Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge today exuded confidence that Finance Ministry is likely to approve by March-end the EPFO proposal to give 9.5% interest on provident fund deposits for FY11.
"The Ministry of Labour and Employment has forwarded the recommendation of CBT to the Ministry of Finance for approval... We are pursuing it...We will try our best so that we can get approval by March... We are hoping that Finance Minister may definitely give approval," Kharge told the Rajya Sabha during the question hour.
He was replying to a question by CPI-M member RC Singh on the issue of interest rate on provident fund deposits.
The Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the apex decision making body of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), has decided to give a higher return of 9.5% on provident fund deposits for FY11.
The decision, which will benefit 4.71 crore PF subscribers, followed the discovery of Rs 1,731.57 crore in suspense account.
The EPFO trustees favoured raising the rate of interest on provident fund deposits to 9.5% from 8.5%, which is being paid by EPFO since 2005-06.