EPFO to maintain 8.5% interest rate in 2009-10

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will continue to provide 8.5 per cent interest rate on provident fund to its 4.41 crore depositors during 2009-10, a senior government official said.

"We are in a position to maintain 8.5 per cent interest rate for the current fiscal. But the final call in this regard would be taken by the Central Board of Trustees," a top Labour Ministry official told PTI.

"There would be surplus of over Rs 6 crore if EPFO maintains 8.5 per cent interest rate for 2009-10. The fund had earned an interest rate of 8.68 per cent between September and March last fiscal," the official said.

Earlier, the Finance and Investment Committee of the EPFO in its meeting on March 26 discussed the issues concerning interest rate on provident fund deposits.

According to the EPFO estimates, 8.5 per cent interest payment would leave a surplus of Rs 6.4 crore on an estimated income of Rs 12,994 crore in 2009-10.

However, payment of 8.75 per cent interest by EPFO would result in a loss of Rs 366.77 crore and 9 per cent would mean a deficit of Rs 739.94 crore.

FIC's recommendations on financial matters are considered by the Central Board of Trustees of EPFO, which takes the final call. EPFO manages a corpus of about Rs 1,82,000 crore. It had given 8.5 per cent interest for 2008-09.