EPFO Interest rates may rise to 8.6% this year: Indian Express

EPFO fund manager is yet to announce the interest rate on provident fund contributions.  The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation has been hoping to give an interest of about 8.6 per cent on contributions during the fiscal year 2012-13.  EPFO manages a corpus of over Rs 3.5 lakh crore and have five crore members for the year 2012-13.  The rate for the current financial year has not been announced yet. The delay means those who retire this year cannot avail of the raise in interest, as the previous year’s rate would apply in their case.

Employee provident fund rates were reduced from 9.5 per cent in 2010-11 to 8.25 per cent during the last financial year.  However, the organisation is yet to even start calculations to zero in on the interest rate on the savings in the provident fund account.  Interest rates should be ideally announced before the start of a financial year so that members can take informed investment decisions. It should not be endlessly deferred.   

The decision regarding the interest rate is taken by the EPFO’s Central Board of Trustees headed by the labour minister. The Central Board of Trustees has met twice during the current financial year but has failed to come up with a final decision on the interest rate.  The Central Board of Trustees has met twice during the current financial year but has failed to come up with a final decision on the interest rate.