Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may have been forced to withdraw the proposal of taxation of Employee Provident Fund (EPF), but the government has not given up on the goal of creating a pensioned society. The government is now considering a proposal to make mandatory for employers to route most of their share toward the retirement savings of employees into the Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) rather than EPF for employees above the salary threshold of Rs 15,000 per month.
This proposal was discussed at a high level meeting in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) last week. Government does not want to go wrong this time and would ensure that there is extensive consultation with all stakeholders on the proposal. Changing the rule on the employer's contribution would mean that a substantial portion of this would go toward a pension for the employee, rather than getting withdrawn at one shot from the EPF at retirement. Further it will maintain uniformity between EPF and the General Provident Fund as the former will continue to enjoy exempt-exempt-exempt (EEE) status at the stages of investment, accumulation and payout.
Employer of a private sector matches contributions made by an employee to EPF -- 12% of basic salary by each. While all of the employee's contribution goes to EPF, 8.33% of the employer's payment goes to EPS subject to a maximum of Rs 1,250 a month. That is 8.33% of Rs 15,000, the statutory limit for contributions. These and other EPS conditions may change if the proposal is implemented wherein those earning more than Rs 15,000 a month will see a higher share of the employer's contribution going to EPS.
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