If the interest rate on bank deposits is linked to any external benchmark, it would jeopardise the banks' fund-raising ability. Interest rates on small savings schemes are likely to be reduced very shortly, to maintain parity. All these steps would indeed affect retired people, and particularly those dependent on interest income, says Arindam Gupta.
Most economists were of the view that the NSSO should release the data, as any move to withhold it will dent the image of country's statistical system.
The government is considering a proposal to extend Employees Provident Fund Scheme to all companies with over 10 employees, the Parliament was informed.
At present, the EPF subscribers are exempted from paying income tax on deposits.
The government on Wednesday said interest rates on post office savings schemes, except the PPF, will remain fixed throughout the term of the scheme.
Did you know that women can avail for a loan of upto Rs 20 crores to set up a manufacturing business?
Despite the labour ministry's claims that it is vigourosly chasing the employees provident fund defaulters, the money that employers owed to the fund mounted to Rs 1,758 crore till July, but EPFO might be able to realise only Rs 571 crore.
EPFO's advisory body FIC on Thursday shortlisted five entities --ICICI Securities, Reliance Capital, HSBC Asset Management Company, SBI and ICICI Prudential -- for managing its corpus of Rs 3.5 lakh crore (Rs 3.5 trillion).
Ahead of the crucial CBT meet, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's advisory body Finance and Investment Committee will firm up its view on the matter.
In a discussion paper, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has suggested creation of new service entities to which most of the statutory compliances, under the labour laws for small and medium enterprises, can be outsourced.
The higher the tax bracket, better the yields for these instruments
Richardson and Cruddas Limited, Khatau Makani Spinning and Weaving Mill, and Mafatlal Industries were among the 10 top defaulting establishments in Maharashtra who had failed to pay up their contribution to the Employees Provident Fund Scheme.
EFPO launched a number of new facilities this year.
EPFO has recently issued Universal PF Account Numbers for 4.17 crore contributing members.
Employee integration and branch rationalisation are major challenges.
Individuals often postpone tax planning till the end of the financial year. As the deadline for showing proof of investments draws near, they invest randomly in any product that will help them save tax for that year. Later, they realise that it is not suited for them, so they abandon it. Tax planning should not be a standalone, one-off activity, but should be in sync with your overall financial plan, says Sanjay Kumar Singh.
The government on Thursday ruled out any cut in interest rates on Employees' Provident Fund this fiscal from the present 9.5 per cent, but said it would be reviewed only next fiscal based on the surplus position, Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma
The Budget has changed the rules for Indian citizens and persons of Indian origin visiting India. Instead of 182 days, the number of days has been reduced to 120. You will be treated as a resident of India for tax purposes if you stay in the country for more than 120 days in a financial year and 365 days in the past four years. One consequence of the change will be that people of Indian origin who reside outside India will be able to spend a smaller number of days in the country if they wish to keep their non-resident status intact, points out Sanjay Kumar Singh.
EPFO had started investing ETFs in August last year.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Tapan Kumar Sen (CPI-M) said the move is a 'retrograde step' and asked as to why interest rates on employees' lifetime savings are getting cut when RBI has increased interest rates.
Referring to Kim Jong-Un, Trump said 'Rocket Man', is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.
"It is felt there should be an arm's-length distance between the fund manager and the custodian of securities. There should be separation between fund manager, banker and the custodian," a senior labour ministry official said.
Retirement fund body EPFO is planning to settle all claims like transfer and withdrawal of provident fund within three days, a move that will benefit over one crore such claimants every year.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with a Mumbai high court's order under which Times Now news channel has been asked to deposit Rs 20 crore in cash and to give a bank guarantee of Rs 80 crore, before its appeal against a trial court award of damages of Rs 100 crore to former apex court judge P B Sawant, could be heard.Justice Sawant had sued the news channel for displaying his photo wrongly during the telecast of a news bulletin on September 10, 2008.
Pension is a regular (normally monthly) payment that a person gets when he/she has retired from a job. This regular payment is obtained from an investment fund to which that person, or his/her employer, contributed during the time the person was working.
The members of these trusts enjoy tax and other benefits at par with EPFO subscribers.
The bench also said that a seven-judge bench needed to be constituted for authoritatively deciding a batch of petitions challenging the Aadhaar scheme on grounds including that it infringes on the Right to Privacy of citizens.
Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) secretary Aditya Verma, who is the petitioner in the Indian Premier League (IPL) spot-fixing case, on Sunday, refused the speculations of Lalit Modi providing any kind of financial support to him.
Sandeep Shanbhag, a chartered accountant and director of Wonderland Consultants, a tax and financial advisory firm, discussed the impact of Budget proposals in a chat with Rediff.com's readers.
Amidst a debate in the government over investment of employees' provident funds in the stock market, former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan cautioned that any such move will have to be backed by a government assurance for making up for losses, if any.
ASK Wealth Advisors says 5 million, CMIE's estimate is 2 million and Ghosh & Ghosh said it was 7 million!
Being market-linked, the public provident fund corpus can no longer be predicted over the long term.
EPFO had approached the finance ministry for help, which advised it to go through the legal procedure.
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is crunching its numbers under pressure for sustaining a 9.5 per cent interest rate in the current financial year.
EPFO manages a corpus of over Rs 8.5 lakh crore and its subscribers' base is over five crore at present.
Trade unions' had demanded 8.9 per cent interest rate.
The return from the ETF investment will be more than the 8.75 per cent the EPFO offers to subscribers now.
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