The Hindu : Meet today to finalise interest rate on PF

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 31, 2003

National

National

Meet today to finalise interest rate on PF

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 30. A crucial meeting of the Central Board of Trustees of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), where the rate of interest on the Provident Fund for 2003-04 will be finalised, is to be held here tomorrow.

The meeting holds interest because the EPFO Finance and Investment sub-committee has recommended a reduction of one per cent in the rate of interest, though the Labour Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, has left no stone unturned to prevent the cut. The Finance Ministry too supports bringing down the interest rate in the wake of the prevailing market conditions.

The sub-committee has suggested three interest rate structures of 8 per cent, 8.5 per cent and 9 per cent for the Rs. 1,40,000 crore corpus. However, as the returns on the corpus funds invested in the Special Deposit Scheme have substantially come due to an overall reduction in the small savings, the EPFO might not be left with any choice, but to bring down the interest rate. Though the Finance Ministry has asked the Labour Ministry to maintain the present rate if it could generate funds on its own, the latter is not in a position to do so.

The sub-committee was constituted in April to look into ways to invest the contributor's money to get the best returns that would help in giving the highest rate of interest to the subscribers.

Tomorrow's meeting, to be chaired by the Labour Minister, will also decide on the housing scheme for contributors and utilising the defaulters money for welfare schemes.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National