The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has fixed 8.1 per cent as the interest rate on Provident Fund deposits for the current 2021-22. The interest rate for the current fiscal year ending March 31 has been finalized by EPFO for its about 5 crore subscribers. The proposed interest rate is said to be the lowest interest rate since 1977-78 on deposits that employees make towards their retirement fund.
As per the sources, EPFO’s apex decision making body, Central Board of trustees has decided to provide an 8.1 per cent rate of interest on employees’ provident fund for 2021-22 in its meeting held on Saturday.
Although the corpus has raised by 13 per cent, interest income has surged only by 8 per cent. The COVID-19 pandemic has strained the earnings of EPFO. The organization has delayed the payments for 2019-10 and paid the interest in two installments, deriving from two key courses of its investments – 0.35 per cent from the equity portfolio and 8.15 per cent from debt investment.
