NEW DELHI: The Centre will transfer the entire consolidated annual interest payment of 8.5 per cent to subscribers of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). Labour Minster Santosh Gangwar said on Thursday, “We had said that it would be our endeavour to provide 8.5 per cent rate of interest on EPF for 2019-20. We have issued a notification to provide 8.5 per cent rate of interest for 2019-20.
We have also begun the process to credit the said rate of interest into subscribers’ accounts”. The announcement comes as a huge relief for the salaried class, since the EPFO had said on September 9 that the pandemic had affected fund management and that it would pay only a part of the instalment for the fiscal year 2019-2020.
The restoration of full interest was on account of robust stock market which gave good returns to its ETFs invested in the market, officials said. The Finance Ministry has already approved the move. The EPFO invests subscribers’ money in a range of instruments, including in those such as stock market Exchange Traded Funds (ETF), in order to fetch higher returns.