EPFO may appoint fund managers, raise pension age next month

A decision would benefit about 46 lakh pensioners.

Retirement fund body EPFO is likely to appoint fund managers on March 11 for a three year term from April 1 and raise age limit for vesting of pension by two years to 60.

Both the proposals will be taken up for discussion and approval by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's apex decision making body, the Central Board of Trustees in its meeting scheduled on March 11.

". . . the 206th Meeting of the CBT scheduled on February 19 was deferred. The said meeting will now be held on March 11," an office order said.

Besides the CBT will deliberate on the recommendation of the Pension & EDLI Implementation Committee to provide medical benefits under its pension scheme.

A decision would immediately benefit around 46 lakh (4.6 million) pensioners of EPFO.

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's PEIC has recently concluded in its meeting held on January 30 that the pensioners should be extended the medical facility.

According to the agenda listed for the meeting, asset management firms ICICI Securities Primary Dealership, Reliance Capital AMC and HSBC AMC have emerged as top bidders for managing the huge corpus of EPFO.

However, as many as six firms have qualified in technical as well as financial bids for managing EPFO funds.

Though SBI had also submitted its bid, the CBT has already nominated it as fund manager for another term and is expected to approve its appointment on March 11.

As per the agenda listed for the CBT meet, ICICI Securities Primary Dealership has been ranked as top bidder on the basis of technical and financial parameters followed by

Reliance Capital AMC and HSBC AMC.

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The other shortlisted bidders are UTI AMC followed by ICICI Prudential and Birla Sun Life AMC.

EPFO manages a corpus of Rs 6.5 lakh crore (Rs 6.5 trillion).

The funds are being managed by SBI, HSBC AMC, Reliance Capital AMC and ICICI Securities PD.

The term of these fund managers ends on March 31.

EPFO has a subscriber base of over 5 crore (50 million) and receives over Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) as incremental deposits every year.

During the current financial year, EPFO's incremental deposits are estimated to be Rs 79,000 crore (Rs 790 billion).

The CBT, headed by the labour Minister, will also consider a proposal to raise age limit from 58 to 60 years for vesting of pension under the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS-95).

At present, a formal sector worker covered under the EPS-95 can make contributions towards pension scheme till the age of 58 years and can claim pension after that.

Raising the age limit would reduce the deficit in pension fund and would increase the pension benefits of members as there would be two additional years of service, as per the agenda listed for the meeting.

As per a report of valuer on EPS-95, increasing age limit would reduce shortfall in pension fund by Rs 27,067 crore (Rs 270.67 billion).

It is also proposed to increase the short service pension entitlement age from 50 years to 55 years.

This measure would reduce the shortfall in pension fund to the extent of Rs 12,028 crore (Rs 120.28 billion).

At present, members can seek fixing pension at the age of 50 years provided they have served for at least 10 years.

It is also proposed that the pensionable salary be determined on the basis of 36 months average wages immediately preceding the date of exit from the scheme in place of existing 60 months.

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