New Delhi, Mar 12 (IANS): The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will pay 8.1 per cent rate of interest on provident fund deposits for the current financial year. This is the reduction from 8.5 per cent in Financial Year 2021 and the lowest in last several years.

"The Central Board recommended 8.10 per cent annual rate of interest to be credited on EPF accumulations in members' accounts for the financial year 2021-22. The interest rate would be officially notified in the government gazette following which EPFO would credit the rate of interest into its subscribers' accounts," a statement said.

In the financial year 2020-21, the EPFO paid 8.5 per cent interest rate. The same interest rate was in 2019-20, 8.65 per cent in 2018-19 and 8.55 per cent in 2017-18.

However, before adding to the balance of EPF account holders, the proposed rate needs to have official confirmation from the finance ministry. The EPFO is the country's largest retirement fund and the second largest non-banking financial institution with a corpus of about Rs 16 lakh crore.

The PF accounts are credited with the annual returns with a significant time lag after the year in question has concluded. The EPFO has 24.77 crore members with EPF accounts. Out of total members, around 14.36 crore members have been allotted Unique Account Numbers (UANs) as of March 31, 2020.

The 230th meeting of Central Board of Trustees, EPF was held on Saturday in Guwahati under the Chairmanship of Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister for Labour & Employment and Environment, Forest & Climate Change.