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| Sunday, 25 January 2004 |
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Online ETF balance for top clients The Employees Trust Fund Board (ETF) will, from today, offer its top ten clients the online balance of their members. The system will get off the ground with the service being offered to the Shell Company. Chairman, ETF, Dinesh Weerakkody said the service is being offered to add value to responsible clients who pay their dues to the ETF on time. He said they have declared a dividend of 11 per cent for 2003, which is very much higher compared to the interest rates offered by banks. "We hope to pay a dividend of 9.5 per cent for the current year. For 2002, ETF paid a dividend of 12 per cent in a booming economic scenario. "At present, we have a portfolio of Rs 45 billion and 88 per cent of it is invested in government securities. "During 2002, we were able to collect around Rs 265 million as ETF payments per month. This increased to Rs 310 million a month last year, which is a growth of 10 per cent. The surcharge income too grew during the year by 60 per cent," he said. Weerakkody said that there had been 17,300 registrations upto June 2003 while there were 2.2 million member accounts at the end of the year. He said there was a backlog of 19 million member accounts that had to be computerised. "We are presently working on it and hope to complete the backlog and update the member statements by June. This will help the employer as well as the employee at the time of claiming benefits or dues," he said. He said the ETF has introduced several customer services such as a customer service unit, an online service and a voice mail service. Weerakkody, presenting his views on the growth of new benefits, said the ETF has given Rs 60 million under the housing loan scheme, while the express claims facility, which is the most sought after facility, has experienced 70 per cent growth. "At present, we process 30 express claims a day while plans are underway to increase it upto 40 a day to cater to the ever increasing demand," he added. On the amalgamation of the EPF and ETF, Director, ETF, Sarath Gamini said that there are several issues which need to be solved before the amalgamation since both institutions involve a huge amount of working people's funds. "Therefore, top consultants are presently studying how best this can be done, but there are several issues to be sorted out especially in the areas of IT and human resources. There are a lot of synergies in the areas of collection and investments and we are trying the Singapore model which is very similar to Sri lanka's," he added. (SG) |
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