The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation on Thursday decided to keep the interest rate on provident funds unchanged at 8.5% for the financial year 2020-’21, the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment said in a release. The decision was taken at a meeting of the central board of trustees of the EPFO on Thursday and was headed by Union Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar.
“The interest rate would be officially notified in the government gazette following which EPFO would credit the rate of interest into the subscribers’ accounts,” the labour ministry release stated. The notification for the interest rate will be done following approval from the Union finance ministry.
The EPFO will have a surplus of around Rs 300 crore on maintaining 8.5% rate of interest for the current fiscal, KE Raghunathan, a trustee of the body, told PTI.
In March last year, the EPFO had decided to lower the interest rate on provident fund deposits to a seven-year low of 8.5% for 2019-’20, from 8.65% in the previous financial year. The EPFO had provided 8.65% interest rate to its subscribers in 2016-’17 and 8.55% in 2017-’18. The rate of interest was slightly higher at 8.8% in 2015-’16, according to PTI.
The retirement fund body has more than five crore subscribers.
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