What is EPFO?
EPFO is the Employees Provident Fund Organisation. It runs the pension programmes which are mandatory for most firms with more than 20 employees. It has 40 million members (i.e. 4 per cent of Indias population). What is EPFO? a) EPF is a personal savings scheme. Roughly 16 per cent of the persons total cost is paid into his personal account. EPFO is a fund manager that invests this money, mostly in government bonds. People take out their money as and when they like. b) In 2002-03, Rs 11,400 crore went into EPF, and the assets with EPF were Rs 1,03,000 crore. Are all contributions to provident fund managed by the EPFO? No, there are approximately 3,000 establishments which manage their own funds. These exempt funds are mandated to equal or better the annual benefits announced by the EPFO. What is the controversy about the rate of return on EPF that the EPFO will declare? EPFO does not use a modern accounting system, which can accurately calculate the value and the return of each account
