rediffGURU and financial planning expert Colonel Sanjeev Govila (retd) answers your personal finance-related questions.
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.
The government has approved 8.5 per cent rate of interest on employees' provident fund for the 2020-21 fiscal, a source said. Just ahead of Diwali, this is a good news for over five crore subscribers of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). The 8.5 per cent rate of interest on provident fund deposits for the last financial year was decided by the EPFO's apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees (CBT) headed by Labour Minister in March this year.
The meeting of Central Board of Trustees is likely to be stormy on Thursday with both right and left wing trade unions making up plans to demand at least 9.5 per cent EPF rate
Gandhi has been attacking the prime minister on the Adani issue and has been demanding an investigation into the matter.
The EPFO had decided that 8.15 per cent interest from its debt income would be credited immediately and the remaining 0.35 per cent capital gains from the equity sale would be given later, subject to its redemption.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested a man for allegedly altering Aadhaar card details to withdraw Provident Funds of unsuspecting persons through online claims, officials said on Monday.
Have the markets already played out their dynamics before the economy has even properly taken off? Are we now destined for a period of mediocre returns despite a strong economy? asks Akash Prakash.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed confidence that the NDA will get more than 400 seats and the BJP will win at least 370 seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
Do you have financial planning queries? Ask rediffGURU Anil Rego.
Mihir Tanna, Associate Director, S K Patodia & Associates, answers your personal income tax queries.
A Parliamentary panel has asked the Ministry of Labour and Employment to use and reconcile the data and studies conducted by credible agencies with that of retirement fund body EPFO for depicting real picture of job loss in the country especially in the situation like COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic had an impact on employment in the country as the economic activities slowed down due to lockdown restrictions imposed by central as well as states to contain the spread of deadly virus from March in 2020.
Net job creation in the economy fell by 16.9 lakh in FY21 over the previous fiscal, shows an SBI Research analysis of EPFO payroll data. However, the FY21 numbers are better than the FY20 net job creation, which had declined by 28.9 lakh, further cementing the view that the economy is not creating new employment opportunities. The latest EPFO data shows that net new EPF subscribers stood at 94.5 lakh in FY21, and NPS added 5.82 lakh, taking the cumulative net addition to 100.4 lakh, which is marginally down from 102.3 lakh in FY20.
Dwaipayan Bose highlights the similarities and contrasts between ETFs and Index Funds.
Under the scheme, the government will provide subsidy for two years in respect of new employees engaged on or after October 1, 2020, and up to June 30, 2021, Labour Minister Santosh Gangawar said in a briefing on the Cabinet decision.
Retirement fund body EPFO on Thursday lowered the interest rate on Provident Fund deposits to 8.5 per cent for the current financial year, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar said on Thursday.
Under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana announced by the Centre to incentivise formal sector job creation, all 'new employees', who were never a part of the EPF system in the past, and those who made an exit from employment during the Covid-19 pandemic from March 1, 2020, to September 30, 2020, will be eligible for the benefit.
India's urban unemployment rate declined in Q4FY23 to 6.8 per cent - the lowest in over four years -- after it stagnated at 7.2 per cent in the previous October-December quarter, reflecting improvement in the labour market, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Monday. The unemployment rate in current weekly status (CWS) terms for all ages in the March quarter was the lowest recorded in more than four years, from the time the NSO released India's first quarterly urban jobless rate for the December quarter in 2018. The jobless rate in urban areas had been on a continuous decline since the peak of 20.8 per cent in the April-June quarter of FY21.
Fresh formal job creation declined sequentially for a third straight month in February to fall to a 21-month low, signaling pressure in the employment market. These are the findings from the latest payroll data released by the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Thursday. The number of new monthly subscribers under the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) declined 10 per cent sequentially to 738,052 in February from 819,659 in January.
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.
This decision would pave the way for crediting Rs 54,000 crore as 8.65 per cent interest for 2018-19, into the accounts of more than 6 crore EPFO subscribers.
The insolvency process of debt-ridden Reliance Capital Ltd (RCL) on Tuesday hit a roadblock as the NCLT Mumbai has stayed the resolution process on the plea of Torrent Group. The stay order was issued by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as the Ahmedabad-based Torrent Group challenged the revised bid from Hinduja Group, sources said. Torrent Group, which emerged as the highest bidder with an Rs 8,640 crore offer, had moved the NCLT-Mumbai against Hinduja Group's late revised bid, which it had submitted after the completion of the e-auction process on December 21.
According to the EPFO estimates, there would be a surplus of Rs 151.67 crore after providing 8.65 per cent rate of interest for 2018-19 on EPF.
Private firms will have to maintain a minimum net addition to their workforce each month from October this year to June 2021 to get the Employees' Provident Fund subsidy for the new recruits.
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.
Concerned with the continuous downward revision, the EPFO has since last month begun counting people quitting their previous jobs and joining a new one as an addition to the net payroll.
During December 2018, maximum number of 217,000 jobs were created in the 18-21 years age group followed by 203,000 in the 22-25 years age bracket.
EPF allows partial withdrawal to meet situations like house construction, medical emergency, and so on.
The outbreak and lockdown have thrown up a number of challenges, such as layoffs, pay cuts and a general slowdown. Many subscribers after their unsuccessful attempts to use the scheme have taken to social media to voice their complaints, as the EPFO website and grievance portal suffer outages and its customer helpline remains unreachable.
Once approved by the finance ministry, the rate hike will benefit six crore EPFO subscribers.
The Indian economy is likely to grow at over 7 per cent in the current fiscal year, former Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya said on Wednesday, while observing that the growth rate should sustain next year too provided the forthcoming Budget does not have any negative surprises. Panagariya further said recessionary fears have been around for a while but so far neither the US nor the EU has gone into recession. "From the viewpoint of India, in terms of headwinds originating abroad, the worst is probably behind us," he told PTI.
Apart from this, employers may be allowed to deduct EPF contributions only on the basic pay of up to Rs 15,000, even if the employees' basic pay is above this ceiling. While on one hand this will allow companies to lower their wage bills, employees can also get a higher salary in hand.
Remember, pension from EPS will be taxable at slab rate, reducing the post-tax income for people who remain in the higher tax brackets after retirement.
Suppose you had bought a television set that came with a one-year warranty. It breaks down two years after purchase. You can't react emotionally and say that such an expensive set should last for at least five-six years.
With Sebi telling the Supreme Court that it was not investigating the Adani group since 2016, the Congress on Monday cited a Union minister's reply in the Lok Sabha to challenge the claim and asked whether Parliament was misled or the market regulator was "fast asleep" as investors were "duped".
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
Employees joining companies after August and availing of the government benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) will also have to link their PF accounts with Aadhaar numbers.
Gross enrolments of new subscribers with ESIC were 1.49 crore during the entire financial year 2018-19, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said in a report.
January 2019 saw the maximum number of employment being generated since the data from September 2017, reports Indivjal Dhasmana.
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.
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