How home loan borrower can benefit from tax deductions

The Income Tax Act provides a separate head for tax of ‘Income from House Property’ under Section 22 to Section 27.

Interest paid or payable on money borrowed for the purchase, construction, repair, or reconstruction of a house is allowed as a deduction. In case of a self-occupied property treated as such, the maximum deduction will be Rs 30,000 per annum.
If the funds have been borrowed for the acquisition or construction of a house after 1 April 1999, Rs 1.50 lakh will be deductible.

Source:TNN

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Buy a Tata Nano, with a swipe of a credit Card

With the introduction of this offer, consumers get the benefit of converting the entire amount on the credit card into interest free installment.

MUMBAI: In a first of its kind deal in the Indian automobile industry, Tata Motors BSE -1.84 % on Wednesday in a bid to jumpstart flagging sales of TataNano has offered customers an option to swipe their credit card and drive out with the Tata Nano on the same day.

Ranjit Yadav, president, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors said: “This offer will enable customers to own a car in the fastest and hassle free manner. With the introduction of this offer, consumers get the benefit of converting the entire amount on the credit card into interest free installment, spread over a period of 12 months and manage monthly cash flow better.”

When Yadav, a recent hire at Tata Motors joined India’s largest automobile firm from Samsung India- the South Korean consumer electronic major’s Indian subsidiary in September 2012, it was speculated that the automobile industry that lacks innovative methods to sell products could take a leaf from the fast moving consumer electronics business.

This is precisely what Yadav, the former country head at Samsung (India) for the Mobile & IT Businesses brought to the table, by offering an option to customers to buy a vehicle through a credit card, the same way a mobile phone or a lap top is bought. Source:ET

Consumer Voice http://ow.ly/iy9YT

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50% of smartphone users in India are under 25 yrs: Nielsen

Indians are increasingly taking to smartphones and the number of such devices in the country touched 40 million last year with almost half of the users younger than 25, says a survey.The dramatic growth in the usage of smartphones is driven by a desire among users to stay connected and have instant access to social networking sites, according to the survey by research firm Nielsen.

"Decreasing device and data costs, coupled with a wide range of features that today's smartphones offer, readily encourage consumers to trade in their traditional cell phones for handsets with much more functionality," the survey said.

According to the Indian smartphone user study – conducted in September and October 2012 across 46 cities – people overwhelmingly prefer mobile devices that operate on the Android operating system.

While Symbian usage is also high in India, Windows, BlackBerry and iOS devices each only have single-digit market shares, said Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights that polled more than 10,000 smartphone owners.

Moreover, tablet ownership among Indians is set to spike as consumer interest in tablets is also on the rise.

While only 3 per cent of respondents who participated in the study in the last quarter of 2012 said they owned a tablet, 11 per cent said they intended to purchase one.

Voice calls and texting accounted for only 25 per cent of smartphone usage; multimedia, games, apps and Internet browsing made up the rest.

Among apps, consumers prefer games, particularly with respect to paid apps. Games were the most popular category among paid apps, with nearly three out of five users (58 per cent) paying for games.

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