Trade Unions to press for 9.5 per cent interest on PF deposits for FY'14

NEW DELHI: Trade unions will press for 9.5 per cent interest on PF deposits to over five crore subscribers for the current fiscal at next week's meeting of the trustees of retirement fund body EPFO. 

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's apex decision making body the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) will meet on Monday to discuss and approve the proposal regarding rate of return to be provided on PF deposits in 2013-14. 

"We will demand for 9.5 per cent rate of interest for subscribers for the current fiscal, higher than 8.5 per cent provided for 2012-13," All India Trade Union Secretary and a CBT member D L Sachdev told PTI. 

He said: "This rate of 8.5 per cent is less than the interest provided by banks these days, and would not be able to cover inflation." 

Retail inflation for industrial workers in November was 11.47 per cent. This is the rate of inflation which is used by central government for computing hike in Dearness Allowance. 

According to EPFO estimates in its proposal for the trustees, payment of 8.5 per cent rate of interest on PF deposit for this fiscal would leave a small surplus of Rs 56.96 crore. 

The EPFO, which is estimated to have an income of Rs 20,796.96 crore in the current fiscal, needs Rs 20,740 crore to pay 8.5 per cent interest to its subscribers, as per the agenda listed for the CBT meeting. 

As per the estimates, hiking the interest payment by half a per cent to 9 per cent would require an additional amount of Rs 1,220 crore, which does not seem feasible. 

However, another EPFO trustee and All India Secretary Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh Virjesh Upadhyay said: "The interest rate for this fiscal could be higher than 8.5 per cent provided in 2012-13. 

"We have certain suggestions. We will put those before the CBT. If we reduce certain administrative expenses and improve efficiency then payment of interest rate higher than 8.5 per cent will be possible." 

Upadhyay said that he would also demand 9.5 per cent interest on PF deposits for 2013-14. 

Source:http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-07/news/45955397_1_epfo-trustee-pf-deposits-over-five-crore-subscribers

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Provident Fund interest rate to be hiked?

   Union Minister for Labour and Employment M Mallikarjun Kharge today said the government was looking at further hiking the interest rate on Provident Fund from the present 9.5 per cent.

   "We are contemplating further increasing the interest rate on Provident Fund from the present 9.5 per cent. The interest rate on Employees Provident Fund (EPF) was increased to 9.5 per cent recently.

   "This time also we want to give more to the employees. We are working towards it", he said while inaugurating the Southern Zonal Office of Director General of Mines Safety here.

   Kharge also said the Ministry was bringing in 32 amendments to the Mines Safety Act formulated in 1952 wherein a number of stringent steps would be introduced for the safety of mine workers.

   "The steps include increasing the penalty for violating mines safety norms from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 lakh. In cases where a penalty of Rs 5,000 was being imposed, it will be increased to Rs 5 lakh.

   "Similarly the punishment (for violating safety norms) will be increased from one year to five years imprisonment and in cases where the person was sentenced to three years, it will go up to seven", he said.

   Kharge said the main objective of bringing the amendments was to make "all those concerned with the mines-- from the owner to the agent to the director-- accountable for the safety of mine workers".

   The industry also had to be alert and take precautions to avert any disaster instead of acting only after the disaster takes place, he said.

   "The proposed amendments have already been introduced in the Rajya Sabha and are now before the Standing Committee", Kharge said.

   The minister appealed to Union Minister of state for Mines, Dhinsha J Patel, who was present on the occasion to instruct the officials in his department to direct mining lease holders to accord toppriority to the safety of mine workers.

   Kharge said Karnataka, which was under the control and jurisdiction of earlier Southern Zonal Office based at Hyderabad, would now come under the new zonal office.

   "We are also thinking of opening a regional office and also a sub-regional office here provided we get the required sites for it. We will be writing to the Bangalore Development Authority and Karnataka Housing Board on this issue", he said.

   Earlier, Patel said the Central government provides the guidelines for mining and it was for the state government to enforce it stringently.

   He said granting of mining leases also comes under the purview of the state. "It is the state which earns royalty from it (mines)," he said.

   Apart from bringing in amendments to the Mines Safety Act, the ministry was also considering reviving the mines which have been closed, he said.

Courtesy;financialexpress

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