Sumanthiran presents private members’ bill to amend EPF Act

• Says the proposed amendment seeks to increase the frequency of disclosure and add more clarity to the disclosures that will be required from the EPF as it has failed to comply with laws currently in place
• Claims EPF according to estimates should be holding close to $ 10 b in retirement savings
• Notes that no precise figures are available as the EPF has been extremely irresponsible in publishing even its annual reports

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M.A. Sumanthiran has presented a private members’ bill proposing that the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) Act be amended. Sumanthiran said the proposed amendment seeks to give clear requirements for information about the EPF to be disclosed in a timely and regular manner while the content so disclosed provides sufficient information on the EPF to ensure accountability of the fund and safeguard the savings of workers.

The MP also said the proposed amendment seeks to mandate better disclosure of information through the annual report and information on each purchase and sale of bonds or assets by the EPF from an accountability perspective.

Noting that the EPF is Sri Lanka’s largest fund, and all private sector workers are mandated to keep their retirement funds in the EPF, the MP said even after an 80% depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee, the EPF should be holding close to $ 10 billion in retirement savings.

The MP said he does not have precise figures and must resort to estimates because the EPF has been extremely irresponsible in publishing even its annual reports. “Until November the latest annual report available was for 2016. After we brought up this issue during the budget debates, they suddenly published the annual reports up to 2019. Why is the Central Bank not capable of publishing the annual reports on a timely basis? Does this institution have the kind of management and accountability that people can trust?” he asked.

“The EPF Act in its current form requires that under section 5 (1) (h) the Monetary Board must provide each year information on each investment that it has made. This is to be done yearly and shared with the Minister through the annual report. Not only has the EPF management (the Central Bank) failed to do that, but it has also refused to comply with RTI requests, even after the RTI commission has held that it should disclose information,” he added. Sumanthiran said he, therefore, has put forward this proposed amendment to increase the frequency of disclosure and add more clarity to the disclosures that will be required from the EPF since it is presently not complying with the existing laws.