JK Assembly passes EPF amendment Bill

Srinagar, October 04 (Scoop News) –The J&K Legislative Assembly today passed a Bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir. Employees Provident Funds (and miscellaneous provisions) Act, 1961 which was moved by the Minister for Labour and Employment,  Abdul Gani Malik in the House yesterday,

            The objective of the Bill as “the Jammu and Kashmir Employees Provident Funds (and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1961, applies to every establishment in which five or more persons are employed at any time. With a view to reconciling the conflicting interests of Labor and Industry, a High Level Committee was constituted vide Government Order No.1255-GAD of 2011 dated 24-10-2011 to discuss the issues of Federation of Industries with regard to increasing the threshold limit of the applicability the said Act from 5 to 10 workers. The Committee held several meetings with various stakeholders and recommended that the threshold limit of number of employees in an establishment for coverage under the EPF Scheme will be raised from 5 to 10 prospectively, provided that the establishments covered at present, and having employees lesser than ten, will continue to be within the ambit of the scheme in respect of the employees already covered; and rate of contribution of the employer’s will be increased from 8.33 to 12%”.

           After thorough discussion, the Bill was passed without any amendment with voice votes as Ch. Zulfikar Ali withdrew his amendment after assurance from the government.

            Harshdev Singh also took part in the discussion.

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