Tata Motors is in a legal dispute with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) over transferring its pension funds. As quoted in Money Control,The automaker, which manages its own exempted pension fund, wants to transfer its employee provident fund corpus to the EPFO. However, the EPFO demands comprehensive documentation and additional details about the pension corpus for all employees before approving the transfer, claiming the information provided was inadequate.
Government sources indicate that the EPFO is willing to facilitate the transfer but insists on detailed information about the pension scheme. Tata Motors, which reported losses for three consecutive years, sought to cancel its pension fund exemption automatically and offered to cover additional liabilities through actuarial valuation, but the process remains unresolved.
In November 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that members of a statutory pension fund as of September 1, 2014, could opt to contribute beyond the statutory limit and receive a pension based on the average salary of the last five years. Tata Motors approved the joint options on the EPFO portal and set aside Rs 691.07 crore for additional liability. The EPFO redirected all joint applications to Tata Motors’ pension trust, prompting the company to file a writ petition in the Delhi High Court to transfer the fund to the EPFO. The matter is scheduled for a hearing on August 8.
