EPF interest rate remains unchanged

New Delhi, Feb 23 (ANI): The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) board, in a meeting chaired by Labour and Employment Minister Oscar Fernandes, decided on Monday that the rate of interest would continue to remain at 8.5 per cent per annum.

The decision to retain the same rate of interest was a blow to protesting trade unions and four crore provident fund subscribers who were demanding an increase of atleast one per cent.

The trade unions are complaining about the failiure of the government to increase the interest rate to 9.5 per cent as promised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

At the Central Board of Trustees meeting, representatives of AITUC, CITU, BMS, HMS, AIUTUC and All India UTUC registered their demands in the presence of Fernandes, who is also the chairman of the Board.

However, the efforts of the unions have come to no avail.

About 70 per cent of the EPFO's 33,000 crore corpus remains deposited with the government's special depository schemes. (ANI)