Coal news and updates

Reliance Capital, ICICI Securities to manage coal miners’ provident fund

Reliance Capital and ICICI Securities Primary Dealership have been selected as investment managers for the corpus of Coal Mines Provident Fund Organisation (CMPFO).

The two companies emerged as the lowest bidders from among SBI, UTI, Reliance Capital and ICICI Securities Primary Dealership, a senior government official said.

The CMPFO has over four lakh coal miners as its members, according to the details on its website.

Handles peers’ account too

The process for selecting an investment manager for handling the corpus comprising the contributions of these miners began in May this year. According to reports, the corpus fund would be to the order of ₹60,000 crore.

CMPFO handles provident fund contributions of not just Coal India miners but also miners working for several private companies.

The selection was done at a meeting of the board of trustees of the CMPFO chaired by Coal Secretary Anil Swarup on Thursday.

At the beginning of the year, Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal had promised Coal India’s unions that the issues of coal workers will be looked into over the course of 2015. After getting assurances from the Minister, the unions had decided to call off their strike. Apart from concerns about Coal India’s disinvestment and the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, the unions had also called for a review of the pension under the Coal Mines Provident Fund Act and Coal Mines Pension Scheme.

Pension transfers to widows

In this regard, the board of trustees of the CMPFO agreed to transfer the pension amount to the accounts of the widows of the pensioners on submission of death certificates.

In 2013, the Standing Committee on Coal and Steel had criticised the decision of CMPFO not to park its funds with public sector banks and leave investment decisions only on portfolio managers.

The panel had also asked the Coal Ministry to ensure safety of investments that will be handled by the investment managers.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com