EPFO board sets interest rate on provident fund for FY23 at 8.15%: Report

The Employees Provident Fund Office (EPFO), has set the interest rate for provident funds for this financial year at 8.15 per cent, reported PTI quoting sources.

The decision is to be taken at a meeting of the Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO chaired by Union labour employment minister Bhupender Yadav that began on Monday. The board will be discussing higher salary-linked pension, annual financial estimates and interest rate.

The 233rd meeting of the CBT was supposed to be held on March 25026 but was postponed due to administrative exigencies reported The Hindu.

The decisions made in this meeting will impact close to six crore active EPFO subscribers, from which 72.73 lakh are pensioners.

Interest rate 2021-22

In 2021-22 the EPFO had declared an 8.1 per cent interest rate, which was the lowest in four decades. This was later refined by the finance minister in June of that year. This meant that the EPFO was at a Rs 450 crore surplus. This could indicate that the rates would be around the same range.

It was in 1977-78 when the interest rate had fallen to 8 per cent.

Minimum pension

It is also expected that the minimum pension would be increased to Rs 3,000 a month from the earlier Rs 1,000, reported Zee News. This would support the recommendations made by the parliamentary standing committee of labour. Trade unions are demanding an increase to Rs 6,000 a month.

Higher pension option and ceiling wage

The board in the meeting are also expecting to discuss higher pension option after a Supreme court order. According to a report by Business Standard it is expected that the ceiling wage would be increased to Rs 21,000 from its earlier Rs 15,000.