EPF Interest For FY 2019-20 Likely To Be Credited In One Go By December

Retirement fund body EPFO is likely to credit the 8.5% rate of interest for the financial year 2019-20 in the employees' provident fund (EPF) accounts of around six crore subscribers in one go by the end of December, according to a PTI report.

Earlier in September this year, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation had said that it has decided to split 8.5% interest into two installments of 8.15% and 0.35% in its trustees meet headed by Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar.

As per a highly placed source quoted in a PTI report, the Labour Ministry has sent a proposal to the Finance Ministry to give concurrence to credit 8.5% rate of interest on EPF for 2019-20 earlier this month.

"The Ministry of Finance ratification is likely in a few days. Thus the interest is likely to be credited by this month only."

The source further said that earlier the Ministry of Finance had sought some clarifications on the rate of interest for the last fiscal, which were duly addressed.

The EPFO had earlier planned to liquidate some of its investment in ETFs to provide 8.5% interest for the last fiscal.

However, it could not do so because of the choppy market conditions amid the lockdown, induced by COVID-19.

PTI's source also told that since the market conditions are more than favourable with benchmark indices at a record high, there should not be an issue to credit the entire 8.5% in one go.