The Central Board of Trustees of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has urged the union finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee to determine the interest rates for its subscribers for the current fiscal in.

The board has been unable to device on the interest rates due to differences between representatives of the employers and trade unions. The finance and the finance and investment committee of the EPFO has recommended decreasing the rate to 8.25 per cent. On the other hand, representatives of the employers have recommended a rate of 8.5 per cent and trade union representatives said that the rate should be fixed at least at the level of 9.5 per cent.

Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge has said that the board of EPFO will ask the finance ministry to finalize the rate of interest on provident fund deposits from among the three rates put forward by various sides.

“The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) could not decide on the final rate of interest for current year and has left it to the finance ministry to take a final call on the issue after taking note of recommendations from both parties,” he said.

Trade union members are proposing higher interest rate because there is Rs 15,000 crore in non-operative accounts with the organization. These accounts are those accounts that have not made any fresh contribution for over 36 months and are not receiving any interest. The board says that the excess funds should be kept in order to payout claims.