7 pvt firms on list to manage PF corpus

An UTI subsidiary, State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank are the only public sector entities keen on the provident fund business against the minimum of three slots for the fund managers. "If we limit the business to the PSU players, where will the competition come from," asked an official.

Ten firms have cleared the technical bids, while the financial bids would be opened next week, he said. The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) would take the final call notwithstanding opposition from the trade unions.

The entire EPFO corpus is presently being managed by SBI. On top of Rs 2,40,000 crore, an incremental deposit of Rs 25,000 crore comes year. According to estimates, 70-75 per cent of EPFO's deposits are invested in the Special Deposit Schemes (SDS) of government, earning an interest of 8 per cent since 2002.

The estimated earnings of EPFO during 2008-09 would be about Rs 10,552 crore. For maintaining 8.5 per cent interest rate for this financial year as well, the EPFO management would have to make up a deficit of Rs 139 crore.