EPFO continues to invest in these two Adani group stocks despite stock market rout

Following a $100 billion rout in Adani Group stocks in the wake of the US-based short seller Hindenburg's explosive report, several large investors are reducing their exposures to the Adani Group. But retirement fund body EPFO has continued to invest in two Adani Group companies – Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone – even as the beleaguered empire of billionaire Gautam Adani spiralled into crisis.

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation will keep doing so at least till September this year, unless its trustees rethink their investment approach when they meet this week, according to a report in The Hindu.

The retirement fund body invests 15 per cent of its corpus into exchange traded funds (ETFs) linked to the NSE Nifty 50 and the BSE Sensex.

As of March last year, EPFO had invested ₹1.57 lakh crore in ETFs. It put in another ₹8,000 crore in FY23, the report said.

This comes as EPFO's apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees (CBT) started its two-day meeting on Monday.

EPFO is likely to announce the rate of interest on employees' provident fund (EPF) deposits for 2022-23 at its two-day meeting.

EPFO had lowered the interest on EPF for 2021-22 to an over four-decade low of 8.1 per cent for its about five crore subscribers, from 8.5 per cent in 2020-21 in March 2022.

This was the lowest since 1977-78, when the EPF interest rate stood at 8 per cent.

"The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO's) apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees (CBT) is likely to decide the rate of interest on EPF for 2022-23 at its two-day meeting beginning on Monday afternoon," a source told PTI.

Besides interest rate, the CBT will also discuss the annual accounts of the EPFO for 2022-23.