Wednesday, December 14 2005 16:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Labour Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao today (Dec 14, 2005) said that he would take up the issue of EPF rate of interest with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh soon.

"Let the Prime Minister come back (from abroad). May be, I will meet him tomorrow itself," he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference of regional provident fund commissioners.

Rao said that as the Chairman of the Central Board of Trustees of the employees provident fund, he had announced lowering of the interest rate by one per cent to 8.5 per cent.

"I am yet to announce a final decision as the Labour Minister. As Labour Minister, I will try my best (to raise the rate)," he said.

He said that he would also talk to the Finance Minister and do everything possible to ensure that four crores of subscribers got the best return.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had recently said that he would talk to the Labour Minister on the issue and do whatever was possible within the resources of the EPFO.

Singh had recently ruled out any budgetary support to retain EPF interest rate at 9.5 per cent in the current year as demanded by the trade unions and some political parties.