| Labour Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao today said that he would try his best to raise the interest rate on Employees Provident Fund for the current financial year from the proposed 8.5 per cent.
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| “My heart goes out to the welfare of labour. I will strive to increase it (interest rate). But I do not know how successful I will be,” Rao told reporters when asked if he would seek a higher interest rate.
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| He said the labour ministry was exploring all possibilities, including legal changes, to pay the highest possible interest rate to the four million subscribers of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation.
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| Rao said he would be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram to discuss the matter. “Let the Prime Minister come back. Maybe, I will meet him tomorrow itself,” he said on the sidelines of a conference of regional provident fund commissioners.
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| The government is under attack from trade unions and the Left parties on the decision of the Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO to reduce the interest rate for 2005-06 to 8.5 per cent from 9.5 per cent paid during the last three years.
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| Rao said he had announced the decision to reduce the interest rate in his capacity as the chairman of the CBT. “The labour ministry is going to submit a formal proposal to me in my capacity as labour minister. But, I am yet to announce a final decision as the labour minister,” he said.
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| Every rupee in the EPF would be taken into account and if needed some rules might have to be changed, he said when asked about ways to mobilise additional resources.
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| The EPFO is facing a shortfall of Rs 366 crore to pay 8.5 per cent interest to its subscribers. The finance and investment committee had said that an interest rate of over 8 per cent would have resulted in a deficit.
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| The Prime Minister had recently said that he would talk to the labour minister on the issue and do whatever was possible within the resources of the EPFO. However, Singh had ruled out budgetary support to retain the EPF interest rate at 9.5 per cent. |
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