Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday asserted that the proposed 8.1 per cent interest rate on employees' provident fund is better than interest rates offered by other small savings schemes, and the revision is dictated by the realties of the current times. The EPFO's central board takes a call on interest rate on provident fund deposits, and it is the board that has proposed cutting PF rate to 8.1 per cent for FY2021-22, she said in her reply to a discussion on Appropriation Bills in the Rajya Sabha.
"EPFO has a central board which is the one which takes the call on what rate has to be given for them, and they have not changed it for quite some time...They have changed it now ... To 8.1 per cent," she said.