Central provident fund commissioner K K Jalan wants a policy on inoperative accounts in the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). In every pension fund body, some amount always remains unclaimed. There should be a policy on that.” EPFO had Rs 26,497 crore in “inoperative accounts” as of March 2013.
The unclaimed funds there are parked in a separate government account and hence the cash goes to the government. That means this will become public exchequer money and no longer be a part of the pension funds.
In Malaysia, after a person reaches 80 years, the contributions get transferred to the Registrar of Unclaimed Moneys, required under the Employees Provident Fund Act of 1991 in that country.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has already announced a committee to look into utilisation of unclaimed funds in various bodies like the public provident fund (PPF) and post office savings schemes and the committee would give its report by December on how the money in these accounts can be utilised to protest the “financial interest of senior citizens”.
