The RBI advisory follows a labour ministry request earlier this year seeking the central bank's expertise to identify gaps in EPFO's investment strategy and fund management practices, including accounting, risk management, and internal governance.
Your EPF isn't just a retirement pot. It's a financial safety net you can dip into for life's biggest needs. Here's how these one-time advances work and when to use them wisely.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi on Sunday released its manifesto for the Maharashtra assembly polls, promising free cervical cancer vaccines for girls aged 9 to 16 and and two optional leave days for women employees during menstruation.
The new 'Form 5' has been brought for the benefit of pensioners and it will record all information on the basis of self-attestation by the individual concerned, said Sanjay Kothari, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms, Public Grievances and Pension.
Ask rediffGURU and tax expert Mihir Tanna your income tax-related questions.
The 100 per cent withdrawal provision and the 25 per cent minimum balance provision have led to some confusion.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2011, provides for market based returns and wide coverage based on several investment options in the pension sector with an aim to building confidence in the subscribers.
People like Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram, who as finance minister had fully supported the NPS, refuse to exercise their moral and political influence to try and stop Ashok Gehlot and others hell-bent on wrecking the states' finances, notes Virendra Kapoor.
It is proposed to provide a combined upper limit of Rs 7.5 lakh in respect of employer's contribution in a year to NPS, superannuation fund and recognised provident fund and any excess contribution is proposed to be taxable.
The Unified Pension System (UPS), approved by the Union Cabinet on Saturday, is "fiscally prudent" as it will be funded within the Centre's fiscal projections, according to T V Somanathan, the Cabinet Secretary-designate. Speaking to Business Standard immediately after the Cabinet nod, former finance secretary Somanathan, who headed the committee set up in March 2023 to review the National Pension System (NPS), said the UPS will not postpone pension expenditure as it will be contributory and financed each year.
They said that massive public investment in infrastructure, social sectors and agriculture would generate employment and the Union Budget should give it a priority and allocate necessary funds for this.
PFRDA will invite bids to appoint pension fund managers.
The pension fund managers distribute products under the National Pension System.
Under the proposed scheme, there will be tripartite agreement with member, bank/housing agency and EPFO for pledging future PF contributions as EMI payment.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced several reforms.
The reduction in goods & services tax (GST) on individual life and health insurance premiums has been called a "landmark step" for making insurance affordable and inclusive. In a panel discussion at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2025, Anup Bagchi, managing director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO) of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance; Mahesh Balasubramanian, MD & CEO of Kotak Life Insurance; Tarun Chugh, MD & CEO of Bajaj Life Insurance; and Ratnakar Patnaik, MD of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), listed what else the industry needs to reach more people.
At present, deposits, accrual of interest and withdrawals are tax free under the scheme.
Gig workers are usually spoken of in the context of the sharing economy, like Uber, Ola drivers, delivery persons for Zomato and Swiggy and so on. This is the first time such workers will be covered under India's social security law.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said he didn't harbour aspirations to become Maharashtra CM, a remark coming against the backdrop of Maha Vikas Aghadi allies' reluctance to face assembly polls with a CM face.
Ask rediffGURU and tax expert Mihir Tanna your income tax-related questions.
The opposition Congress listed 59 promises in its 106-page manifesto, with assurances for all sections of the society, including farmers, women and government employees.
'We have created massive infrastructure in the past six years.'
But increase in the statutory contribution will boost retirement corpus
The federation is now busy sending letters to the prime minister.
'It would be reasonable to assume that Modi 3.0 would be more focused on projects and schemes which do not require any legislative change or which have the support of its coalition partners,' asserts A K Bhattacharya.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Ramalingam Kalirajan explains the pros and cons of both investment types.
RSS-aligned Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) on Monday expressed disappointment over the government's budget proposals with regard to divestment and foreign direct investment, especially in the insurance sector. The BMS, however, lauded the government for its current efforts on the massive vaccination programme, a special scheme for tea workers in West Bengal and Assam, labour oriented push on infrastructure projects in construction sector and development of five major fishing harbours viz. Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, and Petuaghat as hubs for economic activities etc. On other Budget proposals, it said in a statement that "mixing the beautiful concept of Aatmanirbhar Bharat with FDI and disinvestment in the Union Budget is disappointing for the employees".
'Once elected, you have to act like people's representative for the full five years or else people show you your place.'
Twenty years after the burning of a train in Godhra killed 59 'karsevaks' and triggered one of India's worst post-Partition riots, the poll-scape reflects the yawning gulf between the two communities.
'Government officials use Gmail and ordinary phones without basic security consciousness.' 'Interoperability, especially in joint exercises with countries like the US, worries me.' 'It often means we open our systems to them, but they don't reciprocate.' 'They could have kill switches in their systems and might even be able to affect ours.'
While looking to give a boost to the mutual fund sector with some contribution from about Rs 5.5 lakh crore (Rs 5.5 trillion) corpus being managed by Employee Provident Fund Organisation, Sebi feels that age restrictions would safeguard investors from 'unnecessary risks' during years closer to their retirement.
Ramalingam Kalirajan dives into the specifics of NPS withdrawal rules to help you understand the conditions under which and when partial withdrawals are allowed.
Officials said the IBA had three major agendas to discuss, the most important being to persuade the unions to accept the new pension scheme, otherwise known as the contributory pension scheme, for new bank employees. Currently, the bank unions are vehemently opposing it since unions of no other sector has accepted it to date.
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is considering raising the monthly minimum wage ceiling from Rs 15,000 now to improve the coverage and bring millions of informal workers under its purview. The last increase in the minimum wage ceiling was in 2014 to Rs 15,000 from Rs 6,500.
Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) and Knowledge processing Outsourcing (KPO) firms are covered by the retirement fund body EPFO, Parliament was informed.
The asset manager is yet to resolve the impasse surrounding the payment of pension to its erstwhile employees who had opted for voluntary retirement in 2003.
In a bid to enhance its equity exposure and earn higher returns for its nearly 65 million subscribers, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is considering reinvesting 50 per cent of its exchange-traded funds (ETFs) redemption proceeds back into equity. Sources close to the development said a proposal regarding this was discussed in the investment committee (IC) meeting in October last year, and the recommendation has been sent to the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the apex decision-making body of the EPFO for its approval. The next CBT meeting is scheduled to be held on Saturday.
The government should not go in for an 'aggressive fiscal consolidation' in the upcoming Budget as global risks have not abated, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Member Ashima Goyal said on Wednesday. Goyal further said subsidies are expected to come down as food and energy inflation moderates. WPI inflation in food articles in November was 1.07 per cent against 8.33 per cent in the previous month.
