The Finance Ministry has given its consent to the EPFO to invest from 5 per cent to 15 per cent of the investable income of the organisation every year.
Furnishing of Aadhaar is still mandatory for final settlement of pension
Experts say it's better to transfer the amount to one's current EPFO account than opting for a withdrawal.
The interplay between domestic and foreign capital will shape India's equity markets.
Retirement fund body EPFO's apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees (CBT) is likely to decide rate of interest on PF deposits for 2012-13 in its meeting scheduled on January 15.
The payroll data has been revised downwards for each of the nine months between September 2017 and May this year
EPFO manages a corpus of about Rs 257,000 crore with subscribers' base of over 4.5 crore.
EPFO had started investing ETFs in August last year.
These schemes will be based on enrolment in Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha.
The addition in January was 131 per cent higher as compared with 3.87 lakh EPFO subscribers added in the year-ago month.
The labour ministry on Monday rebutted a recent report by Citigroup which forecast that India will struggle to create sufficient employment opportunities even with a 7 per cent growth rate. The ministry in a statement said the report "fails to account for the comprehensive and positive employment data available from official sources such as Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Reserve Bank of India's KLEMS data."
Union labour minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday said employment in the country has increased by 36 per cent to 64.33 crore in 2023-24 from 47.15 crore in 2014-15, which shows improvement in job creation during NDA period.
The order also provides that the field office will incur expenditure on the facilitation function under the head of publicity.
The retirement fund body plans to launch 'One Employee One EPF Account' system on May 1.
It wants PF to be calculated on all other allowances made by employer under sundry heads.
The government on Wednesday cautioned officers of retirement fund body EPFO against any delay in settlement of claims and updation of account, saying their performances would be closely "watched".
'A subscriber will know exactly how much of his money is in debt and how much in equity.'
At present this facility is available to workers of (un-exempted) firms which do not have their PF trusts and manage their employees' accounts with their respective regional fund commissioners of the EPFO. It was launched in October last year.
Over 50 million subscribers of the retirement fund body EPFO can obtain e-passbook along with details of their updated accounts online from Wednesday.
EFPO launched a number of new facilities this year.
Some unions have opposed EPFO investing in share markets.
High rates of such schemes deter banks from dropping borrowing rates - and thus lending rates
Retirement fund manager EPFO that has initiated the process of seeding KYC details like PAN, Aadhaar of contributing members for making Universal Account Number (UAN) has set a target of seeding 2 crore (20 million) bank account data by end of this month.
The return from the ETF investment will be more than the 8.75 per cent the EPFO offers to subscribers now.
Retirement fund body EPFO will cut exposure in corporate bonds and park more funds in the secure government securities.
EPFO is also contemplating providing permanent or universal account number to it all active members by October this year.
The 48-odd million employees covered by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) may be touched that the finance ministry is actually considering a proposal to extend the organisation a fiscal helping hand to offer a rate of interest comparable with other savings instruments.
Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) and Knowledge processing Outsourcing (KPO) firms are covered by the retirement fund body EPFO, Parliament was informed.
'There is no question of diverting funds. This government is pro-poor, pro-worker and pro-progressive.'
The 4.7 crore (47 million) EPFO subscribers were left guessing during the year on continuance of 9.5 per cent interest rate for this fiscal, with the retirement fund body, in an unprecedented development, deciding to refer it to the finance ministry for a final decision.
The EPFO launched one-page simplified forms for withdrawal.
EPFO manages a huge corpus of over Rs 6 lakh crore (Rs 6 trillion).
In January, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation had asked the field staff to ensure the collection of data in respect of member joining on or after March 1, on a monthly basis and in respect of existing members by June 30, 2013.
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.
'This year overall hiring has seen a slight improvement as compared to the dip seen during the last financial year.'
"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.
The facility for viewing PF accounts online was launched here by Labour Minister Sis Ram Ola in the presence of Minister of State for Labour and Employment Kodikunnil Suresh and EPFO's Central Provident Fund Commissioner K K Jalan.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have added a record number of investment accounts in 2024, buoyed by the sectoral and thematic investing euphoria that has spilled into the passive space.
