<p>The Union Labour Ministry is likely to take a final call on investment of its huge corpus — Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees State Insurance (ESI) — totalling Rs 7 lakh crore in the stock market or elsewhere soon, said Union Minister of State for Labour (Independent Charge) Bandaru Dattatreya at a press conference here on Sunday.<br /><br /></p>.<p>He said his ministry would be meeting early next week to take a final decision on the issue, adding that computerisation of all the transactions under the Labour Ministry through 2,200 offices had brought transparency and accountability in maintaining PF accounts and fund-pooling. <br /><br />“We have a staggering Rs 28,000 crore under a non-performing account due to lack of proper database and non-linking with Aadhaar. Hence the ministry had made Aadhaar-linking a mandatory for all EPF and ESI transactions,” he said.<br /><br />Dattatreya said the ministry has also decided to increase the wage ceiling of EPFs from Rs 6,500 to Rs 15,000, and also provide a minimum pension of Rs 1,000 as against Rs 100 or Rs 200 earlier.<br /><br />An Online Transfer Claim Portal has been launched to facilitate EPFO transfer updates through the Internet. Members have to register on the portal to access the services. <br />Almost 26 lakh members have registered on the portal as on 1 January 2015. They can view and print their account statements as many times and whenever they want without intermediation of their employers.<br /><br />Dattatreya also said establishments can now remit their statutory EPF dues electronically from any of the 58 banks that allow electronic payments. <br /><br />All payments to pensioners are being made electronically through the use of core-banking platform of banks, he added.</p>
<p>The Union Labour Ministry is likely to take a final call on investment of its huge corpus — Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees State Insurance (ESI) — totalling Rs 7 lakh crore in the stock market or elsewhere soon, said Union Minister of State for Labour (Independent Charge) Bandaru Dattatreya at a press conference here on Sunday.<br /><br /></p>.<p>He said his ministry would be meeting early next week to take a final decision on the issue, adding that computerisation of all the transactions under the Labour Ministry through 2,200 offices had brought transparency and accountability in maintaining PF accounts and fund-pooling. <br /><br />“We have a staggering Rs 28,000 crore under a non-performing account due to lack of proper database and non-linking with Aadhaar. Hence the ministry had made Aadhaar-linking a mandatory for all EPF and ESI transactions,” he said.<br /><br />Dattatreya said the ministry has also decided to increase the wage ceiling of EPFs from Rs 6,500 to Rs 15,000, and also provide a minimum pension of Rs 1,000 as against Rs 100 or Rs 200 earlier.<br /><br />An Online Transfer Claim Portal has been launched to facilitate EPFO transfer updates through the Internet. Members have to register on the portal to access the services. <br />Almost 26 lakh members have registered on the portal as on 1 January 2015. They can view and print their account statements as many times and whenever they want without intermediation of their employers.<br /><br />Dattatreya also said establishments can now remit their statutory EPF dues electronically from any of the 58 banks that allow electronic payments. <br /><br />All payments to pensioners are being made electronically through the use of core-banking platform of banks, he added.</p>
