Henceforth, salaried people earning up to ₹15,000 a month will have to compulsorily maintain an employee provident fund account, with the Government notifying the new norm. Earlier the salary limit was ₹6,500 a month.

The minimum pension has also been hiked to ₹1,000/month, a longstanding demand of workers’ representatives in the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). All the revised schemes will be implemented from September 1.

The decisions had been taken by the EPFO trustees towards the end of the UPA’s tenure, but had not been notified. After taking over in June, the Narendra Modi Government had assured trade unions that it would notify them within two weeks.

The Gazette notification, dated August 22, also raised the maximum assured sum under the Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme to ₹3 lakh.

Accordingly, in a circular issued on August 28, the EPFO has requested all regional PF commissioners to implement the schemes in “letter and spirit”.

In his maiden Budget speech in July, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that it was mandatory for salaried persons earning up to ₹15,000 a month to maintain PF accounts.

More subscribers

The move to hike the wage ceiling, as per EPFO estimates, will draw in about five million new PF subscribers. The hike in pension is expected to benefit 2.8 million pensioners, including 500,000 widows, some of whom have been getting a measly amount of ₹150-200 a month.

Orphaned children of the deceased subscriber will now get a maximum assured sum of ₹750 a month for 2014-15.

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