At present, the EPF subscribers are exempted from paying income tax on deposits.
In a placatory move, the labour ministry also said it was contemplating permitting withdrawal of all accumulations by Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's subscribers on grounds like purchase of house, serious illness, marriage and professional education of children.
The filing of online provident fund accounts transfer claims on changing jobs for subscribers of the retirement fund body EPFO has become a reality now.
Come March 2013, salaried employees will be able to switch jobs, without worrying about withdrawing or transferring their savings with the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
Keep transferring the account, as unclaimed amount will not earn interest after three years.
The rest 25% would be paid to the subscriber at the age of 58.
The members of these trusts enjoy tax and other benefits at par with EPFO subscribers.
The government has reduced the stipulated period for settlement of various claims like PF withdrawal, pension and insurance by the retirement fund body EPFO to 20 days from the existing 30 days.
The meeting has been called as the Finance Minister P Chidambaram did not extend a March 31 deadline for the trusts to get regular tax exemption through the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation.
It is not advisable to touch retirement corpus if property is being purchased for investment.
The CPI-backed AITUC has proposed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to utilise pension funds and employees provident fund for infrastructure development instead of investment in the speculative capital markets.
Want to know how to claim tax deduction on property income you earn? Do you know how to withdraw unclaimed EPF money?
EPFO had approached the finance ministry for help, which advised it to go through the legal procedure.
The 8.1 per cent interest rate was recommended by the Central Board of Trustees after its meeting in Guwahati under the chairmanship of Union Labour and Employment Minister Bhupendra Yadav, a labour ministry press statement said.
At present, organised sector workers covered under social security schemes run by EPFO are exempted from contribution towards schemes.
The apex court gave the direction while hearing the petition filed by Nahar Singh Yadav, secretary of the Ghaziabad Bar Association, in this regard.
There will be tripartite pact with member, bank/housing agency and EPFO.
rediffGURU and financial planning expert Colonel Sanjeev Govila (retd) answers your personal finance-related questions.
In 2006, FM made it mandatory for all private PF Trusts to seek exemption certificates.
Tax rates would be made known only in the proposed Act, a bill for which will be introduced in Parliament in the coming monsoon session.
A member of the Central Board of Trustees D L Sachdev said, "It is quite possible that people might have resorted to withdrawing money from their provident fund accounts. But increase in the number of such applications cannot be solely attributed to job losses due to recession".
Retirement fund body EPFO on Monday is likely to retain 8.5 per cent interest on PF deposits for its over 5 crore subscribers in 2013-14.
rediffGURU Kirtan A Shah answers your personal finance queries.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Rules out involvement of nominee and independent directors.
An expert group has called for carving out two separate accounts -- PF and annuity -- in the employee provident fund scheme to meet the challenge of fund depletion in the pension scheme and introducing greater transparency for subscribers.
The government has approved payment of 8.75 per cent rate of interest on PF deposits in 2013-14 for over five crore subscribers of retirement fund body EPFO.
The government has amended the investment pattern of provident, superannuation and gratuity fund capping the maximum exposure in bonds to 30 per cent from the earlier limit of 40 per cent.
The first phase of computerisation of the EPFO offices were to be completed within a year of the EPFO's apex body -- Central Board of Trustees' (CBT)-- approval of the project in April last year.
A remarkable story which helped in transforming a bureaucratic organization, to a customer centric organization. This experience may inspire several government / private organizations to modify or adopt digitisation to transform their business, notes Professor N Ravichandran (retd).
'The government should come back as a job creator as it did in the 1960s and the 1970s.'
The steep one percentage points increase has taken the interest on PF deposits of 4.71 crore organised sector workers to a five-year high.
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.
rediffGURU Jinal Mehta answers readers' financial planning and health insurance queries
Post office savings of 1, 2 and 3 year term deposits and 5-year recurring deposit currently fetch 8.4 per cent interest per annum.
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation will not be able to pay more than 8.5 per cent interest on PF deposits during 2009-10 as it has no reserves left following a Rs 139 crore (Rs 1.39 billion) deficit incurred last fiscal.
A senior official attached with the Tambaram police commissionerate has been transferred and put under compulsory wait, days after the AR Rahman concert row that among others witnessed traffic snarls which even affected the movement of the Chief Minister's convoy.
A European cargo airline has moved the National Company Law Tribunal seeking expeditious acquisition of three Jet Airways B777-300 aircraft. The application is by a Malta-based Ace Aviation VIII Limited, which emerged as a successful bidder in the auction of three Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. The firm is part of a Belgium-based cargo airline and its application will be heard on Wednesday.
