Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Did you Know | How to read your PF statement




Livemint::Deepti Bhaskaran:24 April 2012:921pm


EPF, which is currently offering 8.25% this year, is one of the preferred retirement planning vehicles owing to its favourable tax treatment - it provides a tax deduction at the investment stage and the returns are tax-free in your hands



Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), which is currently offering 8.25% this year, is one of the preferred retirement planning vehicles owing to its favourable tax treatment—it provides a tax deduction at the investment stage and the returns are tax-free in your hands.



















 Every year, usually at the beginning of the financial year, your company gives you an EPF slip.



 This slip usually indicates your contribution and interest accrued in your EPF account up to the previous year. For example, if you get the slip in say FY13, the entries in the slip will indicate your fund balance up to FY12. 


However, you could also face delays of a few years. This slip is important as it tells you how much you have accumulated in your EPF account.


 It is important you understand the entries in this slip to ensure you are able to track your account correctly.


What does your account number stand for?

This number is alphanumeric. The first two entries indicate the regional PF office in which your company contributes your money. 

For instance, if your company contributes in the regional EPF office at Bandra, Mumbai in Maharashtra, the entry will look like MH/BAN. 

The next entry will be in digits. This will be the employer’s code, followed by the employee’s account number.

How to read your account balance

Your account balance will usually have the following entries.

Opening balance: This is the amount you have accumulated till the beginning of a financial year. In the example above, the opening balance will indicate the fund balance at the start of FY12. This amount is further divided into two heads—employee’s contribution (the amount contributed by you plus interest) and employer’s contribution (the amount contributed by the employer plus interest).

Interest: This entry indicates the interest that has been credited to your account for FY12.

Contributions: This shows the payments made by you and your employer in FY12.

Withdrawals: Any partial withdrawals or advances that you may have taken.

Closing balance: This is the sum of all the entries—the opening balance plus interest accrued on the opening balance and on the contributions made in FY12 plus the contributions made in FY12. Advances you may have taken would be deducted from this kitty. This closing balance will become the opening balance for the next financial year; in this case, FY13.

How to track epf balance online
Go to Epfindia.com and click on know your EPF balance. You will need to know the regional EPF office in which your employer holds an account. The link will then ask for your employer’s and your account numbers. 

Key in the digits and your mobile number and the link will SMS you the account balance. The SMS will have two figures for your and your employer’s contribution.

Google Drive


Reuters | Apr 24, 2012, 10.40AM IST
SAN FRANCISCO: Google Inc is preparing to roll out a service to let consumers store photos and other content online, a source familiar with the matter said, pushing into a market now dominated by the likes of Dropbox and Box. 

The service, to be called Google Drive, could be announced as soon as Tuesday and would be offered with both free and premium for-pay versions, the source said. 

Google's "cloud storage" offering will incorporate search capabilities and allow users to store pictures, notes and other documents on the Internet and access them from any Web-connected device. 

Consumers will get 5 Gigabytes of storage for free with Google Drive, while various versions with incrementally more storage capacity, topping out at about 100 Gibabytes, will be available for monthly fees, the source said. 

It was not immediately clear how much Google will charge for the premium versions. 

A Google spokeswoman said the company does not comment on rumor or speculation. 

The move turns up the competitive heat with high-profile Web startups such as Dropbox, Box and Evernote, as well as with Microsoft Corp and its SkyDrive service. 

Some of those services, such as Box, have offered an increasing array of business-oriented features such as online collaboration capabilities. 

Google is increasingly developing services to let consumers store their personal information, from digital music to photos, on remote internet servers and access the data any time with any device, such as smartphonestablets and desktop computers

The world's No.1 web search engine with roughly $38 billion in 2011 revenue, Google generates 96 per cent of its revenue from advertising, such as the small ads that appear alongside its search results. 

Google Drive will work with sophisticated image search technology to let consumers sift through a wide variety of document types, which could include the likes of Adobe PDF files andphotographs, the source said. 
 
Some details of Google Drive have appeared in various online blogs in recent months, including The Next Web, which first reported that the service could be rolled out this week.

Google launches Drive, offers 5GB free space in cloud








TNN | Apr 24, 2012, 11.02PM IST




NEW DELHI: After weeks of speculation, Google launched Drive, a cloud-based storage, on Tuesday. The service, which would compete with popular apps like Dropbox, Microsoft's Sky Driveand Apple's iCloud, would allow users to store up to 5GB data in Google's servers for free.

Initially, Google Drive would be available forAndroid devices, PC and Mac. The company said that support for iPhone and iPad would be added later. 
 
"Just like the Loch Ness Monster, you may have heard the rumors about Google Drive. It turns out, one of the two actually does exist," Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president for Chrome and apps, wrote on official blog. "Today, we're introducing Google Drive - a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond."

According to Pichai, Google Drive will work with Google Docs, hence giving users ability to edit or create documents within the app itself. This will give Google an advantage over Dropbox, an extremely popular cloud-based service, through which users can only sync their files. 
 
Google said that users who want more space would be able to upgrade. "You can choose to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB," Pichai wrote. 
 
Though for now users would be only able to attach photograph from Drive into Google+ posts, Pichai said that in future, it would also support Gmail.