The Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) Board has approved a relief package for employers; that will be effective retrospectively from January, 2020 until June, 2021.

At a press conference yesterday, Fund chief executive officer Jaoji Koroi said: “We will be communicating the full details to our employers in the coming week and hope that it will help them during this difficult period.”

Chief financial officer Pravinesh Singh said the relief package gives employers some time to meet their contributions payments.

“This is especially for those employers who are finding difficulties in paying contributions – they simply need to make arrangements with FNPF. This relief is effective from January 2020 – June 2021,” Mr Singh said.

New interest rates

FNPF yesterday approved a new interest rate of 5.0 per cent for the financial year ending June 30, 2020.

This means that $286.2 million will be credited to over 388,071 members’ accounts.

Mr Koroi said the fund has paid over $1.43 billion in interest to members accounts over the past five years.

“The amount that each member gains will depend entirely on their average balance during the year but they must have a positive FNPF balance.

Mr Koroi said whilst the rate was lower than initially anticipated, it was very competitive given the current economic and investment environment

“We had clearly advised members, that the interest declared was reflective of the one-off revaluation gains recorded in the accounts last financial year, and the rate would normalise this year.

“However, with the added economic downturn impacted by COVID-19, it has resulted in the declaration of 5 per cent,” he said.

Last year, FNPF declared a 6.75 per cent interest rate

Special death benefit

The FNPF board has also retained the Special Death Benefit (SDB) for the financial year 2020 of $8,500, at a premium of $35, to be deducted from members’ accounts on July 1, 2020.

Mr Koroi said:“This amount is added to a member’s FNPF balance in the event that he or she passes away between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021 or the financial year 2021.

Mr Koroi urges FNPF members to utilise the Fund’s digital services to check their balances and track their savings.

myFNPF app

He said over 70,000 members can check their balances on the myFNPF app, whilst 36,000 can view their latest statement on the member portal.

“Approximately 140,000 members will receive their updated statement via email in the next few months,” he said.

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