Retirement fund body EPFO on Thursday announced an interest rate of 8.65 per cent on PF deposits for 2018-19, to its six crore subscribers.
"The proposal to declare interest rate for this fiscal is on the agenda of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) trustees meeting on February 21, 2019," a source had earlier said.
The interest rate was at 8.55 per cent for this fiscal as provided in 2017-18.EPFO had kept the interest rate at 8.65% in 2016-17 and 8.8% in 2015-16. It provided 8.75% interest for 2013-14 as well as 2014-15. The rate of interest was 8.5% in 2012-13.
Currently, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation invests 15% of contributions in equities and the rest in debt.
All members of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of EPFO at a meeting in New Delhi agreed to give a higher interest for subscribers for the current fiscal, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar said.
EPFO started investing in equity through exchange-traded funds from August 2015. It started by investing 5% of contributions, and has since raised it to 15%. The rest go into debt market instruments such as government securities, private sector bonds and bank fixed deposits.