"With respect to the EPF, the employee needs to be provided two options. Firstly, the employee may opt for EPF or the New Pension Scheme (NPS)...for employees below a certain threshold of monthly income, contribution to EPF should be optional, without affecting or reducing the employer's contribution," Jaitley had said in Parliament.

Another amendment in the bill proposed to change the definition of wages, which would include basic pay and all allowances paid to workers. This would incr ..

The bill provides "Wages", meaning all emoluments or remunerations including all allowances payable to an employee in cash.

Under the scheme, the employees contribute 12 per cent of their basic wages towards EPF contribution, with employers pitching in equally.

Out of employers' contribution 3.67 per cent goes towards EPF, 8.33 per cent towards Employees' Pension Scheme and 0.5 per cent towards the Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme.

In the present scenario, some employers split wages of workers into numerous allowances to reduce their PF liability. The amendment would address this issue.

The employees' representatives are in favour of the clubbing of wages. However the unionists have reservations against providing option to workers to choose between EPF and NPS, saying that NPS is not a social security scheme rather it is a saving scheme.