The Employees Provident Fund Organisation has approved hike in investment limit in exchange traded funds (ETFs) to 15 per cent, from the existing 10 per cent, Union labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said on Saturday. The decision was taken during the meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT). “Seeing the rate of return during the meeting of the CBT, we have increased the investment into ETFs to 15 per cent, from the existing 10 per cent,” said Dattatreya, who was here to chair the CBT meeting.
He said the Govt in 2015 had taken a decision to invest in ETFs and 5 per cent was invested then. In 2016, the investment was raised to 10 per cent. “First year, we had invested Rs6,577 crore and in the 2nd year, the investment was Rs14,982 crore. Now, the total investment as on April 2017 is Rs22,858.69 crore. I am happy to inform you that the rate of return on our investment in ETF is 13.72 per cent,” said the Minister while addressing the media. He said Rs234.86 crore have been earned as a dividend with this pattern of investment. Asked how the EPFO will distribute the gains to its subscribers, labour Secretary M Sathiyavathy said, “The money which is being invested is in the Sensex, the Nifty and central public sector ETFs. These are the three ETF where we are allowed to invest.”