EPFO poker games burn people’s hard-earned savings by 9.54%

Retirement body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) decision to play fire with public money has badly burnt the common man’s hard-earned lifetime savings. The EPFO has earned a negative return of 9.54 per cent on its Rs 5,920 crore investment in exchange traded funds (ETFs) since August last year, prompting labour unions to demand rollback of the decision to park funds in stock markets.

The market value of investments of Rs 5,920 crore in the ETFs in the current fiscal was Rs 5,355 crore on February 29, 2016, as per an analysis of equity investment by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). The analysis of EPFO investments in equity market will be placed before apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees, headed by the Labour Minister, in its meeting on March 17.

The EPFO started investing in ETFs in August last year after the CBT in March cleared proposal to invest in equity markets. The board specified that it will invest 5 per cent of incremental deposits in the current fiscal.