Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 17: Minister for Finance, Labour and Employment Dr Haseeb Drabu today directed the Jammu and Kashmir Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) to adopt better and effective fund management system to make the EPFO a self sufficient body. He said that this move will surely help in achieving higher returns which can be used for betterment of employees.
While chairing the 79th meeting of Board of Trustees of Jammu and Kashmir Employees Provident Fund Organization (JKEPFO), here today, the Finance Minister said that proper fund management is the need of the hour and the majority of the corpus lying with the organization should be invested properly in GoI Bonds, securities and others so that the returns would be utilized on welfare of the employees.
“Engage a good set of Fund Managers to wisely deal with the investment portfolio to get better results and create flow of funds”, the Finance Minister said.
The Chairman asked the organization to come up with a working model to show inflow of funds and investment pattern clearly so that the goals can be achieved.
He said the EPFO should restructure its organizational setup to achieve its objectives.
The Finance Minister also approved Rs 1420.66 lakh budget for financial year 2017-18 for the organization.
The Board was informed that the organization has around 3.75 lakh subscribers from Government departments, PSUs, and from organized as well as organized sector. The Finance Minister asked the organization to cover the left over employees in both organized and unorganized sectors under EPFO.
The board also decided to engage a firm to deal with all legal cases pertaining to the organization. It was informed that the organization is getting all possible support from the Central Provident Fund Organization.
Provident Commissioner informed the Board that the digitization of records is undergoing and the online portal would be developed soon to provide hassle free services to the subscribers.
The Finance Minister directed to complete the pending audit works in a time bound manner and to engage reputed private firms for carrying out audit for the backlog years.
Commissioner Secretary Labour & Employment Gazzanfar Hussain, Provident Fund Commissioner Sarmad Hafeez, Secretary Board of Trustees, senior officers of Finance Department and members representing various trade and employees organization attended the meeting.
Later, the Finance Minister chaired the meeting of Jammu & Kashmir Building & Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (JKBOCWWB).
The meeting was also attended by Vice Chairman Syed Mohammad Baqir Rizvi, Commissioner Secretary Finance N K Choudhary, Commissioner Secretary Labour & Employment Gazzanfar Hussain and members of the Board.
Addressing the meeting, the Finance Minister asked the board to put sincere efforts in providing health and other welfare measures for the workers subscribed with the board.
The Finance Minister asked the board to compile digital data base of already registered 3 lakh workers which is very rich data.
In order to promote the idea of digital JKBOCWWB and spread greater awareness about the new digital board, the Board has decided to declare 2017-18 as ‘Year of Digital JKBOCWWB’.
Dr Drabu approved budget to the tune of Rs 99.06 crore for the financial year 2017-18 for the board.
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