Friday’s approval of the Centre’s 8.1 percent interest rate for employees’ provident account deposits in FY22 came from the Centre.

The rate of 8.1% for the previous fiscal would be a low by almost four decades.

The Central Board of Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), which proposed that provident funds deposits be charged 8.1% interest for the current year in March, was approved by the Centre.

In FY21, the interest rate for employees providednt fund was 8.5%.

With a corpus in excess of Rs 16 lakh crore, the EPFO is India’s largest retirement fund.

Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister, stated that the reduction in interest rates for employees’ provident funds was dictated today by the reality of small savings instruments returning even lower returns.