No EPF investment in stock market- Fernandes

New Delhi, Nov 13 (UNI) The government has not decided to invest five per cent of the Rs one lakh crore strong corpus of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) in the stock market, Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes said today.

At an interaction with the mediapersons as part of the Economic Editors' Conference, the Labour Minister said the representatives of the employees in the board of trustees of the EPF were not in favour of the fund investment in the share market for fear of great risk involved.

''We will make our efforts to make them agree to such an investment. If they do so we will begin with five per cent investment in the share market and then increase it later,'' Mr Fernandes said answering a specific query whether the government had decided to invest five percent of the fund corpus in the stock market.

The Minister said they are also trying to find other avenues of investment but insisted they have to operate within the parameters prescribed by the Finance Ministry.

He made it clear that the step would be taken only if there is a consensus in the board.

The employees representatives are more interested in the safety of the money rather than investing in the stock market. ''They feel it is better to earn less interest than to lose the capital itself.'' UNI