Retirement fund body EPFO’s trustees, including those representing employers as well as workers, have raised the issue of non-credit of interest on employees’ provident fund for 2021-22 even after its ratification in June last year.

The Employees Provident Organisation’s Central Board of Trustees, headed by Union labour minister Bhupender Yadav, in March 2022 approved an 8.1 per cent rate of interest, which was the lowest in over four decades, for financial year 2021-22.

The Central Board of Trustees is the apex decision-making body of the EPFO. Hind Mazdoor Sabha general-secretary Harbhajan Singh Sidhu said, “About 10 days ago, I raised the issue of non-crediting of interest rate of 8.1 per cent for 2021-22 with the EPFO officials. They told me that there is some issue with the system (software) and it would be resolved soon.”

Sidhu, who is also an EPFO trustee, stated that this should not happen as the interest rate was decided in March and ratified in June last year. Another EPFO trustee who represents the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, A.K. Padmanabhan, pointed out that there is no explanation for this and he would raise the issue in the next meeting of the Central Board of Trustees.

Another trustee K.E. Raghunathan, who represents employers, had also taken cognizance of the issue and raised the matter with the EPFO officials. However, the queries sent to EPFO officials did not elicit any response. In March last year, the EPFO decided to lower the interest on provident fund deposits for 2021-22 to 8.1 per cent from 8.5 per cent provided in 2020-21.

The 8.1 per cent EPF rate of interest is the lowest since 1977-78, when it stood at 8 per cent EPFO added 14.93 lakh subscribers in December 2022, which was over 2 per cent higher compared with the net addition a year ago, the labour ministry said on Friday.

The provisional payroll data released on Monday highlighted that the body has added 14.93 lakh members in the month of December 2022. A year-on-year comparison of payroll data reflects an increase of 32,635 in net membership addition in December 2022 compared with the corresponding month of 2021.