You must know these 5 new developments at EPFO

Mumbai: Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has over 6 crore subscribers for its basic savings schemes like provident fund, pension fund etc. EPFO has of late come up with various proposals and schemes for the benefits of its members who save money for their retirement.

The only proposal EPFO did not take a call on at its Thursday's meet was about its investment in stock market. There had been proposal from several quarters for an increase of up to 15 per cent in investment in exchange traded funds or ETFs.

The Central Board of Trustees did not accept the recommendation for a 15 per cent increase in investment in ETFs as trade unions opposed it, NDTV quoted a CBT member as saying.

"The EPFO has invested Rs 18,069 crore in exchange trade funds (ETFs) till February 18, 2017 and yielded a return of 18.13 per cent on these investments," NDTV said.

Here are few things that you must know EPFO has recently introduced to make life of an EPF subscriber much easier;

1) EPFO has deferred last date for submitting Aadhaar details with the retirement fund body to April 30. Earlier, the deadline for submitting Aadhaar with EPFO accounts was March 31.  Finance Act 2017 made it mandatory for an EPFO member to submit their Aadhaar details with retirement funds body.

2) An EPFO subscriber will get an additional fringe benefit of Rs 50,000 cash at the time of leaving service. This applies to a member who completes 20 years of service plus 20 years of contribution to their PF corpus. In case of a permanent disability, Rs 50,000 will be provided to a member who has left service before completion of stipulated 20 years.

3) Central Board of Trustees, apex decision making body of EPFO, has proposed a minimum guaranteed sum of Rs 2.5 lakh for members in the event of their death. Presently, EPFO gives Rs 6 lakh to the kin of deceased subscriber. So far, there ws no such provision of a minimum guaranteed sum to the relatives of deceased subscriber.

4) All EPFO members will get an 8.65 per cent interest on their savings. The decision was announced by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya in December last year. Central Board of Trustees on Thursday put its seal on the decision. It was earlier reported that Finance Ministry was asking EPFO to cut interest rate on PF savings by up to 50 basis points.

5) EPFO is working on plans to enable settlement of employees provident fund claims through smartphones. For the purpose, the retirement fund body will unveil a new mobile app UMANG. Over 6 crore subscribers will benefit from it.