EPFO sets up expert group to consider housing scheme

Retirement fund body EPFO has formed a six-member expert panel to consider the proposal of facilitating housing to its subscribers.
"The expert committee will consider the proposal for facilitating housing to subscribers of Employees' Pension Fund and other issues," EPFO said in a statement.
The committee, to be chaired by Manish Gupta, will submit its report within a month.
Last week, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya had said that Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is working on a housing scheme for its over five crore subscribers.
"The issue of providing houses as a social security benefit to the subscribers of the schemes...Has been discussed in Central Board of Trustees (CBT) meetings," he had said in Parliament.

EPFO manages a huge corpus of Rs 6.5 lakh crore with average annual incremental deposits of Rs 70,000 crore.

The ministry is preparing a mega housing scheme to offer affordable houses to subscribers of EPFO in the backdrop of the government's mission 'Housing for all by 2022'.
The ministry intends to collaborate with PSU banks, housing finance companies, state-owned construction firms like NBCC and authorities like DDA, PUDA, HUDA to build houses at a price to be fixed by the government.
Over 70 per cent EPFO subscribers' basic wages are less than Rs 15,000 per month.
In a recent note, the Prime Minister's Office had asked EPFO to promote affordable housing for its subscribers and use its funds for the purpose.

According to the note from the PMO, deployment of 15 per cent of EPFO funds as loan for low-cost housing would generate a credit flow of Rs 70,000 crore and can create 3.5 lakh additional low-cost homes.
The Labour Ministry is keen on a scheme under which EPFO subscribers could withdraw their PF deposits to make part-payment of the total cost of the house.
At present, EPFO subscribers can withdraw money from their PF accounts for buying houses only after contributing for a period of five years in the schemes run by the body.