Mumbai:
The board of trustees of the employees provident fund organisations (EPFO)
has agreed to keep interest rate unchanged at 8.5 per cent for its nearly 43 million
subscribers during fiscal 2006-07. The
board will submit its recommendations to the finance ministry, which is expected
to notify the rate shortly. "Amid
protest by some trade union representatives, it has been decided to pay 8.5 per
cent interest rate on provident fund," labour minister Oscar Fernandes said
after the meeting of the EPF central board of trustees. He
said the decision would put a burden of Rs450 crore on the EPF fund but that the
deficit could be offset from a surplus of Rs590 crore lying in the interest suspense
account, contingency reserve and special reserve fund. Even
after paying 8.5 per cent interest rate, the fund would thus have a surplus of
Rs83 crore. Fernandes
said the EPFO had constituted a sub-committee to assess the board`s finances.
The report submitted by the committee said there would be a surplus of Rs595 crore
with the board. The
EPF has a corpus of Rs94,000 crore, including pension fund. The
total interest outgo for 2006-07 would be to the tune of Rs7,800 crore, Fernandes
said. He said
the board also discussed the government`s suggestion to invest five per cent ofthe
corpus in the stock market but no decision was taken as representatives of the
left-affiliated trade unions rejected the decision of the board, while demanding
at least 9.5 per cent interest rate.
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