News
oi-Aditi Murkute
The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) will discuss interest rates for financial year 2022-23 for employees provident fund in its 233rd meeting to be held on March 27-28. The interest rate on pension is linked to actual salaries and annual financial estimates for the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the Indian express reported.
It is unlikely that the interest for FY23 would drop below 8 per cent, given a rising interest rate environment. Last year in March 2022 the CBT decided to lower the interest rate to 8.1 per cent for over 6 crore subscribers. It was the lowest seen in four decades. This resulted in an estimated surplus of Rs 450 crore, which made the finance ministry to intervene and ratify the interest rate in June 2022.
FY2022-2023 is the first financial year when the Centre’s proposal to tax interest on higher contributions to the EPF will come into effect. It was also reported that several subscribers had received late credit of interest rate for FY22.
It was expected that there will be a detailed discussion on higher pension under the directive of Supreme Court. It is a first meeting where a status note on pension would be discussed after the EPFO granted a window to the subscribers of the Employees’ Pension Scheme to opt for the higher pension linked to actual salaries till May 3.
