Retirement fund body EPFO has invested Rs 9,723 crore in exchange traded funds (ETFs) till October this year while absolute return on these investments was 9.17 per cent, Parliament was informed on Monday.
“The total corpus of EPFO was Rs 7.49 lakh crore as on March 31, 2016. The total amount invested by EPFO in ETFs is Rs 9,723 crore as on October 31, 2016 and the absolute return was 9.17 per cent as on October 31, 2016,” labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said in a written reply to lok Sabha.
The Minister told the House that as a precautionary measure in volatile stock markets, EPFO is investing only in Nifty and Sensex ETFs. He also informed the House that investment in ETFs by EPFO will double from the existing level of 5 per cent to 10 per cent within the scope of investment pattern notified by Finance Ministry. He further said that the employees’ representatives of the CBT had opposed the move to invest in capital market. The Minister explained that returns from investment made in ETFs are generally higher than returns from other investments which eventually benefits the subscribers.