Now pay Rs 105 for New PAN card

New PAN cards issued by the income tax department will cost Rs 105, including taxes. The I-T department has recently informed new measures for authenticating personal and proprietary data of an individual or entity for allocation of new PAN cards. The move has been taken to curb the issues of fake or multiple Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards.

“The cost of getting a new PAN card, including all taxes, is Rs 105. This service charge by-and-large has been kept unchanged. The new procedures of checking original documents for proving date of birth, address and identity have been brought in to check the complaints of fake PAN cards or multiple cards obtained by any entity," a senior I-T official was quoted by media as saying.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) from February 3, informed those needing PAN will have to give identity proof, address proof and date of birth enclosed with their application forms and they will be assessed against their original documents when applications are submitted at PAN  card centres.

However, the original documents will be given back to applicants after on-the-spot verification. The applicant has to self-attest the photocopies, according to reports by (TOI).

“The technology systems of the I-T department will now be made error-free and robust once PAN card data is entered as correctly as possible,” the official said, adding that the new cards issued henceforth will feature the name and date of birth of the applicant and not the address details. 

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State Bank of India introduces up to $1.5 billion share offering: Source

India’s leading bank State Bank of India introduced a share sale to increase up to $1.5 billion to boost its domestic and global banking operations, said sources, reported (ET).

The bank is selling shares to institutional investors in the price range of Rs 1,565 to Rs 1,596 a share, said the sources, who refused to be names as they are not allowed to interact to the media.

State Bank of India shares 0.09 % shares end.

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Fake luxury consumer products will get double by 2015 in India: Report

In an unprecedented case, sale of ‘fake’ and ‘artificial’ luxury good may see an upsurge to 5,600 crore by 2015, as consumers are finding it easy to order luxury good through online shopping retailers.

According to a report by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), sale of fake luxury products such as handbags, watches, sunglasses and perfumes are in high demand than in the genuine luxury products. Currently, the sale of fake products are growing at 40-45% from the current Rs.2,500 crore.

The report also suggests that globally the fake luxury products market comprises about 7% of the total luxury market having value of more than $22 billion of the global luxury industry valued $320 billion. However, fake luxury products in India accounts about 5%of total luxury product.

Interestingly, the report shows that good from Chinese market, which is believed to be source of fake luxury goods, have flooded in the Indian market. Lack of transparency on line market and easy access to products is driving consumers to buy fake products online. 

“Over 80% of the entire imitation luxury products in India come from China,” D S Rawat, Secretary General of Assocham told media.

Report further states consumers who are unable to buy original products they deliberately buy fake products as global websites delivering fake products courier them products once they receive payments. Most of these websites have their domain names which are usually not registered under Indian jurisdiction. 

“Demand for fakes is a manifestation that aspiration of a product does not meet affordability of the same. It’s not driven by a certain set of consumers who lack affordability but even those who can afford the original opt for fakes owing to desirability and awareness reflective of a value-conscious shopping behavior,” adds Senior Vice President Ankur Bisen of retail and consumer products Technopark Advisors Pvt.

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Job market in 2014 looks bleak, but jobs skills improves

The jobs market in India for next year looks bleak, but the skills of the new entrants have improved, according to a new survey.

According to a report ‘India Skills Report 2014’ compiled by PeopleStrong, a human resource company, only a slight surge of about 1.4% in total hiring numbers was projected.

The report said the prospect for jobs doesn’t look good in the year ahead. Interestingly, sectors such as engineering, hospitality and travel will see a rise in their hiring, however, other sectors like like banking, financial services and insurance, information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services, and manufacturing are not expecting a major increase.

“At sub-5% GDP growth, what does one expect? If you talk to the CEOs across sectors about their next year’s plan, the first thing they talk about is cost cutting. When the focus is on cost cutting, you will see optimization of resources than new job creation. The government needs to put in place enough reforms to create that environment (of more investment and job creation). When expansion plans are stuck, you don’t add jobs,” Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder of PeopleStrong Pankaj Bansal was quoted by media as saying.

Lots of corporations have halted their investment plans and looking for cost-cutting due to slow demand, higher borrowing costs and delayed government sanctions for projects.

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New norms for TV rating agencies might miff TAM: Analysts

The guidelines approved by the government to govern the functioning of TV rating agencies may distort the pattern of measuring TV viewership. But, it will bring a greater transparency and accuracy to the system of assessing and rating broadcasters, according to experts. The guidelines avert any single body from having paid-up equity in excess of 10% simultaneously in both a rating agency and a broadcaster, advertiser or advertising agency.

That requirement would eliminate TAM Media Research, the existing TV rating agency, which is a 50:50 joint collaboration between Nielsen (India) Pvt. Ltd and Kantar Media Research, a part of London-based advertising company WPP Plc, according to media reports.

Chief Executive of ZenithOptimedia Satyajit Sen told media, “TAM will cease to exist in its current form. However it could become a third-party member in the compilation of TRP (television rating point) data from the logistics side of things.”

A statement issued by the government gave 30 days’ time for fulfilling with the change; any non-compliance will results in penalty of two bank guarantees worth Rs.1 crore furnished by the company in the first instance. If the requirement is not fulfill again, the registration of the agency would be annulled.

TAM Media Research, which has rated Indian broadcasters for the past 15 years, refused to pass any remark on the guidelines and their effect.

“We hope this does not lead to a disruption of the TV measurement system. Any such disruption is bound to negatively impact ad spends on TV,” said C.V.L. Srinivas, Chief Executive (South Asia) at GroupM.

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India to get ‘polio-free’ certificate by World Health Organization

India is set to get a ‘polio-free’ status by the World Health Organization (WHO), as not a single polio case has been reported in the last 3 years. However, studies show that due to the excess dosage of polio experts suspect that another type of paralytic condition has cropped up.

India will get a certificate as a polio-free country by March, leaving Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria as polio-centric nations. Interestingly, the last case of polio was reported on January 13, 2011 from West Bengal. India’s striking figures in polio abolition, although, has seen a steady sidelining of the rising cases of non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (NPAFP). India has reported at least 53,000 cases of NPAFP in the last 13 months. Many believe that in a bid to get a polio-free certificate, the government of India deliberately sidelines the rising cases of NPAFP, reported media.

Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is a condition in which a patient suffers from paralysis those results in droopy limbs due to reduced muscle tone. While AFP is indicative of polio, it can occur by other diseases such as the Guillain Barre Syndrome and nerve lesions as well—the primary cause fuelling the argument that India is not really free of wild polio virus.

“The increased number of non-polio AFP cases being investigated by the national polio surveillace programme (NPSP) has been due to an increased reporting of AFP cases following deliberate efforts made by the programme to increase the sensitivity of the surveillance system in order to reduce the risk of missing any polio cases,” WHO representative to India Nata Menabde told media.

She said, “The intensity of these actions was monitored very closely in UP (Uttar Pradesh) and Bihar—the two traditional polio reservoir states—to ensure no polio cases gets missed in these states.”

Around 12,000 NPAFP cases were reported in India which saw a rise to 25,000 in 2005. Sadly, in 2007, NPAFP cases grew by 40,000 and in 2011, it touched about 61,000.

Delhi’s St Stephens Hospital doctors Neetu Vashisht and Jacob Puliyel, who collected statistics from the national polio surveillance project, established a connection between the rise in polio dose of and the growing cases of NPAFP.

Jacod was quoted by media as saying, “Most experts will tell you the cases of NPAFP have increased because of better surveillance. This is bunkum. As per global benchmarks, as polio incidence comes down, the rate of NPAFP should also reduce. Instead, AFP cases have been increasing steadily.”

“In 2010, the government reduced the number of pulse polio doses from 10 to 6. What we found was that between 2010-2013, the number of APF cases also came down. Our paper argues that other kinds of polio are being caused by the excessive administration of polio dosages. Another proof is that states like Kerala and Goa, where dosages were less, AFP cases was also less. Majority of NPAFP cases are reported from Bihar and UP, where several immunization rounds are held to reach universal coverage. These are figures the government does not want to admit,” Jacob adds.

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Must-known facts before choosing holiday package

Under the consumer protection law, you have the right to expect and get what you deserve from the holiday that you booked and paid for. The tour operator or the travel agency through whom you book your package holiday is liable for all the services including cab hire, hotel accommodation and flights that he offers in the package.

Also, if your holiday gets spoilt by the tour operator for any reasons, including wrong transport, sub-standard hotel, unhealthy meals, issuing tickets without seat, last-minute overcharge or any other such breach of trust, then you are eligible to challenge this malpractice at consumer redressal forums as well as the court of law.

However, even though the law stands by your side, it is applicable only when your holiday has been spoilt and then you go complaining about the agent or the agency. Hence, prevention, of course, is the only way to save your holiday. It is recommended that you choose your travel agency carefully and double-check your tickets as well as accommodations booked by the travel agent. Call the airline, railways or cruise companies to confirm your tickets are in your name and the rooms too are reserved for the right date and time in the right person’s name.

In this article, we bring forth some of the cases where consumers have faced problems and the judgment of the consumer court in that regard.

Cruising Nightmare    

With popularity of cruises due to their reduced rates, unscrupulous travel promoters are succeeding in cheating people with the promise of huge discounts. When you get an unsolicited call that you have won a ‘free trip’, you should investigate thoroughly.

Common complaints about this type of free or discount cruise offers include.

Hidden fees: Once you book a cruise, double-check hidden charges such as port fees, taxes, registration fees, service, charges and other surcharges that the agent may not tell you about.

Different amenities: Once you arrive on the cruise ship, you find that it lacks the features you were promised.

Not free after all: Sometimes the promoters of ‘a free cruise’ ask you to pay extra fees immediately on arrival at the ship and that too through credit card.

What Can You Do?

1. Cruise offers that come through unsolicited calls or by spam mails are more likely to be fraudulent. Do not think twice before saying ‘not interested’ on the phone and unsubscribe from the spam mails. Don’t let them pressurize you.

2.  Whenever possible, purchase cruise services from agencies that are genuine and have a credible name. Best is if they are recommended by friends or family.

3.  Take your time and do not be lured by ‘pay now and get discount’ offers. If you are pressurized to make quick decisions, chances of fraud are more.

4. Get all the details in writing, duly signed by the authorized person from the agency or the travel company. Insist on a complete description of the cruise – accommodation type, food quality and frequency as well as the cruise ship type.

5.  Check out similar tour packages with other legitimate travel agencies and services providers.

6.  It is always better to pay by cheque (many may not accept it) or credit card to keep record of payments. Never pay by cash, even if they try luring you on the pretext of tax benefits.

7.   If you encounter problems during the cruise, lodge a complaint with the cruise company/agency in writing and get a copy signed from them as proof of receipt of compliant. Remember: of you complain after the cruise is over, your chances of claim or legal assistance will be bleak.

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Indian women smokers outshine men: Study

The percentage of Indian men who smoke every day has plunged from 3^rd to 5^th place over the last three decades, but the percentage of women smokers has remained unchanged. Considering the country’s population, India has more women smokers among all the countries except US.

The study was conducted by Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. It shows that frequency of smoking among Indian men dropped from 33.8 per cent in 1980 to 23 per cent in 2012, reported media.

Female smoking frequency in 2012 was 3.2 per cent, nearly the same as in 1980. This comes to over 12.1 million women in 2012; the number of male smokers, by compare, was 98 million in that year.

The results were concluded after the study was done on the basis of on a wide range of data sources, including in-country assessments, government figures, and World Health Organisation statistics.

Interestingly, despite the low percentage of smoking among men in India, yet the rate of deaths from smoking in India touches million. “Smoking rates remain dangerously high for men and there is more work to be done to drive these rates lower,” Dr Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India was quoted by media as saying.

Dr A Nandakumar, Director of National Cancer Registry Programme said, “Annually there is an increase in the incidence of lung cancer among women. For instance, the annual percentage change in the incidence rates of lung cancer is 0.8 per cent in Mumbai, 2.4 per cent in Delhi, 4.1 per cent in Bangalore and 4.9 per cent in Chennai. The age group of women is 35-44 years in some cities, younger women have taken to smoking in a big way.”

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Tips for wise investment during inflation

In an era of uncertain environment for investment, here is an attempt to put together some ways that will help you in making a few wise decisions to ensure that inflation does not affect your most significant financial goals – including the child’s education and your own retirement and medical expenses.

Avoid Carrying Cash

Try keeping minimum cash in hand and use it for monthly bills of unavoidable essential purchases like milk, provisions and vegetables. Reserve isle cash for unforeseen circumstances – let it be in the bank instead of your carrying it in the pocket. This will help you in avoiding impulse buying.

Bank Deposits

The first savings, mostly unintentional, in anyone’s life begins with a bank account. Remember that you earn interest on whatever amount you deposit in the bank account.  See this interest as a reward for not spending now. You can earn more interested in form of Recurring Deposit (RD) and Fixed Deposit (FD).

Mutual Funds

Many salaried people and small traders are a little wary of the products coming from mutual fund companies. It is to be noted that mutual funds are safe and are liquid in nature, which means they can be converted into cash within a short period of time. One can also see how they are performing on a day-to-day basis as they are listed in the stock exchanges. The returns from such funds are better than bank deposits, if held for a longer period.

Share (Equity)

For a small investor, this is by far the best bet in terms of revenue, but not really in terms of security. If you can acquire knowledge of the share market or have a sound advisor, it may turn out to be a good investment. Note that for short-term holdings, equity may not come up to give the returns or growth that one anticipates. Hence, during inflation buy shares that expected to perform well and give better returns if bought for longer durations.

Real Estate

This sector can be one of the investment avenues, but it can behave strangely at times. If the realty market is on upswing, returns are good. Even rental income can go up. However, since a sizeable investment is needed in real estate, a small investor is advised to invest in small-sized commercially shops or buy small piece of land (25050 yards).

Inflation-Indexed Securities (IIS)

This is a new savings plan to be introduced by the RBI shortly. It is a debt instrument and returns are inflation-adjusted to give you redemption after 10-years wait. This will be an optional product to combat inflation.

Gold, e-Gold and Gold ETF

Gold prices are always high during festive season and weddings. Hence, this is a good time to invest in ornamental gold, e-gold as well as gold ETF (for investment) and reap benefits when gold prices rise again. 

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Public sector banks offer special home loans

Potential home buyers have a reason to cheer, as public sector banks such as Indian Banks and Indian Overseas Banks are offering home loans at interest rates of 10.20 and 10.25% respectively.

In a statement, a city based bank said, “Indian Bank is offering home loans at 10.20% across various slabs irrespective of the tenure for people looking forward to build homes.”

Likewise, Indian Overseas Bank, who usually targets women customers, is offering housing loan at 10.25%, regardless of the term and loan amount under the banks’ Subha Gruha scheme.

However, for other debtors, the interest rates have been kept at 10.25% for loans up to Rs 75 lakh and 10.50% for loans above Rs 75 lakh, according to media reports.

The statement adds that offer made by the two banks is valid up to 31 March, 2014.

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ATM transaction charge is not going to increase: NPCI

In a big relief to consumers, The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said that they are keen going to hike the ATM transaction charge in spite of bank urging NPCI to increase the charge due to increase in security costs.

 A P Hota, MD & CEO of NPCI, while speaking to media, said, “We are not going for an increase in charges at this stage although banks have been requesting for a revision of charges. In a large number of ATMs, there already are guards and most of the machines already have CCTVs.”

Banks have demand for increase, explaining that hiring guards for three shifts would cost at least Rs 30,000 per month. Considering the average transactions number 150 per day and about 4,500 transactions per month, the cost of an average transaction comes up to Rs 6.6.

While presently banks pay each other Rs 15 for cash withdrawal from their ATM by non-customers. RBI restricts banks from passing the charge to the customer for five transactions a month for an amount of up to Rs 10,000.

Banks are looking at cutting costs by shutting few ATMs at night. Besides cutting cost of acquiring the ATMs, the move is believed to cut down operating costs too.

“The Aadhaar Mapper located at NPCI has close to five crore Aadhaar numbers mapped to various banks and government departments make payments to about five lakh beneficiaries each day using just the Aadhaar number as the address,” adds Hota.

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Urban Indian consumers’ outlook improves in December 2013: Report

A research as suggested an urban Indian consumers registering an improvement in consumer outlook in December, 2013.

According to a ZyFin Research, which focusses on current and future spending plans, employment and inflation, shows outlook of urban Indian consumers has touched 40.2, an uptick of 0.4 points compared to November, 2013, reported media.

ZyFin Research states that a score of above 50 suggests optimism while below 50 is pessimism.

ZyFin Research‘s consumer outlook index is India's monthly barometer of consumer trends. It is based on a monthly assessment of 4000 consumers in 18 cities.

“The Indian economy is on the path of revival and the abating pessimism towards borrowing and spending is a sign that bodes well. However, employment continues to be a cause for concern as several sectors, particularly manufacturing, have been reeling under the throes of the economic slowdown. 

For any major turnaround in spending sentiment, employment outlook needs to improve drastically as compared to what it is today,” Debopam Chaudhuri, VP research, ZyFin Research was quoted by media as saying. Consumers in metros’ like Mumbai, Bengalore and Hyderabad are the most optimistic with regard consumer outlook.

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LIC- Life Insurance Corporation of India Proves ‘The Most’ Consumer Friendly

LIC also outshined in private insurer in business with a slide of only 5.6% as against private insurers which are all in double digits ranging from 17% to 42%. The only exception is HDFC Life Insurance, which has a fall percentage of 5.6%. IRDA monitors fall percentage as the number of policies fell during the year divided by the average of the policies in force at the beginning and end of the year, according to media reports.

Life Insurance Policy (LIC) has outshined other insurance agencies in terms of consumer friendliness parameters. It had fewer slips, higher claim settlement and no penalties from the regulator.

Interestingly, the claim settlement percentage of LIC was better than private life insurance agencies. Its settlement percentage increased to 97.73% in FY13 from 97.42% in the previous year. While the rejections was only 1.12% compared to 1.30% earlier, reported media.

Private insurance agencies recorded a fall in settlement percentage to 88.65% from 89.34% in FY12. In its annual report FY13, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority states (IRDA), “Private insurers had repudiated more number of claims when compared to LIC. The percentage of repudiations (by private insurers) was 7.85%, almost unchanged from pervious years 7.82% in FY12.”

According to TOI, “The 13-month persistency (policies which are renewed after a year) is the highest for PNB MetLife at 71.22% on a much smaller business. LIC, Max Life Insurance and IDBI Federal Life Insurance have a 13-month persistency of 70%. For other private companies, the ratio ranges from a low of 36% to 69%.

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