50 lakh more employees will be covered under Provident Fund Minimum pension amount enhanced to Rs 1000/- under Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1952

PIB, KalimNews, Kolkata, 30^th September, 2014 : The mandatory wage ceiling for contributions to the Employees’ Provident Fund scheme, 1952 (EPF) has been enhanced from Rs 6,500/- to Rs 15,000/- per month. It implies that 50 lakh new employees will come under the coverage of social security. Similar enhancement of wage ceiling has been effected for Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 (EPS). As a result, the minimum monthly pension figure will stand at Rs, 1000/- for members, widows and disabled pensioners. On the other side, maximum pension amount would increase from Rs. 3,250/- to Rs. 7,500/-. Besides these, increase of mandatory wage ceiling in the case of Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976 (EDLI) as well means the benefits under EDLI would increase from Rs. 1,30,000/- to Rs. 3,60,000/-.

Hence, a minimum monthly pension amount of Rs 1000/- will be given to members, widows and widowers, nominees and dependent parents of employees with effect from October, 2014. The minimum amount of pension given for each child now stands at Rs 250/- per month and the pension amount of orphan children will be Rs. 750/- per month. This will put an end to the age of paltry pensionary benefits. Union Government will provide a budgetary support of Rs 1200 crores for this purpose. This was mentioned at a function organised by the Employees’ Provident Fund Commission to felicitate more than 1000 pensioners under Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 at Kolkata today.

Additional Central P.F. Commissioner (WB/JH/NER) Shri V. Vijaykumar stated, a number of new Information Technology related initiatives like online transfer of claims, online registration of establishments, e- passbook, universal account number and facilities of online deposit of PF contribution by employers has improvised service delivery mechanism of the organisation and ushered in transparency.

Members of Parliament Shri Saugata Roy and Shri Babul Supriyo; Ex- Central Provident Fund Commissioner Shri B.N. Som; Member of Central Board of Trustees, EPFO Shri Ramen Pandey; Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-I, Kolkata Shri P.K. Mishra were also present at the occasion. Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-II  Shri S.K.Gupta moved the vote of thanks.