Since the imposition of lockdown on March 25 by the government to contain the COVID-19 spread, businesses have been facing liquidity or cash crunch, leading to difficulties in paying their mandatory provident fund dues.
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
During February 2019, the highest number of 236,000 jobs were created in the 22-25 years age group, followed by 209,000 in the 18-21 years age bracket.
NPS is a cost-effective instrument with low fund management and other fees. Unlike in mutual funds, investors get the benefit of tax-free rebalancing here.
The government on Wednesday night decided to hike the interest rate on Employees Provident Fund to 9.5 per cent for 2004-05.\n\n
Ahead of the Union Budget 2023, insurers are hoping that the Centre will act on their recommendations, which includes increasing the limit for tax deduction under 80D of the Income Tax Act. Also among them are issuance of long-term bonds, tax incentives for home insurance premiums, and a separate section to claim deduction for term-insurance premium, among others. These suggestions would help improve the penetration of insurance in the country.
In December 2020, as economists debated the shape the global economic recovery might take - Z, V, U, W or L - JP Morgan came up with the concept of the K-shaped curve. The investment bank used the shape of the letter K to illustrate the growing difference between large and small businesses in the United States. Since then, as the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the gap between the rich and poor, the term has gained a larger connotation to embody the characteristics of development across economies.
The amount deposited in the Employees Provident Fund as on December 31 was Rs 60,874.99 crore (Rs 608.74 billion), Minister of State for Labour Vijay Goel informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.\n\n
It's such a well-kept secret that even well-heeled financial planners aren't aware of it, says Harsh Roongta.
EPF has traditionally been the only tool for Indians, especially the salaried class, to save for their retirement corpus.
'They (government) are trying to create market for pension products'.
If you have seen Zwigato, Param Kumar's story will sound familiar. Laid off from his job as a repairman at a Gurugram-based water purifier provider, he now delivers groceries and food for a mobile-based delivery app, in Delhi. Kumar, who started making deliveries last August, told Business Standard that he is working longer hours than his older salaried job as an RO repairman, and has no paid leaves or health insurance. Kumar is part of India's estimated 7.7 million-strong force of gig workers.
'EPFO's investments this financial year should be Rs 1 lakh crore'
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
The three year lock-in period enables ELSS fund managers to invest in high conviction stocks for a long period of time because of relatively less redemption pressure, says Dwaipayan Bose
The government wants to reduce the rate of contribution - part of the employee's share - for a class of workers depending upon age, income or gender, without changing the contribution from the employer's share.
A joint forum of central trade unions has given a call for a nationwide strike on March 28 and 29, to protest against government policies affecting workers, farmers, and people. The Joint Platform of central trade unions held a meeting in Delhi on March 22, 2022, to take stock of the preparations in various states and sectors for the proposed two-day all India strike on 28-29 March 2022 against "the anti-worker, anti-farmer, anti-people and anti-national policies" of the central government, a statement said. The statement said that roadways, transport workers and electricity workers have decided to join the strike in spite of the impending threat of ESMA (Haryana and Chandigarh, respectively). Financial sectors, including banking and insurance, are joining the strike, it stated.
The government has brought in changes to the investment pattern for non-government provident funds, and superannuation and gratuity funds, enabling them to invest up to 5 per cent in the units of Category I and Category II alternative investment funds (AIFs), subject to some caveats. The development is part of the central government's strategy to channelise domestic savings and improve their returns to attract more investment in the said sectors. At present, these funds typically invest a minimum 45 per cent in government securities, besides new instruments, such as exchange-traded funds and real estate investment funds, while a portion in equity-related instruments.
Questioning the claims made by the Centre that it had defaulted in Employees Provident Fund, auto giant Maruti Udyog Ltd on Saturday said it was diligently complying with all relevant acts in respect of its employees.
The government has not done its homework or made any attempt to forge a consensus on this matter that affects millions of people in the organised sector, says Harsh Roongta.
Provident fund body may get support to ensure interest rate comparable with other savings instruments.
The retirement fund body plans to launch 'One Employee One EPF Account' system on May 1.
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.
The finance ministry (FinMin) has asked Infosys to work on ways to extract and access taxpayers' real-time data faster and accurately as it is crucial for taking decisions on policy changes. While reviewing progress of the income tax portal 2.0, which had faced glitches, the officials also told the Infosys team to increase the scope of pre-filled data in the ITR forms. Senior officials in the ministry held a review meeting last month with the Infosys team and officials of the Central Processing Centre (CPC).
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour will recommend to the Union Ministry of Labour to frame laws so as to bring workers of the unorganised sector in the country under the social security net.
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) apex decision-making body, Central Board of Trustees, decided to fix 8.5 per cent rate of interest for 2020-21 at its meeting in Srinagar on Thursday, sources said.
Ulhas Joshi, Head -- Sales, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Employees Provident Fund Organisation fails to arrive at a decision on interest rate.
The EPFO is now developing a software that will help show retirement savings in cash and ETFs components separately. At present the account only shows the savings as gross cash component.
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Withdrawals from EPF and NPS to have same tax rates.
Indicating a faster-than-expected recovery, remittances from migrant labourers and the number of first-time EPFO registrations have crossed the pre-lockdown levels in September, according to a report. Another silver lining is the massive 60 per cent increase in the number of Jan Dhan accounts to over 41 crore and the balances in them, which also indicate the fall in crimes during the lockdown months, SBI Research said in a report on Tuesday. After a significant reduction in remittances due to the lockdown in April, it improved in June and July, and the numbers in September have crossed the pre-pandemic level in February.
'FDs should hold your emergency funds, equivalent to around 6-12 times your monthly expenses.'
The Employees Provident Fund Board on Saturday recommended a 9.5 per cent interest rate for its around four crore (40 million) subscribers for 2004-05.
The Employees Provident Fund board is likely to meet in the second week of April to discuss measures to fund the Rs 927 crore (Rs 9.27 billion) estimated shortfall due to 1.0 per cent hike in interest to 9.5 per cent for 2004-05.
