Every month your salary slip features a deduction towards your Provident Fund (also known as Employees Provident Fund or EPF in short). How often have you wondered if such a contribution is actually beneficial to you and if it is actually needed? What if you quit or switch over jobs? Here's explaining the benefits EPF carries and why one should pay attention to this contribution.
Did you know that your EPF contribution also goes towards insuring you, giving you and your spouse a pension apart from giving you a lump sum amount after retirement?
Ask rediffGURU Reetika Sharma your insurance mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to maintain the interest rate on employees' provident fund (EPF) deposits at 8.25 per cent for the fiscal year 2025-26, marking the second consecutive year at this rate.
EPF has traditionally been the only tool for Indians, especially the salaried class, to save for their retirement corpus.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has terminated the services of two employees for their alleged links with terror outfits, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah pledged the BJP will recover funds allegedly stolen by the TMC in Bengal and promised development schemes for North Bengal, while attacking Mamata Banerjee's governance.
Intellius Recode Ltd has filed preliminary papers with SEBI for an IPO comprising a fresh issue of equity shares and an offer for sale by existing shareholders. The funds will be used to develop digital workers and for general corporate purposes.
A parliamentary panel has recommended an urgent review of the Rs 1,000 minimum monthly pension under the Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995, to raise it to a more realistic and dignified level, considering the rising cost of living and the financial hardships faced by pensioners.
Passive funds have resumed gaining ground in the mutual fund (MF) industry after a slowdown in 2024, with their share of assets under management (AUM) reaching an all-time high in 2025. The surge has been driven largely by robust inflows into gold and silver exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
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 tragedy underscored 'serious and widespread' weaknesses in the EPFO's monitoring system and its ability to detect and act against defaulting establishments.'
In the rush to complete tax-saving investments at the end of the financial year, many taxpayers choose instruments that do not match their long-term financial goals.
The most common mistake is investing without assessing suitability and long-term implications.
The AITUC has suggested utilisation of the entire corpus for creation of the infrastructure development fund. Do you agree?
The over 3.2 crore subscribers to the provident fund may get a lower 9 per cent interest from April instead of the prevailing rate of 9.5 per cent.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has promised to expel infiltrators from West Bengal and secure the border if the BJP wins the upcoming assembly elections. He accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of neglecting North Bengal and favouring Muslims in budget allocations.
Retirement fund body EPFO has extended the deadline for filing EPF return or ECR (electronic challan-cum-return) by one week for the wage month of September till October 22, 2025. The employers are mandated to file the ECR by the 15th of every month.
A 10-part series that explains all you want to know about how India's EPF turns a slice of your monthly salary into long-term savings, pension, and life insurance.
rediffGURU Vipul Bhavsar answers readers' personal income tax queries
'These changes are expected to eliminate many data-entry problems that make the return filing process cumbersome in the current system.'
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Friday decided to give 8.5 per cent interest on provident fund deposits of 4.5 crore (45 million) subscribers.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha terminated the services of five more government employees for suspected terror links, bringing the total number of employees sacked since 2020 to 85.
The case was registered on the complaint of Pratap Singh, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, EPFO.
An Indian-origin couple in the UK has been sentenced for breaching a disqualification order, operating companies despite a ban imposed after tax fraud claims.
'They (government) are trying to create market for pension products'.
A Delhi court has remanded I-PAC co-founder Vinesh Chandel to the Enforcement Directorate's custody for 10 days in connection with a money laundering case involving alleged diversion of funds worth crores of rupees.
By transferring your PF account and eschewing withdrawals every time you shift jobs, you can add more to your retirement funds
There has been demand to hike the PF interest rate to 8.90 per cent.
While govt has decided to maintain status quo, don't use the money for house, marriage or education
Your provident fund statement reveals the progress of your retirement savings
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has unveiled draft norms for branch authorisation and business correspondents (BCs), introducing a two-tiered classification for BCs and redefining 'banking outlets' to include BC-Banking Outlets (BC-BOs), aiming to expand formal banking presence, particularly in rural areas.
A record amount of pension money may be finding its way into the stock market, if buying figures in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) data are any indication. Category inflows touched Rs 37,409 crore for the three months ending September 2025, shows an analysis of NSE data.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey on Thursday called for sharper disclosures in IPO (initial public offering) offer documents, particularly around risk factors, valuation rationale, objects of the issue, and utilisation of proceeds.
EPF doesn't just build your retirement fund -- it also provides free life insurance up to Rs 7 lakh under the EDLI scheme.
Who pays what into EPF, EPS, and EDLI -- the 12% math explained.
Ask rediffGURU Reetika Sharma your insurance, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Otherwise, EPFO can freeze your account. But seek detailed calculation to verify the numbers
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has cleared a series of regulatory relaxations to ease operations for fund managers in GIFT City, along with a revamped framework for global in-house centres (GICs) and capital market intermediaries.
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