The Employees Provident Fund Orgnisation's (EPFO) trustees on Thursday relaxed the investment norms permitting the Fund to invest larger amounts in the bonds of the state-owned companies and banks, a move that would fetch better returns.
The EPFO's apex decision making body, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), headed by the Labour Minister allowed the Fund to invest up to 50 per cent of the net worth of a PSU having AAA rating, as against the existing 40 per cent. Similarly, the CBT has raised the investment limit from 25 per cent to 40 per cent of the net worth for a PSU with AA ratings. The trustees also gave their nod to increase the investment limit in public sector banks with AA+ and AA rating from 45 to 50 per cent of their net worth.
EPFO manages huge corpus of over Rs.3 lakh crore with a subscriber base of about 4.70 crore. It mainly invests in government securities and public sector bonds.
The investments are guided by the norms prescribed by the CBT.
