The Hindu Business Line : EPF interest rate

The decision of the EPFO board to pay a 9.5-per cent interest for EPF for the financial year ending March 2005 is a welcome move, especially in the present falling interest regime. The government has extended a helping hand to the cause of the working class.

It should explore all possibilities to invest the EPF funds in more income-generating areas so as to offer better interest rates for the subscribers in the coming years.

However, all parties of the UPA Government should be taken into consultation to ensure political and economic consensus in guaranteeing the safety of the funds so deployed. Suitable personnel with professional skills should be appointed in the EPFO for taking right investment decisions.

The accountability of such persons should be pre-fixed so as avoid recurrence of past mistakes. The government should reconsider the deployment of the funds in good equities with higher returns after enough deliberations with the Left, who expressed much reservation earlier.

C. P. Velayudhan Nair

Kochi

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