The Central Board of Trustees of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in its meeting on Tuesday discussed the progress made on the higher pension option for its subscribers so far along with the draft annual report detailing financials of 2022-23. "Total number of beneficiaries and financial implications will depend upon the number of such eligible employees who will submit applications for validation of option/joint options in line with the Supreme Court judgement of November 2022. After scrutiny of applications for validation of option/joint options, actuarial analysis will be done from the actuary to ascertain the financial implications," an official said. The EPFO had given a three-month extension until December 31 this year for employers to upload wage details for those employees who opt for the higher pension option. The EPFO is yet to finalise the actuarial impact of the higher pension. The retirement fund body's Board members also discussed the draft annual report. Total investment corpus including pension and provident funds stood at Rs 21.36 lakh crore in 2022-23, up from Rs 18.3 lakh crore a year ago. It received provident fund contributions of Rs 2.12 lakh crore in 2022-23 as against Rs 1.69 lakh crore in the previous year. Total investments for the EPFO as on March 31, 2023 stood at Rs 13.04 lakh crore compared with Rs 11 lakh crore in the previous year, with net addition in investments at face value during 2022-23 at Rs 2.03 lakh crore.
