First comprehensive review of EPF, ETF launched, says Deputy Minister The Government has launched the first comprehensive review of the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees’ Trust Fund (ETF) since their establishment, Deputy Minister of Labour Mahinda Jayasinghe told Pa…
First comprehensive review of EPF, ETF launched, says Deputy Minister The Government has launched the first comprehensive review of the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees’ Trust Fund (ETF) since their establishment, Deputy Minister of Labour Mahinda Jayasinghe told Parliament on Friday. He said the review was aimed at improving the efficiency of the two retirement benefit schemes and enhancing services provided to millions of members. Addressing Parliament, Jayasinghe said the Labour Department had already introduced several measures to modernise the administration of the funds, including digitalisation initiatives and improved mechanisms to recover outstanding contributions from defaulting employers. According to the latest figures, the EPF has 22.9 million registered members and beneficiaries, of whom 3.1 million active accounts receive monthly contributions. The ETF has around three million registered members. The Deputy Minister said the EPF’s total assets had reached Rs. 4.9 trillion by the end of 2025, while the ETF’s assets stood at Rs. 637.5 billion. He added that there were 101,000 active employers in 2025, including 376 semi-government institutions. Jayasinghe said no government had undertaken such a systematic review of the two funds since their establishment, with the EPF being introduced in 1958 and the ETF in 1980. He said the Labour Department had accelerated the recovery of unpaid EPF contributions from private and semi-government institutions, with Rs. 3.4 billion allocated through the 2026 Budget to settle outstanding contributions of semi-government institutions. He added that steps had also been taken to reactivate stalled court cases and execute pending warrants related to contribution defaults. The Deputy Minister said a new software system was being developed by integrating the data systems of the Labour Department and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) to create a unified platform. He further noted that the Digital EPF facility, launched last December, enables employees to register and access a range of EPF-related services online. These reforms, he said, would eventually allow members to obtain EPF and ETF services through a single-window system.
