New Delhi: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will pay interest at the rate of 8.50 per cent for the current financial year, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar said Thursday. It marks a cut of 15 basis points – or 0.15 percentage point – from the interest rate of 8.65 per cent paid on EPF investments for financial year 2018-19. The move is likely to impact more than six crore subscribers of the provident fund scheme.
“The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) has decided to decrease the rate of Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF),” Gangwar said. It should be stated here that the Central Board of Trustees is the top decision-making body of the EPFO.
This is the first time that the EPF rate has been decreased to 8.50 per cent. It last happened in the 2012-13 fiscal.
Once the approval of Central Board of Trustees is in place, the proposal will be sent to the Union Finance Ministry for approval. Once it approves the new rate of interest it will be credited in the accounts of subscribers.
For financial year 2017-18, the retirement fund body had kept the interest rate steady at 8.55 per cent – the lowest interest rate recorded in five years. It had provided interest at the rate of 8.8 per cent to the subscribers for financial year 2015-16, the highest in the last decade.
Currently, the government reviews the interest rate applicable to the provident fund (PF) scheme for salaried individuals on a yearly basis.
Agencies
