EPFO hikes insurance cover up to Rs 6 lakh from current limit of Rs 3.6 lakh

A meeting of the Central Board of Trustees of Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) here on Wednesday decided to enhance the insurance benefit payable to dependents of the members of the Employees’ Provident Fund from the present Rs. 3.60 lakh to 6 lakh.

The move under the Employees Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976, will benefit four crore EPF contributing members. The money will be paid to dependents on the death of subscribers to the scheme. About Rs. 180 crore was paid to 30,000 employees last year, board chairman and Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Central Provident Fund Commissioner K.K. Jalan and top officials of the Ministry of Labour and Employment told a press conference after the meeting.

Mr. Dattatreya said that it was also decided to remove the condition of continuous employment of one year under the current employer for eligibility to the insurance scheme. Even a day’s employment was enough to be eligible.

All the 4.3 crore construction workers will be given universal account numbers as part of steps to enable them to access the PF amount even if they migrated to other States since they were mostly migrant people. The Centre would give the Supreme Court a roadmap on how it proposed to make the State governments spend the one per cent cess on the construction value of buildings collected from contractors for the welfare of workers. The apex court had taken a serious view of the fact that Rs. 20,000-crore collected for the purpose at the national level but it was either misused or not used.

Mr. Jalan said the EPFO was looking at a 15-year horizon for investment of 5 to 15 per cent of the corpus of the EPFO in the exchange-traded fund with the aim to earn higher returns. It was seen that the Sensex grew 15 per cent in as many years. The EPFO had already invested Rs. 400 crore through six fund managers, including SBI mutual fund, since August 6. The investment will be ramped up to Rs. 4,000 to 5,000 crore in this financial year. (The Hindu)