THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has expressed serious concern over the cut in interest rate on Employees Provident Fund (EPF) from 8.65 per cent to 8.5 per cent. In the meeting of Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of EPFO held on March 5, 2020, the workers’ representatives in CBT expressed strong dissatisfaction and resentment over the same.

The government pleaded that earnings on investment of EPF corpus has gone down from government securities and other investment instruments and the interest rate has been reduced. But more than 65 per cent of the incremental deposits in EPF has been invested in government securities. The policy of the government to continuously lower the interest rate on small savings including social security savings led to lower earnings/return on investment of EPFO corpus and hence the interest rate on the same.

CITU has condemned such anti-worker policies of the BJP government at the centre. The social security savings of the workers, most of which are parked in government securities are long term recurring deposits at the disposal of the government. The trade unions are justly demanding since long, differential rate of interest on social security savings of the workers, higher than the interest rate on commercial credit/deposits. But the successive governments under neo-liberal regime have been continuously lowering the interest rates on social security savings of the workers and all small saving instruments in general, leading to huge loss of earnings of crores of workers and superannuated persons. Simultaneously, the same government is so liberal in drastically reducing the corporate tax rates and also tax rates on returns on speculative investments in stock market. Such policy of the government is totally discriminatory against the crores of toiling people who actually create GDP and generate revenues in the national exchequer. It is nothing but loot on crores of working people to benefit the private corporate and speculators.

CITU denounces such anti-worker and pro-corporate and pro-speculator policies of the government and call upon the workers and the people to unite and fight against the neo-liberal policy regime, which is looting the people to benefit the private corporate and speculators, both domestic and foreign.