EPF interest rate set to be hiked to 8.65%; minister says it will soon be notified

EPFO subscribers alert! The Ministry for Labour and Employment will soon notify 8.65 per cent interest rate on EPF (Employees’ Provident Fund) for 2018-19. The Minister for Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar made an announcement in this regard on August 30. 

“The Finance Ministry does not disagree with 8.65 per cent interest on EPF for 2018-19. I believe that it will soon be notified,” Santosh Gangwar told reporters on August 30.

See Zee Business Live TV streaming below:

This soon to be announced Labour and Employment ministry's notification would enable retirement fund body EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) to implement this rate. Currently, the EPFO is paying an interest rate of 8.55 per cent for 2018-19 under the Provident Fund (PF) withdrawal claims. For information to our readers, this 8.55 per cent EPF interest rate on employees' deposits was fixed for 2017-18 as well.

In February 2019, the Central Board of Trustees — EPFO’s apex decision-making body, which is ex-officio headed by the Labour Minister, had taken a decision to raise the interest rate on EPF to 8.65 per cent for 2018-19, which was the first increase in the past three years. In April 2019, the Department of Financial Services (DFS) had given its concurrence to the EPFO’s decision to provide 8.65 per cent rate of interest for 2018-19. The EPFO had earlier reduced the PF interest rate for 2016-17 to 8.65 per cent as compared with 8.8 per cent for 2015-16.