The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) Central Board has recommended an 8.15 percent interest rate on provident funds for the fiscal year 2022-23.
The government declared an 8.1% interest rate for more than six crore members in March 2022, the lowest since 1977-78. Following approval from the Ministry of Finance, the recommended interest rate for 2022-23 would be officially notified in the government gazette, and EPFO would credit the rate of interest into the accounts of its subscribers.
The recommendation involves the distribution of more than Rs 90,000 crore in the members’ account on the total principal amount of about Rs 11 lakh crore.
In 2021-22, the payment outgo and principal amounts were Rs 77,425 crore and Rs 9.56 lakh crore, respectively.
“The total income recommended for being distributed is the highest to date. The growth in income and the principal amount is respectively more than 16 per cent and 15 per cent as compared to the last financial year 2021-22,” the Ministry of Labour and Employment said in a release on Tuesday.
EPFO is a social security organisation in charge of providing social security benefits to the country’s organised workforce in the form of Provident, Pension, and Insurance Funds.
Separately, preliminary payroll data showed that 14.86 lakh net members were added in January 2023. Around 7.77 lakh new members joined EPFO for the first time out of the total members added during the month.
The age group of 18-21 years has the highest enrolment among newly joined members, with 2.26 lakh members, followed by the age group of 22-25 years, with 2.06 lakh members.
The age groups of 18-25 years constitute 55.52 per cent of the total of new members during the month of January. For the month of January 2023, it said 3.54 lakh members have exited the fold of EPFO. This is the lowest exit in the last four months.
