labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Thursday said that the Finance Ministry has approved 8.65 per cent interest rate on EPF deposits for 2016-17. The Minister’s statement has laid to rest apprehensions among formal sector workers that they would get lower rate of interest than the 8.65 per cent approved by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) trustees in December last year.
The ratification of the 8.65 per cent interest on EPF will enable the retirement fund body EPFO to credit this rate of return into the accounts of four crore subscribers. “Finance Ministry has agreed to 8.65 per cent rate of interest. Now, the communication will come. The formal discussions are over,” the minister said on the sidelines of National Safety Awards function. “We will immediately issue the notification and credit the rate of interest to over four crore subscribers,” he added.