Government rolls back its decision.

New Delhi: The government rolled back its decision of lower interest rate on provident fund deposits to 8.7 percent for 2015-16.

Bowing to employee protests for the third time in two months, it also agreed to fix it at 8.8 percent as decided by retirement fund body EPFO. The roll back comes on the heels of government having to withdraw an order restricting withdrawals of employers share in the employee provident fund (EPF) till an employee achieves 58 years of age. Last month, the government had to roll back a Budget proposal to tax EPF withdrawals.

The rollbacks on both the decisions followed protests from employees and their unions. "I am happy that our Finance Minister has agreed for 8.8 percent interest to be given for EPF workers for 2015-16. We will issue a notification of 8.8 percent interest rate immediately," Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya told reporters.