EPF and ETF tangled up!

The proposed amendments to the EPF Act would confuse demarcations between it and the Employees’ Trust Fund, claims UNP MP Dr. Harsha de Silva.

Clause 4 of the new Amendment allows the EPF to extend housing benefits and medical treatment to every member of the fund, which is already done by the ETF.

“The whole point is for the worker to get medical and housing loans from the ETF and the EPF be kept exclusively as a retirement benefit. However, this new legislation blurs the authority of both acts.”

He quipped that the “EPF is going the same way as the Central Bank, which nowadays gets involved with everything from IIFA to the Commonwealth Games bid. Perhaps it needs the EPF to also poke fingers where it doesn’t belong.”

On a serious note Dr. de Silva questioned as to why his questions in Parliament over investment of EPF funds were not answered and demanded that explanations be given to the people.