Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) : Key Points
Union Minister for Labour & Employment announced the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) interest rate for the year 2021-2022 after chairing the two-day long meeting of the 230th Central Board of Trustees (CBT) at Guwahati.
- The return on workers’ retirement savings parked with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has been slashed to 8.1% for 2021-22 from the 8.5% rate credited to members’ accounts in the past two years.
- The last time the EPF savings were paid an annual return this low was in 1977-78, when the rate was 8%, but that marked the highest EPF rate at the time since the EPFO’s inception in 1952.
- Since then, the EPF rate has been lower than 8.5% in three years — 1979-80, 1980-81 and 2011-12 — when an 8.25% return was paid on balances.
- The rate will have to be ratified by the Finance Ministry before it is notified and credited to members’ accounts.
- The cut in the EPF rate, at a time when inflation is resurging, attracted criticism from the central trade union representatives on the Board who called for the 8.5% return to be retained.
