The Board of Trustees of Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) which met today, 13th January has decided to give 8.75% interest to the account holders. Last year it was 8.5%. The Central Trade unions have been continuously demanding that it should be raised to 9.5% as earlier. 5 crore workers will benefit by this decision. The Finance ministry has to approve the decision of the Central Board of trustees, before the amount could be put in the accounts of the workers.
The EPFO is estimated to have an income of Rs 20,796.96 crore in the current financial year. Payment of interest at the rate of 8.5 per cent to subscribers would have required Rs 20,740 crore and left a surplus of Rs 56.96 crore, according to earlier projections. Now there may not be any extra balance.