AITUC wants govt to notify 8.5% rate for EPFO depositors soon

All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) will press for early notification for payment of 8.5 per cent rate of interest to over 50 million EPFO subscribers for 2012-13 to ensure smooth settlement of claims.
"We will raise the issue of delay in payment of 8.5 per cent rate of return on PF deposits to subscribers for 2012-13 with the Labour Minister", All India Trade Union Congress Secretary D L Sachdev told PTI.
He added, "In the absence of any interest rate notification, EPFO is settling claims at 8.25 per cent interest rate on PF deposits for 2012-13."
As a practice, EPFO provides previous fiscal's notified rate of interest on deposits for settlement of claims in cases where the current financial year's rate of return is not notified. EPFO had fixed rate of interest on deposits for 2011-12 at 8.25 per cent.

Once the interest rate is notified, any subscriber whose account is settled at previous fiscal's rate is required to file fresh application for payment of differential amount, which causes hardships, Sachdev said.
The Employees Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) apex decision making body the Central Board of Trustee (CBT) had decided to pay 8.5 per cent rate of interest to subscribers for 2012-13 on February 25.
As a practice, the CBT decision on interest rate requires ratification by the Finance Ministry before it is implemented. The proposal approved by CBT, has already been sent to the Finance Ministry for ratification, a source said.

According to norms, EPFO should announce rate of interest on PF deposits before the beginning of a financial year. However, for the past few years, this has been taking place by the end of fiscal. This time too, the rate of interest would be notified after the end of the financial year.