Nepal seeks technical cooperation from India for extending PF in the country

NEW DELHI: Nepal today sought technical cooperation from India for extending Provident Fund in organised and unorganised sectors in that country.

A delegation led by Secretary of Nepal Prime Minister and Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Nepal chief Durga Nidhi Sharma met Union Labour Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and held deliberations on the issue.

Tomar assured that the request of the neighbouring country will be considered "favourably".

"Employees Provident Fund (Karmachari Sanchay Kosh), Nepal has sought technical cooperation from the Minister (Tomar) for extending provident fund organized and unorganized sectors in their country.

The Minister assured that the request will be considered favourably," an official statement said.

The EPF (Karmachari Sanchay Kosh), Nepal manages provident fund even on behalf of government employees and a large sum is given as repayable loan to government employees for various purposes like housing, the statement said.

Labour ministry officials said that Nepal is looking to learn from India and the delegation was on a 3-4 day tour to India to understand various issues like investment patterns, India's coverage, the guidelines which are followed and others.

EPFO in India manages around Rs 6 lakh crore corpus with a subscribers' base of over five crore. The EPFO in India covers only formal sector employees under its social security net.

Other members in the Nepalese delegation were Kamal Raj Dhungel, Director Board of EPF and Professor at Tribhuvan University Kathmandu, Pratap Singh Thapa, Director Board of EPF and DIG Nepal Police and Sriram Sekhar Adhikari, Secretary, Board of EPF Nepal.

From the Indian side the EPFO team was led by Central Provident Fund Commissioner K K Jalan.