Union Labour Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya Chaired 237th Meeting of CBT of EPF; Recommended 8.25% Interest Rate on EPF for FY25

In February 2025, Union Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Ministry of Labour & Employment (MoL&E) chaired the 237th meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) in New Delhi, Delhi.

• During the meeting, CBT recommended to retain an annual rate of interest of 8.25% to be credited on EPF subscribers for Financial Year 2024-25 (FY25), as provided in last fiscal year.
• After the actuarial valuation of the Employees’ Deposit-Linked Insurance (EDLI) scheme, CBT approved key changes in the scheme to provide greater financial security and support to the family members of EPF.

Note: In February 2024, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had increased the interest rate on EPF from 8.15% (in FY23) to 8.25% for FY24.

Key People: Union Minister of State (MoS) Shobha Karadlaje, MoL&E and Vice-Chairperson of CBT; Sumita Dawra, Secretary, MoL&E; Ramesh Krishnamurthi, Central Provident Fund Commissioner (CPFC), were also present at the event.

Key Changes in EDLI Scheme:

i.Minimum Life Insurance for death within 1 year of service: CBT introduced a minimum life insurance of Rs 50,000 for EPF members who die within the 1st year of service.

ii.Coverage for non-contributory period: As per CBT, now, if a member dies within 6 months of their last contribution received, the EDLI benefit will be admissible, subject to the condition the name of member  is not stuck off from the pay roll.

iii.Consideration of service continuity rules: Earlier, a gap of even one or two days between employment in two establishments led to the refusal of minimum EDLI benefits from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh, as the condition of continuous service of 1 year is breached.

• As per the new changes, a gap of maximum 2 months between 2 spells of employment will now be considered as continuous services.

Other Key Decisions:

i.Pension on Higher Wages (PoHW): CBT informed that so far, EPFO has processed 72% the applications related to Supreme Court’s(SC) ruling on PoHW.

ii.Centralised Pension Payment System (CPPS): From January 2025, EPFO has successfully implemented the CPPS across all its Regional Offices (ROs).

• Under this system, pension payments for all ROs are disbursed through a Centralized Pension Disbursement Account (CPDA) maintained at the New Delhi(Delhi) Branch of State Bank of India(SBI).
• As on January 2025, EPFO has disbursed Rs 1,710 crore as pension to 69.35 lakh pensioners through CPPS.

iii.Reduced penalties for delay in PF payments: EPFO has set the penalty for late PF remittances at 1% per month which was officially notified in June 2024, to reduce litigation.

iv.Annual Budget approval: The CBT has also approved the Revised Estimates (RE) for FY25 and Budget Estimates (BE) for FY26 for EPFO and the schemes monitored by it.

About Ministry of Labour & Employment (MoL&E):
Union Minister- Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya (Constituency- Porbandar, Gujarat)
Minister of State (MoS)- Shobha Karandlaje (Constituency- Bangalore North, Karnataka)
About Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO):
Central Provident Fund Commissioner (CPFC)- Ramesh Krishnamurthi
Headquarters- New Delhi, Delhi
Established- 1952