EPF interest rate at 8.10% is lowest in decades, know what FM Nirmala Sitharaman said

New Delhi: The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) earlier this month announced the interest rate on EPF for the 2021-22 fiscal.

Interest rate on employees' provident fund deposits was cut to a four-decade low of 8.1 per cent for the 2021-22 fiscal from 8.5 per cent in the previous year. This is the lowest interest rate since 1977-78 on deposits that employees make towards their retirement fund. Interest rate on employees provident fund that year stood at 8 per cent.

Central Board recommended 8.10 percent annual rate of interest to be credited on EPF accumulations in members' accounts for the financial year 2021-22 (ending on March 31, 2022). 

The EPFO paid 8.5 per cent interest rate to its subscribers in 2020-21, the same as in the previous year. The EPF rate was 8.65 per cent in 2018-19 and 8.55 per cent in 2017-18. In 2016-17, the EPF interest rate was at 8.65 per cent.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaking during a debate in the Rajya Sabha on Monday (March 21) said that that the decision was made by the EPFO`s apex decision making body, Central Board of Trustees, to provide 8.1 per cent rate of interest on Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for 2021-22.

Talking about the EPFO interest rate, Sitharaman said the rate is still higher than the rates of some of the other pension organisations.