Retirement fund body EPFO on Thursday decided to retain 8.5 per cent annual rate of interest on provident fund deposits for the current financial year for its more than five crore active subscribers.

The Employees" Provident Fund Organisation"s (EPFO) apex decision-making body Central Board of Trustees decided to fix 8.5 per cent rate of interest for 2020-21 at its meeting in Srinagar on Thursday.

"The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) recommended 8.50 per cent annual rate of interest to be credited on EPF accumulations in members" accounts for the financial year 2020-21," a labour ministry statement said.

According to the statement, the 228th meeting of the CBT, EPFO was held on Thursday in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir under the chairmanship of Union Minister of State for Labour & Employment(Independent Charge) Santosh Kumar Gangwar.

As per the practice, the CBT decision on interest rate would be send to the finance ministry for concurrence. After getting the finance ministry"s nod, the 8.5 per cent rate of interest for this fiscal would be credited into the EPFO subscribers" accounts.

The interest rate would be officially notified in the government gazette following which the EPFO would credit the rate of interest into the subscribers’ accounts, the statement said.