Thursday, December 22 2005 16:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: After staging a walk out in the Lok Sabha in protest against lowering of EPF interest rate to 8.5 per cent, over 60 Left and Samajwadi Party MPs today (Dec 22, 2005) met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to demand that the rate of returns be retained at 9.5 per cent.

"About five crore people are being affected by this reduction, mostly being aged persons. If they have a family of three, the number of affected goes up to 15 crore. We demand that the interest rate on EPF be restored to 9.5 per cent," Left MPs Rupchand Pal and Gurudas Dasgupta told reporters after the meeting.

Dasgupta said, "Prime Minister gave no assurance but said he will look into the matter."

Asked how the hike in the interest rate would be funded, Pal said the Government's proposal to corporatise the mints at a cost of Rs 700 crore would not be implemented this fiscal and suggested that this amount be spent for the purpose.

Dasgupta said if no action was taken by the Government, all trade unions would call for a joint action and take the battle to the streets.

He said the Government also had over Rs 1,00,000 crore under the Special Deposit Scheme, the interest on which could also be used to meet the additional expenditure on restoring the EPF rate to 9.5 per cent.

"How long can we wait? They (Government) had told us three months ago that they are considering our demand. We can't wait endlessly," the CPI leader said.

The delegation included Basudeb Acharia, Sujon Chakraborty (both CPI-M), Ajoy Chakraborty (CPI) and Manoj Bhattacharya (RSP).