Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday slammed the Centre for slashing interest rates on Employees' Provident Fund (EPF), sarcastically stating that it was "gift card" from the BJP government after the party's victory in Uttar Pradesh.
Banerjee called for united protests to thwart this "anti-people step, which has been taken at the expense of farmers, workers and the middle class".
"After the UP victory, the BJP government comes out with its gift card immediately! It, at once, unmasks itself by proposing to slash the interest rate on Employees' Provident Fund deposits to a four-decade low," Banerjee tweeted.
On Saturday, the interest rate on employees' provident fund deposits was cut to a four-decade low of 8.1 per cent for 2021-22 fiscal from 8.5 per cent the previous year.
"This is amidst the pandemic-hit financial stresses of the middle and lower middle-class workers and employees of the country." Banerjee wrote.
"The anti-people, anti-worker step exposes the crudely lopsided public policies of the current central establishment, which espouses interests of big capital at the expense of farmers, workers, and middle classes. The black initiative must be thwarted by united protests," she added.
The Central Board of Trustees of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the country’s largest retirement fund, has recommended a return of 8.10 per cent for its over 6 crore active subscribers for financial year 2021-22. This is the lowest interest rate in at least four decades but remains higher than that of other small-savings instruments.
Over the years, the finance ministry has questioned the high rate retained by EPFO and has been nudging it to reduce it to a sub-8 per cent level in line with the overall interest rate scenario. EPFO rate continues to be the highest among other savings instruments. Small savings rates range from 4.0 per cent to 7.6 per cent, and have been kept unchanged in recent quarters, despite a fall in overall market rates.
The Finance Ministry had questioned the 2019-20 interest rate and the 2018-19 interest rate of 8.65 per cent as well, besides the EPFO’s exposure to IL&FS and similar entities where the exposure was deemed as “risky”.
(with inputs from PTI)
