Government is framing a rule that will make it compulsory for regulators like Sebi, Irdai and PFRDA to deposit a significant portion of their reserves into the Consolidated Fund of India.
Will take their views on improving investment climate and boosting economy.
In the entire month's recess during Parliament's Budget session, said the Bharatiya Janata Party, the major opposition grouping, none from the government spoke to it on any of the major stuck legislation.
Amid differences among allies, the government today deferred a decision on the changes in the crucial Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2011.
Important pieces of legislation held up because of opposition by the Trinamool Congress could be cleared in two months, top government managers told Business Standard.
Government auditor CAG has rapped five regulators, including Sebi, Irda and PNGRB, for keeping their surplus funds worth over Rs 2,142 crore collected through fee and penalty outside the government accounts.
Turning down the suggestion of Parliamentary Standing Committee, the Union Cabinet also decided that there would be no guarantee of assured returns on schemes by pension funds.
In order to popularise the social security schemes for the unorganised sector, a Committee on Tuesday suggested PFRDA access the postal department's network and enter into tie ups with mobile phone operators who have vast reach.
Restrict investment to Rs 50,000 for tax benefits, experts tell Sanjay Kumar Singh, but caution that taxation at maturity and compulsory annuities are dampers.
If the Personal Data Protection Bill gets passed in its present form, a new class of companies and entities could emerge. The sole job of these new entities would be to manage the consent for data usage of a user.Banks, healthcare firms and fintech companies, among others, fear that sharing non-personal data with the government may hurt business interests. Banks also fear the threat of data misuse.
The finance ministry has proposed to decriminalise a host of minor offences, including those relating to cheque bounce and repayment of loans, in as many as 19 legislations to help businesses tide over the crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The 19 legislations include Negotiable Instruments Act (cheque bounce), SARFAESI Act (repayment of bank loans), LIC Act, PFRDA Act, RBI Act, NHB Act, Banking Regulation Act and Chit Funds Act.
Besides financial stability, the paper will cover the role of committee of financial sector regulators, HLCC, which decides on the issue of coordination among watchdogs like SEBI, the Reserve Bank, PFRDA, IRDA from time to time.
Interim pension regulator PFRDA will launch from December this year its savings scheme, which aims to give greater returns on the deposits, and can be withdrawn fully.
From April 1, subscribers will be able to change investment option & asset allocation twice a year, instead of once. Use greater flexibility offered by pension scheme judiciously.
Most mutual fund players and life insurance companies are planning to bid for appointment as pension fund managers for all citizens after the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) today decided to seek expression of interest from prospective fund managers.
After a four-year wait, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority is ready to kick off the process to set up private pension funds so that salaried and non-salaried people can start investing April onwards.
Called Default Option, it is a life-cycle fund under which the amount of money invested in equity would be more in the initial stages while in the later stages, more money would be invested in debt instruments.
A new kind of pension-cum-savings scheme is on the anvil, which would provide a safety net as well as liquidity to the holder.
In September 2013, FMC was brought under the Finance Ministry.
The Left parties' demands of 100 per cent funds being invested in government securities, an unrealistic guaranteed return, deployment of public sector employees as fund managers, refusal to shift to a defined contribution system and of course the standard opposition to FDI of 26 per cent do not offer any constructive solution.
Fund managers queued up to grab a pie of the new pension scheme that opens for subscription on May 1. But even before the scheme is launched, they are complaining of it being a loss-making business with the investment management fee fixed at 0.009 per cent.
We are hoping to have an exposure of over $300 million over the next two years. We would also evaluate opportunities to invest in other asset classes including equity and structured products.
Since there are many and complicated choices, retail investors stand to benefit
Last week, the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) appointed State Bank of India, UTI Mutual Fund and the Life Insurance Corporation as fund managers for the schemes to manage the corpus that has accumulated since the NPS was launched in January 1, 2004. At present, the NPS is restricted to all central government employees who have been recruited after January 1, 2004.
The funds are likely to be invested as per the interim investment guidelines, which may allow investment of 5 per cent in equity and 10 per cent in equity-linked mutual funds.
The finance ministry's proposal to increase equity exposure of non-government provident funds and superannuation funds from 5 per cent to 10 per cent may benefit only the high income group category and subscribers of the New Pension Scheme.
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?
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked the states on Monday to cooperate with the Centre's proposal to allow investing a part of pension funds in stock markets and other options such as bonds.
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.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday asked chief ministers to carry forward pension reform as the liabilities of both the Centre and states was expected to cross a staggering Rs 100,000 crore
In a bureaucratic reshuffle, economic affairs secretary Rakesh Mohan will look after the key budget division following the appointment of expenditure secretary D Swarup
Bowing to the pressure of Left parties, the government on Wednesday referred the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.
The government on Thursday issued an ordinance for setting up a full-fledged Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority akin to Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority and Securities Exchange Board of India.
A Parliamentary panel that went into a Bill to create a pension fund regulator has favoured 26 per cent FDI in the sector, but found many lacunae in the legislation.
The Prime Minister's Office has decided to set up a panel, led by former chief statistician T C A Anant, to deliberate on whether the enterprise-level quarterly data, which is released by the labour bureau, should be discontinued.
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