NEW DELHI: With the completion of computerization of 117 of the 120 provident fund offices across the country, PF account holders who have sought a transfer can now track the progress of their applications online. The step, officials in the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) say, is aimed as much at user convenience as to infuse transparency in the working of the organization. The facility was started last week and officials say that though the transfer deadline is a month, unofficially they are looking at a window of one week within which effort will be made to complete the transfer. The system of electronic transfer of PF money was put in place from January, which is when the deadline was brought down to one month from a year that it used to take earlier. For online tracking of the application status, the applicants can visit the ...

TUTICORIN : Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Ltd and Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund have signed an MoU to market mutual fund products. The MOU for a strategic alliance to distribute and market Mutual Fund products through branches of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank was signed at Mumbai on March 3, S Selvan Rajadurai , General Manager, Business Development, TMB said in a press release S Selvan Rajadurai, General Manager, Business Development of TMB said in a press release here today that the strategic alliance to distribute and market mutual fund products through TMB's branches was signed in Mumbai on March 3. A Balasubramanian , CEO of Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund claimed their mutual fund offers innovative investment solutions across asset classes well recognized for their performance. Rajadurai said TMB is ...

MUMBAI: Returns on Unit-linked pension products are set to rise to 6% next fiscal after the central bank raised benchmark policy rates in 2010-11 to combat inflation. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority , or Irda, the insurance watchdog had benchmarked that returns on these products should be 0.5%, or 50 basis points, over the reverse repo rate, the rate at which the Reserve Bank of India absorbs funds from banks. The re-verse repo rate is now 5.75% after a series of rate increases. The Irda had mandated a 4.5% return on unit-linked pension plans last year and had also said that rates would be reviewed annually and vary between 3-6%. Insurance companies are unhappy with the mandated returns saying that offering a guarantee will hurt their profitability. The share of unit-linked pension products in ...

Charity and doing good is the new cause that our denizens have taken a fancy to. Almost every second or third person we do a plan for, wants to keep aside a decent pile for charity . That itself is a heart-warming trend considering the number of organisations and worthy causes that need financial assistance. There are again many of them who take it one step further... they want to take up some social causes and work in the villages. Again, this is an admirable trend which requires to be applauded . For most people, it means going and teaching in a village school. That could be the problem. Imagine a technocrat in top management going and teaching in villages... there is nothing wrong there. But, it is wasted talent. For instance, in the IT industry itself, there is a dearth of top-notch talent as the industry has been growing at a break-neck pace. Now, would it not be a great idea for this technocrat to be part of this ecosystem... train, mentor an...

NEW DELHI: Companies managing the retirement savings of their employees through own provident fund trusts have been given more time to seek licences that make them eligible for tax exemption on contributions. The Budget 2011-12 has allowed firms to obtain the exemption licence from the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) till March 31 next year. The earlier deadline line expired on December 31. Contributions made by employers to PF accounts of employees is exempt up to 12% of salary, and interest credited is fully exempt if it does not exceed the rate notified by the government. In 2006, the finance ministry had directed companies managing their own retirement funds to get an exemption licence from the EPFO after satisfying the government that they were following all rules and guidelines. A o...

MUMBAI: Private insurer Birla Sun Life Insurance Company , a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Nuvo , today announced the launch of BSLI Foresight Plan - a unit-linked plan . BSLI Foresight Plan provides customers the upside of market returns, while shielding their investments from downside risks, its Chief Actuarial Officer Fabien Jeudy said here. This medium-term unit linked savings plan is apt for a volatile market providing the perfect blend of guarantee, flexibility and liquidity options, he told reporters. "Equity markets have a huge potential towards meeting customer's long-term wealth creation needs. However, many customers tend to stay away from this attractive opportunity due to lack of knowledge on timing the market and the resultant fear of loosing their money," he said. Keeping thi...

NEW DELHI: India's diversified stock funds lagged the benchmark index in February, as exposure to mid- and small-cap shares and sectors like capital goods hurt net asset values. Diversified funds fell 4.66 percent on an average during the month, compared with a 2.75 percent fall in the benchmark, data from global fund tracker Lipper, a Thomson Reuters company, showed. "There is no predictability at all, there are no sectoral moves... sometimes it (market) is getting impacted by global cues," said T P Raman, Managing Director at Sundaram Mutual Fund. Equity diversified funds with significant exposure to mid- and small-cap firms bore the brunt as the BSE Mid-cap index declined 7.2 percent and the small-cap index dropped 7.8 percent in February. Though money managers have reduced exposure to such stocks in recent months, these companies still accounted for more...