Even as it remains unconvinced by the labour
ministry’s calculations for an additional 1 per cent interest on PF deposits in 2010-11, the finance ministry has now referred the matter to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to take a final call.
“It is up to the minister to decide whether the 9.5 per cent interest rate should be notified. Our only concern is that the additional interest should not be paid from government coffers, especially as the CAG report has called the EPFO’s so called surplus unverifiable,” a senior finance ministry told The Indian Express.
The ministry must take a decision on the issue by March 31, as the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation has to start crediting interest and hand out account slips to its 4.7 crore subscribers from April. Without a formal notification by the finance ministry, subscribers will not be given the higher interest rate. The labour ministry has been lobbying with the finance ministry to ratify the decision by Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO to provide a 9.5 per cent return on retirement savings in 2010-11 after it discovered a surplus of Rs. 1,371 crore. But the finance ministry has repeatedly questioned the basis of arriving at the surplus.
[Source]
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