Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lauded the Union Budget as a "people's budget" that fulfills the dreams of every Indian and said that it is a "force-multiplier" that will boost consumption, investment and growth. He highlighted a host of measures for different sectors, including welfare initiatives for gig workers, tax relief for the middle class, and support for the manufacturing sector.
Steps like depositing the entire PPF amount before April 5 or preparing a household budget will ensure this financial year goes well.
The Union labour ministry has said that it can invest part of the Rs 5 lakh crore (Rs 5 trillion) provident fund corpus in the stock market provided the finance ministry guarantees safety of the workers' money.
PF is a long-term investment tool for funding your retirement. It should not be used as a short-term funding source each time you shift jobs. You lose out on the power of compounding to build the corpus.
In an era of falling interest rates, major trade unions on Friday pitched for restoring 12 per cent return on small savings schemes
Over 4.7 crore (47 million) employees are likely to get an interest of 8.5 per cent in 2010-11 on their provident fund deposits of about Rs 2.5 lakh crore (Rs 2.5 trillion), a return authorities have been giving for the past five years.
The Sebi board on Wednesday approved a series of measures, including stricter regulatory norms for SME IPOs, a comprehensive overhaul of investment banking regulations, and an expanded definition of Unpublished Price Sensitive Information (UPSI). Also, the board approved reforms to boost ease of doing business for Debenture Trustees, ESG rating providers, InvITs, REITs, and SM REITs.
Retirement fund body EPFO has retained 8.5 per cent interest rate on employees' provident fund (EPF) for 2019-20 for its over six crore members as decided earlier, and also began crediting the same into their accounts on Thursday. A large number of the members of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) would be able to see their updated EPF accounts with credit of 8.5 per cent interest for 2019-20, from Friday, a senior official told PTI. The official further said the labour ministry has already sent the direction to credit the 8.5 per cent interest on EPF for 2019-20 to the EPFO, and the body has already started crediting interest into the members' account for the last financial year.
Employees' Provident Fund Organisation has been allowing members to contribute more than mandatory amount towards their pension account.
The self-employed should invest in the National Pension System, a government-backed, low-cost retirement avenue where they can choose the mix of debt and equity that is right for them.
The EPFO on Friday deferred a decision on interest rate on provident fund deposits for 2010-11 following pressure from trade unions that want rates to be raised to 9.5-10.5 per cent from 8.5 per cent.
With 7 per cent economic growth, India is not creating enough jobs as reflected by the number of applicants for vacant posts in some states, Reserve Bank's former governor Raghuram Rajan said and suggested the government needs to focus on promoting labour-intensive industries to generate employment. Rajan further said some Indians, especially those at upper level, are comfortable and have high incomes, but consumption growth from the lower half of the country has still not recovered to pre-pandemic level.
Fresh formal job creation cooled for the second consecutive month to decline to a six-month low in September, signalling a downturn in the labour markets this financial year. The number of new monthly subscribers under the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) declined by 6.45 per cent to 891,583 in September from 953,092 in August, shows the latest payroll data released by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). Besides, the net payroll additions -- calculated by taking into account the number of new subscribers, the number of exits, and the return of old subscribers -- increased by 14.9 per cent to 1.72 million in September from 1.49 million in August.
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.
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".
Labour Ministry has justified EPFO's declaring 9.5 per cent interest for 2010-11.
Top officials said asking employees other than the fund management team to mandatorily invest a fifth of their salary goes against the principle of natural justice.
Rules out involvement of nominee and independent directors.
The four labour codes are unlikely to be implemented this fiscal in view of slow progress on the drafting of rules by the states and also for political reasons like elections in Uttar Pradesh, a source said. The implementation of these laws assumes significance because once these are implemented there would be reduction in take-home pay of employees and firms have to bear higher provident fund liability. "The ministry of labour is ready with the rules under the four labour codes. But the states have been slow in drafting and finalising those under new codes.
There are differences between the ministries of labour and finance on the issue.
The finance ministry wants the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation to bypass the central board of trustees when deciding how to invest a portion of the Rs 5-lakh crore (Rs 5 trillion) provident fund corpus in the capital market.
Debt as an investment avenue for the wealthy has been attracting more assets than equity. The portfolio management service (PMS) industry, whose services require a minimum investment of Rs 50 lakh, has seen a 4.4 per cent decline in equity assets since March 2022.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who wants pension and insurance funds to invest more in equities and infrastructure.
Investors must explore alternate avenues like mutual funds and pension plans for building a retirement corpus.
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.
Despite strong AUM growth, MFs lag behind other popular investment avenues. MFs received only 6 per cent of total household savings in 2021-2022.
The rest 25% would be paid to the subscriber at the age of 58.
EPFO is managing a corpus of Rs 6.5 lakh crore.
The employers often split wages into different allowances to reduce their PF liability and also increase the take home pay of their workers.
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.
Retirement fund body EPFO on Thursday lowered the interest rate on Provident Fund deposits to 8.5 per cent for the current financial year, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar said on Thursday.
All transactions in the units of an asset management company's mutual funds exceeding Rs 15 lakh executed by designated persons, trustees, or their immediate relatives must be reported to the compliance officer within two business days from such transactions, Sebi said on Tuesday. The threshold of Rs 15 lakh could be either in a single transaction or multiple transactions within a quarter, per PAN, across all schemes except exempted ones. The new rules will be applicable from November 1, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a circular.
'Binary fission will happen -- startups will lead to more startups.'
The decision would leave a surplus of Rs 15.26 crore.
In the last three years, the Union Territory administration has invoked 311 (2)(c) of the Constitution to sack more than 50 employees, who were allegedly operating in shadows within the government and drawing a salary from the public exchequer, however, they were helping Pakistani terror outfits, providing logistics to terrorists, propagating terrorists' ideology, raising terror finances and furthering secessionist agenda, officials said.
In his address after more than 75,000 people were given appointment letters for various government jobs in the first tranche, Modi acknowledged the challenges facing the economy the world over with many countries hit by a record inflation and unemployment and said India is making every effort to come out of the situation unscathed.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, HMT and Maruti Udyog Ltd are among the corporates that defaulted in remitting their provident fund share to the Employees Provident Fund Organisation
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's key advisory body, Finance and Investment Committee, would meet next month to take a view on parking 3 to 5 per cent of its large corpus of Rs 2.57 lakh crore (Rs 2.57 trillion)in the capital market.
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?
