New Delhi, December 16
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the government would consider the demand for hiking the interest rate of the employees provident fund (EPF), hours after CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta claimed that Dr Manmohan Singh had agreed to increase by 1 per cent the rate from 8.5 per cent.

“I have not said anything.......(about increasing the EPF rate),” he told reporters when asked about Mr Dasgupta’s statement.

“I said we will consider it. When Parliament is in session, I cannot make any announcement (outside),” Dr Manmohan Singh said.

The Prime Minister was talking to reporters at his official residence after launching Doordarshan’s DTH service.

Mr Dasgupta had said after the meeting that “as I understood him he (Prime Minister) agreed to increase the interest rate from 8.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent”.

The CPI leader expected it to be done before the next Budget.

A 1 per cent increase in the EPF interest rate will lead to a gap of Rs 927 crore between what EPF gives to its four crore beneficiaries and what it earns on investments, according to calculations made by the Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO.

Earlier, while Mr Dasgupta claimed that Dr Manmohan Singh had agreed to increase the EPF interest rate from 8.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent, PMO spokesman said the Prime Minister merely assured them that the rate would be increased but did not indicate to what extent.