As reported by Economics Times, the government may peg the interest rate on provident fund deposits at nearly 8% for 2022-2023.
The Central Board Of Trustees of Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will soon decide on the provident fund (PF) interest rates for the financial year 2022-23. As reported by an English Daily, the meet is expected to take place later this month or in early March to mull over PF interest rates. So far, the interest rates are recommended by the Finance Investment and Audit Committee. The Central Board Of Trustees has to decide on their recommendations.
As reported by Economics Times, the government may peg the interest rate on PF deposits at nearly 8% for 2022-2023. This is similar to the previous fiscal year. The government approved an interest rate on EPF deposits of just 8.1% for the fiscal year 2021–2022 — the lowest in four decades. The Central Board of Trustees set the interest rate on EPF deposits at 8.5% for the fiscal year 2020–2021 in March 2021.
Here is the PF interest rate and its year:
In 2016-2017, the Central Trustee Board pegged the PF interest rates at 8.65%. Followed by a decline in 2017-2018 by 8.55% and again observed a rise of 8.65% in 2018-19. After 2019, the figures for interest rates were 8.50% in 2019-20, 8.50% in 2020-21, and 8.10% in 2021-22.
The Central Board Of Trustees has raised the issue of non-credit of interest for EPF for the year 2021-22. The EPF for the year 2021- 22 was ratified in June 2022. In March 2022, the EPFO trustees’ board, which included representatives of both employers and employees and was presided over by Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav, approved an interest rate of 8.1% for the fiscal year 2021–2022. The interest has not yet been credited, even though the same was finalised in June 2022.
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According to Harbhajan Singh Sidhu, general secretary of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha, the issue was brought up roughly ten days ago, according to PTI. Speaking with the news agency PTI, Harbhajan said, “They informed me that the system’s (software) issue would be rectified quickly. This shouldn’t happen.” Despite approving the interest rates in March and June, the employees have not received their benefits. According to AK Padmanabhan — an additional EPFO trustee, who represents the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) — there is no reason for this. He said that he will bring up the matter at the upcoming Central Board of Trustees meeting. Employer-representative trustee KE Raghunathan had also taken note of the problem and brought it up with the EPFO officials. The EPFO agreed to reduce the interest on provident fund deposits for 2021–2022 from the current 8.5 percent offered in 2020–2021 in March of last year to 8.1 percent.
