The government has formally sanctioned an 8.25% interest rate on employees' provident fund (EPF) deposits for 2024-25, keeping it at the same level as the last fiscal year.
Earlier this February, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had declared that it would maintain the EPF interest rate unchanged at 8.25% for FY25. This was done in a meeting of the EPFO's Central Board of Trustees, which took place in the national capital.
The Ministry of Finance has now officially approved the interest rate for FY25, following that. It has been confirmed by sources that the Labour Ministry issued the formal notification to EPFO during the current week.
The credited interest for FY2024-25 will be credited directly into the EPFO members' accounts after the fiscal year ends.
In the last year, the EPFO had raised the EPF rate of interest for its more than 7 crore members from 8.15% in 2022-23 to 8.25% for 2023-24.
On the membership side, EPFO added 14.58 lakh members in March 2025, an increase of 1.15% from March 2024 on the net payroll addition basis. In March, the organisation had added about 7.54 lakh new subscribers, a 2.03% increase over February and a 0.98% increase year-on-year over March 2024.
The Labour Department attributed this increase in fresh subscriptions to increasing job opportunities, growing awareness of employees' benefits, and the success of EPFO's outreach campaign. Interestingly, the 18-25 group made up the largest portion of the new enrollees in March with 4.45 lakh additions — which constituted 58.94% of the new enrollments.
In addition, the net payroll additions for this youth population stood at approximately 6.68 lakh in March, up by a good 6.49% over the corresponding month last year.
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