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EPFO May Fix Minimum Guaranteed Pension at Rs.1000

Retirement Fund body EPFO (Employment Provident Fund Organization) is likely to fix the minimum pension at Rs.1,000 per month for all workers covered under EPFO. The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) headed by Labor Minister, will meet on 22nd February, to take a call on the EPFO proposal of fixing minimum pension at Rs.1,000 per month for its subscribers.

As per the data furnished by EPFO on March 31, 2010, there are 35 lakh pensioners subscribed to the retirement fund body. 14 lakh of them get a monthly pension of less than Rs.500 and 7 lakh are getting a monthly pension of Rs.1,000. In fact, the data also shows that there are some pensioners getting a monthly pension as low as Rs.12 and Rs.38.

Moreover, CBT is likely to discuss about the issue of passbooks to the subscribers on the lines of banking services. Though the representatives of employers and employee have agreed for minimum pension at Rs.1000, but there is no decision taken on the additional fund requirement. It is estimated that the proposal may take decision on additional contribution of 0.63% of subscribers’ basic pay and dear allowance.

Contribution Cards will be issued by EPFO to subscribers from April 1, 2012. At present, the retirement fund body has a subscriber base of over 4.71 crore and is managing a corpus of Rs.3.5 lakh crore.