With banks being flush with liquidity and lending activities yet to gather full steam, deposit rates have been on the decline for quite sometime now. State Bank of India of India has cut its deposit rates further for medium and long-term deposits from April 29, 2017. Term deposits for two-three years now will earn an interest of only 6.25 per cent, compared with 6.75 per cent earlier. Deposits in the 3-5 year bucket will also earn 6.25 per cent now, as against the 6.5 per cent earlier. Rates on 5-10 year deposits have been slashed by 25 basis points as well to 6.25 per cent now. Punjab National Bank has also reduced its retail term-deposit rates by 10-25 basis points from May 3.
Easier claims processing at EPFOLabour day on May 1 saw one more investor-friendly initiative launched by the Employee Provident Fund Organisation — the Aadhaar-based Online Claim Submission scheme. Under this scheme, all EPF members who have activated their UAN and seeded their KYC (Aadhaar) with EPFO will be able to apply for final settlement/part-withdrawal or pension withdrawal from the their UAN Interface directly. Members can complete the process online without the need for any interaction with the employer or the EPFO office. Supporting documents are also not needed while opting for PF part-withdrawal through the online facility.
Alongside, EPFO has also introduced the ‘One IP-Two Dispensaries scheme’. Through this, ESIC has given an option to an Insured Person (IP) to choose two dispensaries, one for self and another for family. This will particularly benefit migrant workers working outside their home state, with their families living in their native states.
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