Govt to bring out low-cost housing scheme for EPFO subscribers

Hyderabad: The Labour Ministry will come out with a scheme to provide low-cost housing for retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) subscribers, Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said Sunday.

"To further encourage members to continue their PF membership throughout their working life we are actively considering a proposal to assist PF members in getting a house by pledging their present and future PF accumulations. The members would be free to procure a house wherever they want," Dattatreya, the Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment told reporters here.

"We expect members to be benefitted by this (new scheme) by ensuring that they use their long-term savings in PF to buy a life asset of house. This would contribute to the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure 'Housing for All by 2022," the minister added.

On Universal Account Number (UAN) for PF members, Dattatreya said 7.44 crore UANs have been issued and 1.33 crore digitally authenticated Aadhar has been collected as on today and further 2.80 crore members are now active on UAN portal.

All PF members whose Aadhar is linked with their UAN, can directly submit their PF and pension claims to EPFO without requiring attestation of claim forms by employers, he said.

EPFO is increasing its presence to reach out to all stakeholders, the minister said adding "We have recently approved the organisational and cadre restructuring of EPFO, a process which has been going on since last five years. The implementation of same is underway. For effective delegation and decentralisation of powers and efficient delivery of services, EPFO will now have 21 zonal offices."

Dattatreya said six regional conferences of labour departments of state governments will be soon held which will focus and review on enforcement of labour laws among others.

Dattatreya said an inquiry is underway on the allegations against AAP government in Delhi over "diversion" of Rs 1,150 crore from the construction workers cess fund.

"The Labour Ministry has sought report on fund diversion. I have written letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on this matter," Dattatreya said, adding funds from the corpus meant exclusively for the welfare of construction workers should be properly utilised.