New Delhi, Nov 19: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) on Monday lowered the interest rates on EPFO deposits to 8.65 per cent from existing 8.8 per cent for its over four crore subscribers during the for current fiscal. Indian National Trade Union Congress Vice-President Ashok Singh was quoted by PTI saying that the Employees Provident Fund Organisation’s apex decision making body, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), has taken a decision to lower the interest rate to 8.65 per cent for the current fiscal from 8.8 in 2015-16.
It was also reported that the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh General Secretary Virjesh Upadhyay also said that 8.65 per cent rate of interest is fixed on EPF deposits for 2016-17. Following the protests by trade unions, the government had to provide 8.8% rate of interest on EPF deposit for 2015-16. However, the EPFO has projected income of Rs 39,084 crore for the current fiscal. (ALSO READ: EPFO likely to retain 8.5% interest on PF deposits for 2013-14)
In September, the government reduced interest rates on small savings schemes marginally by 0.1% for the October-December quarter of 2016-1. This resulted in lower returns on PPF, Kisan Vikas Patra, Sukanya Samriddhi Account, among others. As per report by Mint, “The finance ministry has been asking the labour ministry to align the EPF interest rate with other small saving schemes of the government like Public Provident Fund (PPF)”.
Earlier it was believed that the Labour union representatives in the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the EPFO could seek a higher interest rate of 9 percent on EPF balances for 2016-17 but that did not happen. It was reported by Indian Express that Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya recently met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal to convince the ministry for retaining 8.8 per cent rate of interest for the current fiscal as well to avoid any uproar on interest of EPF.
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