EPFO’s central board of trustees to meet on October 10, 11

The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is set to meet on October 10 and 11. The meeting, which comes after a gap of over seven months, is likely to be held in Bengaluru.

A formal agenda is yet to be circulated but the meeting is expected to take up issues around the implementation of EPFO 3.0 and minimum pension, sources indicated.

The retirement fund manager has been working on a comprehensive upgrade of its systems with the latest initiative being EPFO 3.0 that will provide faster and improved services as well as an updated portal to members to enable them to transact easily. IT majors including Infosys, Wipro and TCS, were shortlisted to manage the platform. While the project was initially expected to be completed earlier this year but it has taken longer than expected due to technical testing. The EPFO is expected to provide the CBT with an update on the project at the upcoming meeting.

Meanwhile, the issue of higher pension as outlined under the Supreme Court ruling of November 22 and a status update on it is also likely to be provided at the CBT meeting. The government is also looking at a possible revision in the current monthly pension of Rs 1,000 under the Employees’ Provident Scheme, 1995, which may be discussed at the meeting.

Further, an update on the Employment Linked Incentive Scheme under the EPFO may also be provided to the CBT in the meeting.

The CBT is the apex decision making body of the EPFO and is chaired by Union Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya with representatives from trade unions, employers’ associations as well as States and the Union labour ministry.

The CBT last met in February this year to approve the interest rate on provident fund contributions. The EPFO has been planning a meeting of the CBT for some time now but it was expected that it would do so once there is greater progress in the implementation of EPFO 3.0.