The decision of the Employees Provident Fund trustees to have private firms manage fresh additions to the EPF corpus has raised the hackles of the CPI(M), which not only opposed the move but said the inclusion of Reliance Capital was an indication of the “cost” UPA Government paid for remaining in power.The party said with this decision, around Rs 2,40,000 crore in the corpus fund and another Rs 30,000 crore of the annual incremental fund will be literally “gifted to the corporates”, marking the beginning of “privatisation of workers and employees’ savings”.“Even now, the decision was pushed through in the most undemocratic way in spite of the opposition by the majority of workers’ representatives. The reported late selection of Reliance Capital as one of the fund managers is an indication of the cost of support to this tainted Government,” the party’s Politburo said.Both Left-backed trade unions and Sangh-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) have strongly opposed the plans to “hand over the huge amounts of workers’ PF contributions to finance companies for speculative purposed in the stock exchange”.“While the companies can make profits, there is no guarantee of minimum returns to the workers. Thus the savings of workers over years of hard work can be wiped out through speculation,” the CPI(M) said demanding that the Government refrain from implementing the decision.The party said this decision “marks the beginning of a process of privatisation of workers and employees’ savings,” which had been strongly opposed by it and the Left.The monopoly of the State Bank of India in managing provident fund contributions totalling about Rs 2.5 lakh crore had ended on Tuesday with the Government allowing three private players — ICICI, HSBC and Reliance Capital — to manage the fresh additions.
