With the aim of discussing the rate of interest for provident fund for the current financial year, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) is meeting today.

The meeting would be chaired by Labour Minster Mallikarjun Kharge. The EPFO meeting, which is being seen as crucial - since the decision taken by the EPFO has to be scrutinized by the Finance Ministry - is taking place two days before the presentation of the general budget.

It should be noted that approximately 4.5 crore employees in the country would benefit from the provident fund. It is being predicted that the EPFO would retain the 8.5 per cent interest rate for the current fiscal too.

Furthermore, the Finance Ministry's suggestion to invest 15 per cent of the EPFO's corpus, which is about Rs 1.82 lakh crore in companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE), would also be discussed in the meeting; apart from equity-linked schemes proposal of SEBI-regulated mutual funds, which was rejected by the EPFO's Finance and Investment Committee in March.

According to sources, "The EPFO has no reserves left to pay higher interest rate than 8.5 per cent in this fiscal as it had suffered a Rs 139-crore deficit during 2008-09. The deficit was later made up from the available Contingency Fund of around Rs 150 crore."

The recommendations on the interest rate on provident fund deposits would be sent by the Central Board of Trustee to the Finance Ministry for final approval and notification.