'It was to be a two hour long surgery and anything could go wrong,' recalls Veenu Sandhu.
In a bid to earn higher return for its 40 million subscribers, the country's biggest provident fund EPFO is exploring the possibility of investing a small portion of its assets in equities.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced Rs 3 lakh crore collateral free automatic loan for businesses, including MSMEs, to benefit 45 lakh small businesses. Detailing parts of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package, she said this loan will have a 4-year tenure and will have 12-month moratorium, she said.
With the finance ministry refusing to hike rates of Special Deposit Schemes and allow it to park funds in high interest bearing postal deposits, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation is toying with the idea of trading in government securities as
With uncertainty prevailing over the rates of Employees Provident Fund, CPI(M)-backed trade union, Centre for Indian Trade Unions, said on Friday that it would oppose any move to keep differential interest rates
Having dipped into its reserves for paying 9.5 per cent interest for four crore subscribers in 2004-05, the EPF trustees would meet in New Delhi on July 30 to arrive at returns to be offered this fiscal.
Following the footsteps of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation has entrusted the UTI Investor Services with the job of creating the required infrastructure for issuing its much-bragged social security number.
The finance ministry on Friday ratified the interest rate of 9.5 per cent for about 4 crore subscribers of Employees Provident Fund for 2002-03 and 2003-04.
The Central Board of Trustees of the Employees Provident Fund on Tuesday unanimously decided to defer a decision on the rate of interest on EPF till July 20.
'When we say we want to increase pension participation, do we want to increase participation through the savings route?' 'Or do we want people to save in specific pension products?' asks Renuka Sane.
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.
'For those looking at forward-looking signals for the economy from the stock markets, the relative performance of small and mid-caps may be a better indicator of the future than the index levels of the narrower and more popular indices', says Neelkanth Mishra.
Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma on Tuesday expressed confidence that the 9.5 per cent EPF interest rate could be maintained next year, in spite of the falling interest rates.
"People in India are benefiting from the whole process of liberalisation," Finance Minister Arun Jailtey said.
Workers being laid off will be entitled to full wages of 45 days for every year of service.
In view of the proposed one per cent slash in interest rate on special deposit scheme from April, the Central Board of Trustees of Employees Provident Fund Organisation will meet on Friday to decide on the rate of interest on EPF for 2003-04.\n\n\n\n
Pawan Kumar, organising secretary of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), tells Aditi Phadnis it will join forces with other trade unions if necessary to oppose the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) provisions in the Union Budget.
The government will notify categories of employees who will be excluded from the controversial tax proposal on provident fund withdrawals.
The railways, the country's largest employer, will be hiring 127,000 people in 2018-2019, for which 23.7 million are competing.
India can be rated as among the best performing economies in the world
Cos can apply for PAN card number online through e-Biz portal.
Rejecting criticism of jobless growth, he said if state after state is creating good number of jobs, how can the Centre be creating joblessness?
However, ration card, driving licence, voter identity card, Kisan passbook with photo, job card issued under MGNREGS and a certificate issued by a gazetted officer or a tehsildar will be admissible as proof of identity for people to get the benefits under the scheme till the time they get Aadhaar.
The EPFO has about 3.7 crore (37 million) members.
This will incentivise employers to recruit unemployed persons and also bring into books the informal employees.
If a risk taker and young, NPS would suit her/him. Otherwise, s/he should go for EPF.
A look at the key decisions taken by the Narendra Modi government in its six months.
At present, deposits, accrual of interest and withdrawals are tax free under the scheme.
Modi said his critics were seeing slowdown in the last two quarters but were ignoring that the BJP government had brought down inflation from 10% to 2.5%.
Now that the National Pension Scheme offers more choices than the Employees Provident Fund, is more transparent and also allows to choose the level of allocation to equities as investors like, should one switch to the NPS?
Withdrawals from EPF and NPS to have same tax rates.
Sinha said the data on economic growth put out by the Central government cannot be trusted.
'It is unlikely that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) might increase their India allocation, given the overweight status for most FPIs.' 'Given the commentary from the Republican Party, an anti-imports approach means money will not flow out of the US.'
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.
