EPF Board to decide interest rates for FY07, FY08 on July 2

The central board of trustees of the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) would meet on July 2 to decide the interest rates to be paid to its subscribers for the year ended March and the current financial year, a labour ministry official said.

The board had deferred the decision on interest rates at its last meeting late last month due to Assembly elections in Goa. It has so far failed to reach a consensus on the interest rate for 2006-07 due to sharp differences between the trustees of the EPF, comprising representatives of trade unions, government officials, and employers.

The Employees' Provident Fund is India's largest non-government provident fund, with a corpus of about Rs 967.7 billion.