Central Board of EPFO recommends 8.5 pct annual rate of interest for current financial year

The Central Board of the Employees' Provident Fund Organization has recommended 8.5 per cent annual rate of interest for the financial year 2020-21. The decision was taken in the 228th meeting of the Central Board of Trustees, which was held yesterday in Srinagar, under the chairmanship of Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar.

 

The Minister informed that the interest rate would be officially notified in the government gazette following which EPFO would credit the rate of interest into the subscribers’ accounts. Since the year 2014, EPFO has consistently generated returns not less than 8.5 per cent. EPFO over the years has been able to distribute higher income to its members, through various economic cycles with minimal credit risk.

 

Considering the high credit profile of the EPFO investment, the interest rate of EPFO is considerably higher than other comparable investment avenues available for subscribers.

 

For the current fiscal, the EPFO has decided to liquidate investment and the interest rate recommended is a result of combined income from



interest received from debt investment as well as income realized from equity investment.

 

The Labour Ministry has informed that this has enabled EPFO to provide higher returns to its subscribers and still allowing EPFO with a healthy surplus to act as cushion for providing higher returns in the future also.

 

EPFO has also extended its provident fund, pension and insurance benefits to all employees of existing establishments covered under the erstwhile J&K PF Act as well as the employees of newly covered establishments. EPFO has set up Regional Offices at Srinagar, Jammu and Facilitation Centre at Leh.

The social security coverage of establishments under EPFO in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has increased by 38 per cent, from 3,458 on 31st of October 2019 to 4,754 on 31st of January 2021. The benefits of social security schemes of EPFO in these UTs have been extended to 2.11 lakh subscribers by January this year as compared to 1.29 lakh in October 2019, registering a remarkable growth of 63 per cent.