EPFO is considering to include again those people who had shifted from the formal sector to the informal sector or those who lost their jobs. Work has started to prepare a model within EPFO
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), which governs the pension facility, is considering giving membership to those people who, due to some reason, were out of the purview of social security and invested a minimum of Rs 500 monthly under it. EPFO is considering to include again those people who, due to some reason shifted from the formal sector to the informal sector, or those who lost their jobs.
Giving a statement, a top official made this information available that, “Work has started to prepare a model within EPFO, which will provide people with a minimum contribution of Rs 500 a month or 12 per cent of their monthly income, to provide them social benefits.” will enable us to bring it back under the ambit of security.”
Giving a statement, the official said, “We are trying to assess its impact on Pension (EPS), Provident Fund (EPF) and Employee Deposit linked insurance scheme of EPFO. The actuarial analysis is being done. The plan will be finalized later.”
According to the estimates of EPFO, around 4.8 million people exited the organization during the year 2018-20, whose database is easily available with EPFO. During the Kovid-19 transition of the year 2020, this number had become very high. If the resolution is passed, it could be a big relief to lakhs of workers.
Social Security Code 2020 provides for the addition of new schemes under the EPFO. This can be started with the implementation of the code by the next financial year. The retirement fund body has a database of all exiting members with Universal Account Number which is linked with Aadhaar and EPFO wants to use it to bring such people back under its ambit.
The move will help individuals create a retirement corpus, which will offer fixed returns at a relatively higher rate than any other deposit schemes, and boost the EPFO corpus and subscriber base. Individuals enrolling in the EPF scheme will be able to avail pension, PF and insurance. In addition, they will be eligible for a fixed rate of return based on the return on investment of the EPFO during this period. EPFO has given an interest of 8.5 percent for the financial year 2011.
