Higher returns than interest: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) is looking to offer age-based and risk profile based investment options to its provident fund and pension plan subscribers.
Investing in EPF at an early age is going to be more attractive for you. The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) is looking to offer age-based and risk profile based investment options to its provident fund and pension scheme subscribers. If this happens, the investment in EPFO will get higher returns than the interest earned at present. This is already happening in NPS where the returns are close to 10 per cent.
A source close to the matter said that once this option is available, the EPFO will invest a higher percentage in equities to deliver higher returns for young subscribers, while those approaching retirement will largely invest in secured loans. Will go The proposal is part of EPFO’s long-term roadmap to expand its investment portfolio and earn higher returns for the subscribers.
At present, EPFO can invest up to 15 per cent of its corpus in equities and most of these investments are made in ETFs. EPFO currently has a corpus of Rs 15 lakh crore and the number of its subscribers is more than six crore. EPFO has managed to deliver higher returns than small savings or banks. But now it seems that maintaining high interest rate with a conservative investment pattern will not be possible.
Giving different returns will be a challenge
NPS does not earn interest and gives investment to the shareholders according to the profit earned in the investment products. But EPFO pays fixed interest. In such a situation, experts say that if the EPFO gives an option to invest on the basis of age, then it will face difficulties in paying different interest to different investors. Whereas at present all the shareholders get the same fixed interest.
Investing in stocks will increase at a young age
A source close to the matter said the plan is to separate the investment of provident and pension initially. This can be further segregated on the basis of age and risk profile with the younger members investing more in equities and the elderly in other safe options. The official said pension funds can be invested in infrastructure and real estate for a long period of time to get higher returns.
Preparation of Minimum Fixed Return in NPS
On the one hand, EPFO is planning to give higher returns to investors by investing in options linked to shares on the lines of NPS. At the same time, PFRDA is working on a plan to give the option of fixed returns in NPS. PFRDA Chairman Supratim Bandyopadhyay had recently said that the structure of the minimum fixed return investment scheme would be largely ready by the end of September and the authority would try to bring the scheme in the current financial year.
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