'Govt to reduce EPF interest, raise petro prices'

New Delhi, May 19: The Left and several other parties today charged the government in the Lok Sabha with planning to further reduce the interest rate on EPF to 8 per cent and raise the prices of petrol and diesel after the conclusion of the Budget session of Parliament on May 23.

''This is absolutely anti-people and Parliament is being ignored,'' Mr Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) said while raising the matter during zero hour.

Several members, including Mr Basudeb Acharia (CPI-M) and Mr Ramjilal Suman (SP), supported the contention of Mr Dasgupta.

The government had only last year brought down the EPF interest rate by one per cent and further cut would seriously affect more than 30 million EPF subscribers, most of whom were casual workers and contract employees, Mr Dasgupta said.

The government was trying to take important decisions ''at the back of Parliament'' and this was not done, he said.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram was acting in an irresponsible manner on the matter as his Ministry had refused to raise the interest on the Special Deposit Scheme (SDS), where most of the EPF funds were parked, the member said.

On the other hand, the EPF was being asked to invest the funds in the highly volatile stock market, which had crashed by about 1,000 points in a single day, putting the poor subscribers at a great risk, he said.

Mr Suman said the government had failed to reduce the prices of petroleum products when crude had slumped in the international market, but was now planning to hike the rates.

The government should immediately make public the C Rangarajan committee report on petroleum pricing and implement it. The report was submitted in February, but the government was sitting on it, he said.

UNI