EPFO may invest up to 15% of investable amount in equities

Follow on Twitter
HYDERABAD: Buoyed by the surging stock markets, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) may propose to invest up to 15 per cent of its investable amount in equity markets during the next fiscal, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said.

"We are proposing to invest up to 15 per cent during the next year. Central Board of Trustees (CBT) meeting will be held on March 30. We will seek its opinion. So far, during the past one-and-half year we have invested Rs 18,069 crore. We are getting a good yield. It is encouraging," Dattatreya said.

According to the minister, so far in the current year, the Provident Fund body invested the amount in the two index-linked ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) -- the BSE's Sensex and the NSE's Nifty which yielded a return of 18.13 per cent.

He said the investment proposal will be put in the CBT meeting to be held on March 30 for the final call.

Dattatreya said the EPFO through fund managers had invested 14,700 crore in ETFs in the current financial year.

A senior official said the Ministry of Finance gave its consent to the EPFO to invest from 5 per cent to 15 per cent of the investable income of the organisation every year.

Investable income is the net income of the EPFO from the investments it had already made in various forms, fresh contributions among others.

This year the investable income would be about Rs 1.40 lakh crore, the official said.

The EPFO had started investing in ETFs in August 2015. EPFO manages a corpus of over Rs 8 lakh crore.
Stay on top of business news with The Economic Times App. Download it Now!
DON'T MISSany stories, follow us on TwitterFollow
FROM AROUND THE WEB

Yes, you can retire early with SIP!

Birla Sunlife MF

Invest in ELSS & save tax of up to Rs.46,350*

Axis Mutual Fund

Put Australia on your holiday list

Tourism Australia

MORE FROM ECONOMIC TIMES

ISIS has put Rs 6 cr bounty on this woman's head

Actress Kalpana given state funeral, celebrities pay homage

Meet India's next generation of business tycoons

From Around the WebMore from The Economic Times

India’s largest superlative senior living community

Paranjape Schemes Construction Ltd.

Kick your business into high gear.

GoDaddy

Stop Trying to Fix Your Weaknesses (Video)

HBR Ascend

20 Top Luxury Watch Brands on SALE. Hurry Up!

LUXEWATCHES

Jat agitation: Metro services to be severely curtailed

How to savour that Italian flavour

IBM announces plans to hire 2,000 US veterans

PMO likely to guide new UP chief minister