In the third roll-back in two months, the government has raised interest rate on employee provident fund (EPF) contributions to 8.8 per cent for 2015-16 against 8.7 per cent approved by the Finance Ministry last week. Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya announced the decision to raise interest rate on a day employee unions had called nationwide protests against fixing interest rates lower than 8.8 per cent decided by the retirement fund body EPFO as well as 8.75 per cent paid for the previous fiscal.

This is the third rollback on EPF. Last month the government was forced to withdraw the Budget proposal to tax a certain portion of withdrawals. Subsequently, it withdrew tighter withdrawal norms.

• The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (abbreviated to EPFO), is a statutory body of the Government of India under the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
• It administers a compulsory contributory Provident Fund Scheme, Pension Scheme and an Insurance Scheme.
• It is also the nodal agency for implementing Bilateral Social Security Agreements with other countries on a reciprocal basis.
• The schemes cover Indian workers as well as International workers (for countries with which bilateral agreements have been signed. As of now 15 Social Security Agreements are operational).
• It is one of the largest social security organisations inIndia in terms of the number of covered beneficiaries and the volume of financial transactions undertaken.
• The EPFO’s apex decision making body is the Central Board of Trustees (CBT).
• The total assets under management are more than ₹8.5 lakh crore (US$128 billion) as of 18 March 2016.