition members criticised the government for investing employees’ hard-earned money share markets. Ahmed Patel of the Congress had raised the Calling Attention.