Some budget facts you should know!

Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the highest number of budgets – 10. of these 8 were annual ones and 2 were interim ones. He also had the honour of presenting the budgets in 1964 and 1968 on 29th February, which happened to be his birthday. He had 2 stints, one as a finance minister… Read More »

Of controlling inflation and the Budget

The increased spending from the Government has increased the deficit in the Government budget to a very high level. At the GDP level it is a comfortable slightly over 4%. But on an actual budget level, the deficit is at over 40% of the income (14 lakh crores expenses on an income of 10 lakh… Read More »

What are mortality charges on life insurance policies?

Do you benefit from reduced mortality charges if you buy a life insurance at a young age? The answer is yes based on the simple logic that higher the age higher is the mortality charges. For example, a 25 year old will obviously have a higher life expectancy than a 55 year old and hence… Read More »

Possible investment options the NRI could explore

The 40% scheme allows for purchase of equity, preference shares and convertible debentures not exceeding 51% of the face value of each issue. Repatriation of up to 40% of the new issue is allowed. Under this scheme, NRIs can invest in new projects or in expansion and diversification projects of existing companies.

Investment avenues, Public Provident Fund

Tax treatment is where the PPF scores very high. The PPF comes under the Exempt- Exempt- Exempt category. This means that the amount invested gets tax benefits, the interest is not taxed and so is the final maturity amount. The investment gets benefits under Section 80C of the IT Act. The investment however is limited… Read More »

Trying your hand at new investments? Explore Art!

Investing directly in art has its own drawbacks. For one, these artworks need to be protected against theft and damage. Second, you need to have large sums of money to buy these works. Third, they occupy a lot of space. So for those looking to invest in art but have money and space constraints, there… Read More »

Investing in real estate? Here’s some know how

Real estate attracts capital gains tax. The advantage is that we can use indexation benefits to our advantage. The indexation index is announced every year by the Income tax department. This is a number which links the inflation to property values. By using indexation, we can estimate the true appreciation of the real estate after… Read More »

Know all about MICR code

Unlike the manual clearing of cheques where there is a possibility of many human errors and subsequent delay in clearing, the MICR code on the cheque printed with a unique magnetic ink usually iron oxide has magnetic material present in it and thus makes it machine-readable and almost error proof! Under this method the reading… Read More »

Bubble trouble – What, why and how?

A lot of investor participation goes into opting for the strategy to protect from market bubbles! An investor is better positioned when he possesses a strong financial knowledge, has more time to watch market movements and above all a basic understanding of the assets markets. The investors’ ability to make use of the various financial… Read More »