NEW DELHI: Ahead of a one-day protest called by labour unions against lowering of interest rate on EPF, Finance Ministry today defended its decision, saying last year’s surplus would have to be used to pay even the lower 8.7 per cent rate on Employee Provident Fund for 2015-16.
Employee unions have called a nationwide protest on April 29, against the Finance Ministry’s move to fix EPF interest rate at 8.7 per cent for 2015-16, lower than 8.8 per cent sought by Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and 8.75 paid for the previous fiscal.
A Finance Ministry source said earnings of EPFO in 2015-16 is “not even sufficient to pay 8.7 per cent interest rate.”
“There was a surplus of Rs 1,604.05 crore for 2014-15. At the proposed rate of 8.8 per cent, this surplus would be reduced to just Rs 673.85 crore in 2015-16.
“Thus, the proposed rate of 8.8 per cent seeks to draw on surplus of last year. This would adversely hit maintenance of relatively stable returns to investors for the next year in a falling interest rate scenario,” the source added.
Stating that earnings of EPFO in 2015-16 were not even sufficient to pay 8.7 per cent interest, the source said the ratified interest rate of 8.7 per cent would leave a surplus of around Rs 1,000 crore with EPFO for the year. (AGENCIES)
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