Interest rate on employees' provident fund deposits last week was cut to a four-decade low of 8.1 per cent for the 2021-22 financial year, from 8.5 per cent in the previous year.
The last time the EPF savings were paid an annual return this low was in 1977-78, when the rate was 8%. That marked the highest EPF rate at the time since the EPFO’s inception in 1952. Since then, the EPF rate has only been lower than 8.5% in three years — 1979-80, 1980-81 and 2011-12 — when an 8.25% return was paid on balances.
The EPFO paid 8.5%