EPFO Lowers Interest Rate on Provident Fund to 8.55% For 2017-18, Against 8.65% in 2016-17

Chennai, Feb 21: The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Wednesday announced the lowering on interest rate on PF deposits for the year 2017-18. The rate has been scaled down to 8.55 per cent, a drop from 8.65 per cent in 2016-17.

The EPFO has been constantly lowering the rate of interest since 2005, when the rate was 8.8 per cent. The retirement fund body, since 2008, has been investing in exchange traded funds (ETF). In the past month, news agency PTI reported, sold ETFs worth Rs 2,886 crore.

The EPFO manages over 5 crore accounts, with a total corpus amounting to nearly Rs 10 lakh crores.

An employee, along with his employer, set aside 12 percent of the salary each towards the PF account.

The employee could either encash the amount post retirement, or after leaving his job -- provided that he remains unemployed for at least two months before staking claim.

Despite the EPFO lowering its interest rate each year since 2005, it remains a safe and lucrative option for employees to save their retirement benefits. Analysts claim the returns from provident fund deposits is way more favourable as compared to what other investment schemes like public provident fund and bank deposits offer.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 21, 2018 09:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).