Higher interest on PF, minimum pension likely Rs 5000; EPFO big meeting expected today

New Delhi: In what could bring joy to millions of pensioners in the country, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) is likely to hold a major meeting on Wednesday where the retirement fund body may take decision on PF interest rate and minimum pension limit, several media reports have said.

The meeting might deliberate on the long standing demand of raising the minimum pension money under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) to Rs 5000, reports added.

In March this year, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees headed by Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar had approved 8.5 per cent interest rate on EPF for last fiscal. The retirement fund body had decided to provide 8.5 percent rate of interest on employees’ provident fund(EPF) for 2019-20 as committed earlier.

In June this year, the EPFO took a landmark decisions, by releasing Rs 868 crore pension along with Rs 105 crore arrear on account of restoration of commuted value of pension.

On the recommendation of Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO, the government has accepted one of the long standing demands of workers to allow restoration of commuted value of pension after 15 years, an official release said.

It may be noted that according to the payroll data from the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), during April-August 2020, 25 lakh new EPF subscribers have joined, of which 12.4 lakh were first-time payroll entrants.

The point of concern though is that the degree of formalisation has dropped significantly to six per cent in 2020-21 from an average of 11 per cent in earlier years.
During 2019-20, 110.4 lakh new EPF subscribers were added compared to 139.4 lakh in 2018-19, indicating a loss of 29 lakh subscribers.