"The Labour Ministry has notified 8.65 per cent rate of interest on employees' provident fund (EPF). This rate of interest is 10 basis points higher than 8.55 per cent provided in 2017-18," Mr Gangwar said.

This rate of interest (8.65 per cent) was approved by the EPFO's apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees on February 22, 2019.

"We received concurrence of the Finance Ministry on September 19, 2019. Thereafter, Labour Ministry issued a notification for providing 8.65 per cent rate of interest for 2018-19," the minister said.

The minister also informed that this decision would pave the way for crediting Rs 54,000 crore as 8.65 per cent interest for 2018-19, into the accounts of more than 6 crore EPFO subscribers.

The EPFO has been settling EPF withdrawal claims at 8.55 per cent interest rate, approved for 2017-18. Now, the EPFO will settle accounts at a higher rate of 8.65 per cent for 2018-19.

Last month, retirement fund body EPFO approved a proposal to restore a provision for commutation, or advance part-withdrawal, withdrawn by the EPFO in 2009 under the Employees' Pension Scheme.

Under the EPF Scheme, a final PF claim is settled within 20 days.

However, in the case of resignation, the member has to wait for a period of two months for withdrawal of the PF amount.

Provident fund body EPFO also allows the subscriber to make a partial withdrawal from the corpus under certain conditions.