EPFO 2-day board meeting begins today; all eyes on EPF interest rate for FY23

The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will meet in New Delhi on Monday to discuss the interest rate for the financial year 2022-23, which is unlikely to go below 8 per cent level.

Though the agenda for the meeting of the retirement fund's apex decision-making body is unclear, interest rate, higher pension, and annual financial estimates for the EPFO are likely to be discussed in the crucial two-day meeting on 27, 28 March.

Last year in March, the Central government had declared 8.1 per cent EPF rate for more than six crore active subscribers of the EPFO for fiscal 2021-22, the lowest level in four decades.

It is expected that the interest levels will be maintained at par amid a rising interest rate scenario.

EPFO adds 14.86 lakh members in Jan 2023

According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, EPFO has added 14.86 lakh subscribers in January this year. As many as 3.54 lakh members exited the fold of EPFO, which was the "lowest exit" in the last four months, the ministry said.

Out of 14.86 lakh subscribers, around 7.77 lakh new members have come under the ambit of EPFO for the first time, the statement read.

The provisional payroll data also highlighted that approximately 10.62 lakh members re-joined EPFO membership.

The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise, as updating employee record is a continuous process. The previous data hence gets updated every month.

EPFO is a social security organization responsible for providing social security benefits in the form of provident, pension and insurance funds to the organized workforce of the country.