The Central Board of Trustees of Employees Provident Fund on Friday deferred by a month a decision to revise the interest rate on EPF, resisting pressure from the Finance Ministry to slash it from existing 9.5 per cent.

"The Finance and Investment Committee (of CBT) will now look into it (revision in interest rates) and submit the report to the board within 15-20 days after which the CBT will take a final decision," Sangh Parivar affiliate trade union Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh President Hasubhai Dave told reporters after the three-hour meeting of CBT.

Earlier, Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma, who is the Chairman of the CBT, hinted at retaining higher interest rate on EPF, despite pressure from the finance ministry to lower the interest rates in keeping with the proposed one per cent cut in Special Deposit Scheme.

"The EPF Organisation has been consistently transferring to its members the best returns by way of higher interest rates. It will be our constant endeavour to provide higher rate of interest in future also," he said addressing the 160^th meeting of the board.

Verma had projected a Rs 8,649 crore (Rs 86.49 billion) contribution under the EPF scheme during 2003-04.