After a three-hour meeting of the Central Board of Trustees of the EPF, CITU general secretary Tapan Sen said that the meeting decided to continue with 8.5 per cent for 2007-08, ignoring the demands by trade unions to hike the interest rate to 9.5 per cent.
Prominent trade unions, including CPM-backed CITU, CPI-affiliated AITUC and Hind Mazdoor Sangh (HMS), had strongly demanded 9.5 per cent for the current year.
But after several rounds of hectic consultations, the EPF board decided to retain the rate at last year's 8.5 per cent saying it could not raise the rate in view of inadequate funds in its corpus.
"Though the government was insisting on bringing the interest rate below eight per cent, we succeeded in maintaining 8.5 per cent for the current year," Sen, who is a Rajya Sabha member, said.