Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Jun 30, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Jun 30, 2004 |
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Industry & Economy
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Small Savings Decision on EPF interest rate today Our Bureau
New Delhi , June 29 THE Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will meet here on Wednesday to decide the rate of interest on deposits of Employment Provident Fund (EPF) subscribers for fiscal 2004-05. The meeting will be presided over by the Union Labour Minister, Mr Sis Ram Ola, who is the CBT Chairman. The majority of trade unions have demanded an increase in interest rate to over three crore EPF subscribers. They have also said that the shortfall may be met through Budgetary support and treated as social security expenditure. The Labour Minister has supported their demand and has said that he would, if need be, take up their demand with the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister, in his last week's pre-Budget meeting with the trade unions, had assured that he would take up the issue with the Finance Minister. The EPFO had paid 12 per cent interest to its subscribers since 1989-90, which was reduced to 11 per cent from July 2000. The rate was reduced again next year to 9.5 per cent for 2001-02 and 2002-03. The interest rate was further reduced to nine per cent for 2003-04 but the EPFO announced golden jubilee bonus interest of 0.5 per cent, thereby maintaining the composite rate at 9.5 per cent. The total corpus of the EPFO is around Rs 1.28 lakh crore. This includes Rs 71,000 crore of the employees' provident fund, Rs 52,000 crore of the employees' pension fund and Rs 4,000 crore of the employees' Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme (DILS). In the meeting, the trustees of the fund will decide the rate of interest after taking into consideration the projected income from investments and projected liability of interest payments.
More Stories on : Small Savings | Interest Rates
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