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Trip to Bali, Indonesia

98 comments and 3,422 views

Posted in Food, Life, Travel.

Bali, the only Hindu Island in Islam dominated country Indonesia is as spellbinding demographically as it geographically is. A land of spawning scenery, serene beaches, eloquent temples, heavenly food, cheap currency, fancy souvenirs, Hindu 4-caste system and an active volcano, I can still smell Bali air and soil in my nostrils. Let me take you along to my rejuvenating trip to Bali.

Continued…

By Pankaj Batra – November 5, 2009

Bhuvan – India’s own Google Earth

6 comments and 3,270 views

Posted in Government, India, Technology.

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), National Remote Sensing Center (NSRC) and Department of space, Govt of India has launched Bhuvan (means Earth in Sanskrit), a satellite mapping tool. It has been launched on 12th August, 2009; 90th birthday of Vikram Sarabhai, the father of Indian space program.
Read Full Article Here >>

By Pankaj Batra – August 15, 2009

Check TDS deduction, income tax refund Online

99 comments and 15,734 views

Posted in Finance, Income Tax, India.

Just out of curiosity and to learn more, for past few years, I have been calculating tax, making whatever extra payment other than TDS online, filling return forms and submitting tax return myself. I am always excited to try new ways government implements.

I registered myself 3 years back to view tax credits paid by my employer as TDS. You can also register here : Check you tax credits. You can also download Form 26 AS here and see how much tax has been deposited on your name from your employer or any other firm.

You can view it to verify if the tax payments made by you or TDS deducted from salary or interest etc are correctly reported to the income tax department. You can also check income tax refund from previous year in the same form.

Now the same can also be checked from View Tax credit statement (Form 26 AS) section under  “My Account” menu in Income tax e-filing website after login.

By Pankaj Batra – June 25, 2009

Safer Online Transactions in India

2 comments and 1,806 views

Posted in Finance, India.

To minimize online transaction frauds in India, RBI has come out with more safer guidelines for online transactions. As per RBI, both credit and debit card holder have to validate their identity while performing an online transaction.

There can be multiple ways thru which identity validations can be done. One option is to send a transaction code as SMS to user’s mobile on each transaction, using which the transaction can be completed. Another option is to provide users a code generator device.

SBI, ICICI, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Citibank sends one time code as SMS to mobile for authenticating the transaction. HSBC provides a digital code generator which has to be used for any transaction online. HDFC uses a image and text to validate the user which has to be configured at time of net banking registeration.

Its difficult for a hacker to have access of everything including username, password, mobile phone or code generator.

Most of the banks do validation one time only at the time of activating third party beneficiaries. In all future transaction with activated third party accounts are not authenticated.

In case of credit card, Both MasterCard (called MasterCard SecureCode) and Visa (called Verified by Visa) uses password for authenticating online transactions. Some credit card have a feature of limiting the amount maximum of which a transaction can be done online.

By Pankaj Batra – May 7, 2009

Income tax calculator for India

805 comments and 317,690 views

Posted in Finance, Income Tax, India.

Most of people like me (employed in different organizations) need to know how much tax will be deducted every month as TDS (Tax deducted as source) by their employer.

To help all of us, I have created a small but powerful income tax calculator using which one can find out how much In hand he will get, how much HRA proof he needs to provide to make HRA non-taxable, whats the total tax he will have to pay for a year. After you calculate your taxes, you can also read How to file income tax return online.

2011 Budget Update (28 Feb 2011): As per budget presented on 28th Feb, 2010, Pranav Mukherjee proposed changes forincome tax rate slabs as per below. Also apart from current one lakh investment, additional 20,000 Rs will be non-taxable, if same has been invested in long term infrastructure bonds.

xls Income tax calculator for India  Income Tax Calculator for financial year 2011-12 (116.0 KiB, 130,174 hits)

Income Tax Rates for financial year 2011-2012

For Men
Upto Rs. 1,80,000/-Nil
Rs. 1,80,001/- to Rs. 5,00,000/-10 per cent
Rs. 5,00,001/- to Rs. 8,00,00020 per cent
Above Rs. 8,00,000/-30 per cent
For Women
Upto Rs. 1,90,000/-Nil
Rs. 1,90,000/- to Rs. 5,00,000/-10 per cent
Rs. 5,00,001/- to Rs. 8,00,00020 per cent
Above Rs. 8,00,000/-30 per cent
For resident individual of 60 years or above (Senior Citizens)
Upto Rs. 2,50,000/-Nil
Rs. 2,50,001/- to Rs. 5,00,000/-10 per cent
Rs. 5,00,001/- to Rs. 8,00,00020 per cent
Above Rs. 8,00,000/-30 per cent
For resident individual of 80 years or above (Very Senior Citizens)
Upto Rs. 5,00,000/-Nil
Rs. 5,00,001/- to Rs. 8,00,00020 per cent
Above Rs. 8,00,000/-30 per cent

2010 Budget Update (26 Feb 2010): As per budget presented on 26th Feb, 2010, Pranav Mukherjee proposed changes for income tax rate slabs as per below. Also apart from current one lakh investment, additional 20,000 Rs will be non-taxable, if same has been invested in long term infrastructure bonds.

xls Income tax calculator for India  Income Tax Calculator for Financial Year 2010-2011 (97.5 KiB, 145,397 hits)

Income Tax Rates for financial year 2010-2011

For Men
Upto Rs. 1,60,000/-Nil
Rs. 1,60,001/- to Rs. 5,00,000/-10 per cent
Rs. 5,00,001/- to Rs. 8,00,00020 per cent
Above Rs. 8,00,000/-30 per cent
For Women
Upto Rs. 1,90,000/-Nil
Rs. 1,90,001/- to Rs. 5,00,000/-10 per cent
Rs. 5,00,001/- to Rs. 8,00,00020 per cent
Above Rs. 8,00,000/-30 per cent
For resident individual of 65 years or above
Upto Rs. 2,40,000/-Nil
Rs. 2,40,001/- to Rs. 5,00,000/-10 per cent
Rs. 5,00,001/- to Rs. 8,00,00020 per cent
Above Rs. 8,00,000/-30 per cent

By Pankaj Batra – April 6, 2009

Radio Cab numbers in Delhi-NCR

75 comments and 63,275 views

Posted in India, Travel.

Quickcabs (Rs. 10 per Km) : 011-4533-3333

Mango Cabs (Rs. 10 per Km.) : 011-6363-6363, 9211-785-759/62/56

Aarya Cabs (Rs 10 per Km) : 011-4410-4410

Delhi Cherry Cabs (Rs 10 per Km) : 011-6469-6469

Super Cabz (Rs 10 per Km) : 011-4100-4100

Fantastik Cabs (Rs 10 per Km) : 011-6455-5000

Iris Cabs (Rs 10 per Km) : 011 4433-4433

Wyn Cabs (Rs 15 per Km) : 011 4800-0000

Smaart Cab (Rs. 15 per Km.) : 011-4647-4647

Komfy Cabs (Rs. 15 per Km.) : 0124-4777-888

Metro radio cabs (Rs. 15 per Km.) : 011-2922-2000

Miles Travellers (Rs. 15 per Km.) : 0124 – 234-1545

Carz on rent (Rs. 15 per Km.) : 011-4184-1212, 1800-111-212, 9971-399-308

Routes Car rentals (Rs. 15 per Km.) : 011-4440-4440

Yo Cabs (Rs. 17 per Km) : 011-4466-4466

Meru Cabs (Rs. 20 per Km. and night surcharge of 25% is between 23:00 to 05:00) : 011-4422-4422

Megacabs (Rs. 20 per Km. and night surcharge of 25% is between 23:00 to 05:00) : 011-4141-4141

Easycabs (Rs. 20 per Km. and night surcharge of 25% is between 23:00 to 05:00) : 011-4343-4343

Delhi Cabs (Rs. 20 per Km.) : 011- 4433-3222, 4422-2222

YatriCab :  011-6464-7779 An online travel site providing cab services in Delhi and NCR.

Online Aggregators:

GetMeCab.com : An aggregator of car inventory and provides outstation as well as local usage booking of all kind of cars online!. Team is founded by alums of IIM Ahmedabad and IIT Kanpur.

Cabyatra.com : Users can search, compare and book cabs of multiple operators online. It also offers point to point fares and booking in a city. Its is founded by a first generation entrepreneur Gaurav Kumar. Currently operational only in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida.

Cabbee.in

By Pankaj Batra – January 31, 2009

No need to submit LTA proofs to employer

426 comments and 66,543 views

Posted in Finance, Income Tax, News.

From now on, Employee will not have to submit proofs as evidence, to their employers for getting LTA (leave travel allowance) reimbursement.

Supreme court of India gave ruling that employers, while reimbursing LTA claims of their employees, are under no statutory obligation to collect  evidence and provide them to tax authorities.

As per Income tax rules of India, if transport bills for LTA are not provided, the amount will be taxed. E.g. If an employee has LTA allowance as Rs 50,000 in his CTC(cost to company), and he provides proofs of Rs 40,000 (boarding pass, air tickets, taxi vouchers) then income tax will be deducted for rest of the Rs 10,000. Does not matter whats the amount of LTA in an employee’s package, income tax laws only permits domestic air tickets only for LTA claim.

This court order came after a hearing of case between Larsen & Toubro and income tax department of India. Income tax department had argued that employer has to collect proofs from employee for LTA. Rejecting this, the supreme court in its order said: “The beneficiary of exemption under Section 10(5) (of the Income Tax Act) is an individual employee. There is no circular of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) requiring the employer under Section 192 to collect and examine the supporting evidence to the declaration to be submitted by an employee(s).”

Here is the link to court appeal

By Pankaj Batra – January 29, 2009

Unique Identification (UID) for Indians

1 comment and 655 views

Posted in Government, India, News.

Indian government has planned to issue unique identifications (UID) to all citizens starting from 2009 End. This will be another initiative towards e-governance from Indian Govt. It will a smart card and can be a replacement for existing ration cards, voter ID cards.

There will be a separate agency (named as UID Authority of India) created for creating/maintaining the database.

Not sure, whether Govt will be able to implement it successfully or not. There are already plenty of e-governance projects biting the dust. Problem with Indian government system is that, they just do the planning and do not act on implementation pro-actively.

The Unique ID number will now be known by its new brand name Aadhaar (आधार). Its logo has also been unveiled. The logo creator, Atul Sudhakarrao Pande, a Mumbai resident was given a cheque of Rs one lakh after his design was selected among over 2,000 entries.

As per Nandan Nilekani -“Name UID itself is very confusing. Some people call it DUI, somebody calls it IUD and so forth. So it was getting a little difficult to explain all this various permutations, combinations of this acronym, Therefore, we wanted a name that could effectively communicate its transformational potential and its promise to residents. Something that had a national appeal that could be recognised across the country, could resonate in different languages and easy to remember and speak.”

People living below the poverty line will get Rs 100 each as they are allotted the Aadhar number.
UIDAI is in talks with banks to make sure that the Rs 100 is directly credited to peoples bank accounts. This way,people who are not financially included will also be allotted a bank account number.

4557144846 ed75c60454 Unique Identification (UID) for Indians

By Pankaj Batra – November 11, 2008