Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Mar 12, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Mar 12, 2003 |
|
|
|
|
|
Industry & Economy
-
Pension Plans New provident fund project to make it easy Our Bureau
NEW DELHI, March 11 THE Union Labour Minister, Mr Sahib Singh Verma, has assured members in the Lok Sabha that the project `Reinvent the Employees Provident Fund (EPF)', currently under way, would remove several problems being faced by employees in accessing their PF, besides imparting "efficiency and transparency" in EPF operations. Responding to a volley of supplementary on the main question by the Shiv Sena member, Mr Suresh Ramrao Jadhav, and others on Monday, the Minister conceded the fact that a lot of companies had defaulted on their EPF contribution. As many as 3.57 lakh employers had defaulted, involving recoverable dues with penalties of Rs 800 crore Notices were already issued to the defaulting companies to comply with their statutory obligations and this would be followed up by "legal" action. He said the Government had told all employers that the EPF contribution should be deposited before September 15 in a year and "for compliance of this norm, a comprehensive scheme" has been introduced. Under the project, computerisation of EPF is also taking place at an accelerated pace and whenever any employee seeks loans from his/her EPF, it would be expeditiously cleared once the automation is over. The department is in the process of providing accounts slips to EPF contributors on their PF position on demand and the exercise would be completed by March 31. The Minister reiterated that the EPF investment remains "safe and secure", as "we don't want to invest the EPF in such companies where the employees' money would not be recoverable". He said that even as the interest rate had come down, "we have kept the EPF contribution" at an interest rate of 9.25 per cent.
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|