The Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the top decision-making body of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), will decide on the interest rate to be given on the Employees’ Provident Fund (PF) deposits for 2021-22 in its meeting next month. Regarding EPF interest rate for 2021-22, Union Labor Minister Bhupendra Yadav said, “Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) (CBT) meeting will be held in Guwahati in March, where the proposal of interest rate for 2021-22 will be listed. Because it is the end of the financial year.”
Asked whether the EPFO will maintain 8.5 per cent interest rate for 2021-22 as it did in 2020-21, Bhupendra Yadav said a decision will be taken on the basis of earnings estimates. Please inform that Bhupendra Yadav is also the head of CBT. The CBT had fixed an interest rate of 8.5 per cent on EPF deposits for 2020-21 in March 2021. After this, it was cleared by the Finance Ministry in October 2021, after which EPFO issued instructions to the field offices to deposit interest income at 8.5% in the account of beneficiaries for 2020-21.
Once the CBT fixes the interest rate on EPF deposits for a financial year, it is sent to the finance ministry for concurrence. The EPFO sends the interest rate to the account of the beneficiaries only after the government confirms it through the Ministry of Finance. In March 2020, the EPFO had reduced the interest rate on provident fund deposits to a seven-year low in 2019-20, which was 8.5 percent, as against 8.65 percent interest rate in 2018-19.
EPFO had provided 8.65 percent interest rate to the beneficiaries in 2016-17 and 8.55 percent in 2017-18. The interest rate was slightly higher at 8.8 per cent in 2015-16. It had paid 8.75 per cent interest in 2013-14 as well as 2014-15, up from 8.5 per cent in 2012-13. In 2011-12, the interest rate on provident funds was 8.25 percent.