Posted in Finance, Income Tax, India.
The New Direct Tax Code (DTC) is said to replace the existing Income Tax Act of 1961 in India. DTC bill was tabled in parliament on 3oth August, 2010. There are big changes now in monsoon session and There are now much less benefits as compared to what were in the original proposal.
During the budget 2010 presentation, the finance minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee reiterated his commitment to bringing into fore the new direct tax code (DTC) into force from 1st of April, 2011, but same could not be fulfilled and now it will be applicable from 1st April, 2012.
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By Shantanu Rastogi – September 1, 2010
Posted in Finance, Investment, Mutual Funds.
With the market being so volatile and uncertain, investors are looking to add stability to their portfolios. One way of doing that is investing in gold. Investing in physical gold is cumbersome and entails a number of problems. But today, investors are faced with two choices when it comes to investing in the yellow metal. They can choose whether to invest in Gold ETFs or Gold mutual funds. Before an investor makes a decision, it is important to understand what the difference between the two is. Even though both are mutual fund products but have different modes of purchase. Eventually even gold mutual funds go and invest in Gold ETFs. Historically rate of return is higher in Gold ETFs rather than in Gold mutual funds.
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By Pankaj Batra – November 28, 2011
Posted in Finance, Investment, Mutual Funds.
Around 5 months back, we covered Moneysights and indicated that they will start online investment account service soon. Now as we see on their portal, Buy link on top is active, we decided to give it a shot.
As soon as we landed on their investment account landing page, we saw some exciting feature-set.
Their headline itself says: “No more running around after agents! No recurring paper work.”, seems like a relief to regular investor.
They claim to make your investment simple and reliable, which had been a bit painful in past due to application forms, signatures here and there, KYC stuff etc.
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By Pankaj Batra – November 15, 2011
Posted in Finance, Insurance.
Do we always have to blame insurance company? Guest author Shalin Tejpal Jain shares his experiences from PolicyComplaints.com below.
- “The insurance agent mis-communicated to me the product features and is now not responding to my calls.”
- “The insurance company is not addressing my complaints.”
- “The insurance company is not refunding back my premium.”
Aren’t these the common set of woes we hear from the insurance policyholders who say they have been cheated by the insurance companies?
For most of us it is a tendency to blame the seller in case any product or service we bought didn’t turn out as it was expected to. The reason why there are a high number of insurance policyholders who’re not happy with their insurance products is because unlike buying other products and services, they do not understand the insurance product before buying it.
Quite often it has been noticed that customers do not care to thoroughly go through the insurance plan’s brochure/leaflet before deciding to buy. They blindly believe the insurance agent and in some cases then skim through the brochure/leaflet to portray that they have gone through the product and understood it very well.
To add to this, there have been innumerable cases where the customer simply fills in the personal details, signs the insurance application form and asks the insurance agent to fill in the rest of the details. And in certain cases, customers do not even care to fill in the personal details such as name, DOB (Date of Birth), communication address, etc. They simply sign on the application form and ask the insurance agent to fill in all the required details including personal details based on the documents of proof provided by him/her.
Keep reading if this sounds anything familiar.
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By Pankaj Batra – November 9, 2011
Posted in Finance, Investment.
We all know about the risks associated with investing in Stock Markets and thus prefer to stay away from the same. We also know that Real Estate is always a good investment option but requires a large chunk of cash to be deployed at the time of purchase.
With Stocks and Real Estate not being the preferred option of many due to their inherent limitations, Fixed Income plans have always been a hit in India. They not only offer safe returns but also suit the pocket of every investor.
When we talk about Fixed Income Plans, the first thing that comes to mind is Bank Fixed Deposits. We all are aware about the characteristics of Bank Fixed Deposits, so in this article I’ll try to dig deep into 3 popular Fixed Income Plans in India except Bank Fixed Deposits
I. Public Provident Fund
II. Corporate Fixed Deposits
III. Senior Citizens Saving Schemes
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By Pankaj Batra – September 13, 2011
Posted in Finance, Government, India.
Now you can check your EPF (Employee provident fund) balance online.
This service has been launched on 1st July, 2011.
Data is only available for Delhi (North), Delhi (South), Laxmi Nagar (Delhi), Gurgaon, Faridabad, Karnal, Mumbai (Bandra) and Bangalore. Remaining offices will be added soon.
Update: Member Balance Service – EPF Member Balance Data of All EPF Offices added as on 21/09/2011.
Know Your EPF Balance
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By Pankaj Batra – July 1, 2011
Posted in Finance, Income Tax, India.
What is E-Preparation of Income Tax Return?
E-Preparation of IT Return is the process of preparing your Income Tax Return using a software.
The E-Preparation software can be of 2 types: 
A. Manual Calculation:
Those that allow you to enter your Income Tax data but do not calculate the Income Tax & Refund etc. The individual user needs to calculate the above himself/herself
B. Auto Calculation:
Those that take the Income Tax related data that you have entered to automatically calculate the Income Tax and Refund using their inbuilt tax calculation engine that is updated for current rules
Auto Calculation Software is more efficient and less prone to calculation errors.
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By Pankaj Batra – June 23, 2011
Posted in Finance, Investment, Mutual Funds, Stock Market.
Last week saw the launch of a new tool called MoneySights. I was one of those with an early invite to test it out. So here I am, pleased by it, and blogging it’s review, because I know many of us need it!
First impression of MoneySights is an amazing usability. It is intuitive, clean, uncluttered, fast and neat web 2.0 interface. It really isn’t very common for an Indian company to create such experience!
So what is MoneySights? It’s a fusion of various tools which will make the life easier for any investor.Today, a common Indian investor is hesitant, if not totally cynical about his investments. This is where MoneySights helps minimize the hovering indecisiveness through various tools. Here’s a detailed service synopsis for the intelligent investor:
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By Pankaj Batra – June 4, 2011
Posted in Finance, Investment, Mutual Funds.
Equity Markets are dynamic in nature. Nobody knows the top of the market. If someone says so, he is just befooling you with his own analysis. I think nobody would have predicted that the market will form a top at 21000 levels of Sensex made on 05, Nov, 2011 & would correct thereafter.
When the markets had touched 21000 levels, the PE Ratio of index was at 21 & the market was looking over valued at those levels. Normally Indian markets trades between a PE Multiple of 15-18 its earnings estimates. Now that was the time when an investor must think differently & look to opt for Systematic Withdrawal Plan once the market crossed 18 PE levels.
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By Pankaj Batra – May 27, 2011
Posted in Education, India.
This post has been written specifically to educate people of another kind of fraud at the ATMs.
The story narrated below is a real incident that happened today.
A sixty years old year man, living in a small town, visits a neighborhood ATM early morning to withdraw some cash. Like always, he inserts his debit card, enters PIN and requests for cash withdrawal. As machine does not have enough currency notes, machine informs that amount entered is large and requests him to choose a smaller amount. He tries 2-3 times and is able to only withdraw 2-3000. Now the old man is confused what to do.
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By Pankaj Batra – May 18, 2011
Posted in Finance, Investment, Mutual Funds.
If you are looking for monthly income return by investing one time & expecting a return better than Fixed Deposits without taking much risk, then the solution to all your anxieties is Monthly Income Plans (MIP).
Monthly Income Plans are hybrid investment options which invests majority of their portfolio holdings in debt oriented instruments like Government securities, bonds, certificates & around 20-25% of their holdings in equity oriented instruments. Through this plan, one can choose to opt for monthly, quarterly or yearly dividends though fund managers prefer to focus on disbursing monthly dividends as per the name suggests.
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By Pankaj Batra – May 13, 2011
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