The Hindu Business Line : Left asks PM to retain EPF interest at 9.5 pc

THE Left parties on Thursday mounted pressure on the Government for providing budgetary support to the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) for retaining the interest rate on provident fund deposits at 9.5 per cent.

Around 50 MPs from both Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Thursday met the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and insisted upon providing support to enable the EPFO maintain the interest rate of 9.5 per cent for the current fiscal.

The members of the CPI(M), CPI, Forward Block, RSP, Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Shiv Sena staged an angry walk out from Parliament following announcements that the Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO has already sent in its recommendation for 8.5 per cent interest for the current fiscal and that the Ministry is considering it.

Speaking to newspersons after the meeting, the leaders said that they have submitted a memorandum signed by 75 MPs to the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister has assured that he would talk to the Minister for Finance and Labour Ministers to discuss the matter, they said.

The AITUC General Secretary and CPI leader, Mr Gurudas Dasgupta, again raised the issue of increasing interest rate on the Special Deposit Scheme of the Finance Ministry. The leaders also pointed out that the Government had provided funds to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore to brokers of the stock exchanges, Rs 4,000 crore to revive the Dabhol project and Rs 700 crore to make up the loss of UTI's US 64 scheme and questioned why the same will not be done in case of the EPFO.

Mr Dasgupta argued that he did not find Dr Singh's response "that positive," and criticised the Government's move to reduce the existing pension benefits available even to the Central and State Government employees.

The Left leaders threatened that if the Government did not accede to the genuine demands of the working classes, then bad days are ahead for it.

More Stories on : Social Security | Politics

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page