The DA Rate w.e.f. 1.1.12 is 65% - increase 7% from the existing 58%.

Dearness Allowance is likely to rise by 7% from Jan 2012.
The Total Dearness Allowance is expected to be 65% as per the calculations…

Month / Year	B.Y. 2001=100	Total of 12 Months	12 Months Average	% Increase over 115.763	App. DA	DA %
Jun-11	189	2203	183.58	67.82	58.59	58
Jul-11	193	2218	184.83	69.07	59.67	59
Aug-11	194	2234	186.17	70.41	60.82	60
Sep-11	197	2252	187.67	71.91	62.12	62
Oct-11	198	2269	189.08	73.32	63.34	63
Nov-11	199	2286	190.50	74.74	64.56	64
Dec-11	197	2298	191.50	75.74	65.43	65

Labour Bureau, Government of India has announced the All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial workers (AICPI (IW)) for the month of December 2011 as 197. In the previous month (November-2011), AICPI (IW) was 199.

A summary of All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial workers for the months from January 2011 to December 2011 is given below.

Month	Jan 11	Feb 11	Mar 11	Apr 11	May 11	Jun 11	Jul 11	Aug 11	Sep 11	Oct 11	Nov 11	Dec 11
AICPI	188	185	185	186	187	189	193	194	197	198	199	197

We know that to estimate Dearness Allowance Rate applicable for central government employees, All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial workers (AICPI (IW)) for the previous 12 months are required. So, based on the AICPI (IW) for the months from Jan-2011 to Dec-2011 we can easily estimate the expected dearness allowance for the Central Government employees with effect from 1.1.2012 using the following formula.

Dearness Allowance = (Avg of AICPI for the past 12 months – 115.76)*100/115.76

In the recent past, many were guessing the applicable DA rate with effect from 1.1.2012, using AICPI (IW) for the months from Jan-2011 to Nov-2011 only as the same for Dec 2011 was not announced. Since, the AICPI (IW) for December 2011 is also out last week, there is no need for any wild guess regarding the DA Rate for central government employees from 1.1.2012 any more. The DA rate with effect from 1st January 2012 by entering the AICPI (IW) for the month of December 2011 which is 197, in the relevant field.

                                                      

Thus, the applicable DA rate with effect from 1.1.12 is estimated to be 65%, which an increase of 7% from the existing DA rate of 58%.

The official announcement by the Government for eligible DA rate for central government employees with effect from 1.1.2012 can be expected in the month of March-2012.


Courtesy :http://aipeup3tn.blogspot.in/

Central Civil Services ( Recognition of Service Associations ) Rules, 1993

No. 2/10/ 80-JCA (Vol. IV)

Government of India

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

(Department of Personnel & Training)

New Delhi , the 5^th November,  1993.

NOTIFICATION

- - - - - - - - - - - -

            In exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to article 309 and clause (5 ) of article 148 of the Constitution, after consultation with the comptroller and Auditor General in relation to persons serving in the Indian Audit and Accounts Department , and in suppression of the Central Civil Services ( Recognition of Service Associations ) Rules, 1959 except as respects things done or Omitted to be done before such super session,  the president hereby makes the following rules, namely :

1.                  Short title and commencement: ( 1 ) These rules may be called the Central Civil Services ( Recognition of Service Associations ) Rules,  1993.

            2.  They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the official gazette.

2.                              Definition :  In these rules ,  unless the context otherwise requires, -

( a )      “ Government “ means the Central Government.

( b )            “Government servant” means any person to whom the Central Civil Services

( Conduct ) Rules, 1964, apply.

3.                  Application:  These rules shall apply to Service associations of all Government servants including civilian Government servants in the Defence Services but shall not apply to industrial employees of the Ministry of Railways and workers employed in Defence Installations of Ministry of Defence for whom separate Rules of Recognition exist.

4.                  Service Associations already recognized :

A Service Association or a federation which has been recognized by the Government before the commencement or these rules and in respect of which the recognition is subsisting at such commencement ,  shall continue to be so recognized for a period of one year form such commencement or till the date on which the recognition is withdrawn, whichever is earlier.

5.            Conditions for recognition of Service Associations:

            A service Association which fulfills the following conditions may be recognised by the Government, namely :-

( a )      An application for recognition of Service Association has been made to the Government containing Memorandum of Association ,  Constitution ,  Bye-laws of the Association , Names of Office-Bearers ,  total membership and any other information as may be required by the Government ;

( b )      the Service Association has been formed primarily with the object of promoting the common service interest of its members ;

( c )            membership of the Service Association has been restricted to a distinct category of Government servants having common interest ,  all such Government Servants’ being eligible for membership of the Service Association ;

( d )      ( i )            The Association represents minimum 35 percent of total number of a category of employees provided that where there is only one Association which commands more than 35 per cent membership ,  another Association with second highest membership ,  although less than 35 per cent may be recognised if it commands atleast 15 per cent membership ;

( ii )      The membership of the Government Servant shall be automatically discontinued on his ceasing to belong to such category ;

( e )            Government employees who are in service shall be members or office bearers of the Service Association ;

( f )       the service Association shall not be formed to represent the interests ,  or on the basis ,  of any caste ,  tribe or religious denomination or of any group within or section of such caste ,  tribe or religious denomination ;

( g )      the Executive of the Service Association has been appointed from amongst the members only ;  and

( h )      the funds of the Service Association consist exclusively of subscriptions from members and grants ,  if any made by the Government ,  and are applied only for the furtherance of the objects of the Service Association.

6                    Conditions subject to which recognition is continued :

Every Service Association recognized under these Rules shall comply with the following conditions ,  namely :-

( a )      the Service Association shall not send any representation or deputation except in connection with a matter which is of common interest to members of the Service Association ;

( b )      the Service Association shall not espouse or support the cause of individual Government servants relating to service matters ;

( c )      the Service Association shall not maintain any political fund or lend itself to the propagation of the view of any political party or a member of such party ;

( d )      all representations by the Service Association shall be submitted through proper channel and shall be addressed to the Secretary to the Government / Head of the Organisation or head of the Department or office ;

( e )      a list of members and office hearers ,  and up-to-date copy of the rules and an audited statement of accounts of the Service Association shall be furnished to the Government annually through proper channel after the general annual meeting so as to reach the Government before the 1^st day of July each year ;

( f )       the Service Association shall abide by ,  and comply with all the provisions of its constitution / bye-laws ;

( g )      any amendment in the constitution / bye-laws of the Service Association ,  after its recognition under these Rules ,  shall be made only with the prior approval of the Government ;

( h )      the Service Association shall not start or publish any periodical ,  magazine or bulletin without the previous approval of the Government ;

( i )       the Service Association shall cease to publish any periodical ,  magazine or bulletin ,  if directed by the Government to do so ,  on the ground that the publication thereof is prejudicial to the interests of the Central Government ,  the Government of any state or any Government authority or to good relations between Government servants and the Government or any Government authority ,  or to good relations between the Government of India and the Government of a foreign State ;

( j )       the Service Association shall not address any communication to ,  or enter into correspondence with ,  a foreign authority except through the Government which shall have the right to withhold it ;

( k )      the Service Association shall not do any act or assist in the doing of any act which ,  if done by a Government servant ,  would contravene any of the provisions of the central Civil Services ( Conduct ) Rules, 1964 ; and

( l )             communications addressed by the Service Association or by any office-bearer on its behalf to the Government or a Government authority shall not contain any disrespectful or improper language. 

7            Verification of Membership :

( 1)                   The verification of membership for the purpose of recognition of a Service Association shall be done by the check-off-System in pa-rolls at such intervals and in such manner as the Government may by order prescribe.

( 2 )                  The Government may,  at any time,  order a special verification of membership if it is of the opinion ,  after an enquiry ,  that the Service Association does not have the membership required under sub-clause (i ) of clause ( d ) of rules 5 .

Leading email providers join hands to fight spam, phishing

World’s leading email providers including Google, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook and Microsoft have announced to join hands to collectively fight the increasing menace of email and phishing attacks.

Following 18 months of collaborative work, 15 email providers on Monday announced formation of DMARC.org (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) a technical working group to develop standards for reducing the threat of deceptive emails, such as spam and phishing.

Among other things, it will outline an enhanced vision for email authentication that can scale up to today’s Internet needs.

The group’s work includes a draft specification that helps create a feedback loop between legitimate email senders and receivers to make impersonation more difficult for phishers trying to send fraudulent email.

“Email phishing defrauds millions of people and companies every year, resulting in a loss of consumer confidence in email and the Internet as a whole,” said Brett McDowell, chair of DMARC.org and Senior Manager of Customer Security Initiatives at PayPal.

“Industry cooperation -- combined with technology and consumer education -- is crucial to fight phishing,” McDowell said.

The DMARC specification addresses concerns that have traditionally hindered widespread deployment of an authenticated, trusted email ecosystem, the statement said.

“Today, email receivers lack a reliable way to know the extent to which an email sender uses standards like SPF and DKIM for authenticating their messages,” it said adding that as a result, providers must rely on complex and imperfect measurements to separate legitimate unauthenticated messages sent by the domain owner from fraudulent phishing messages sent by a scammer.

By introducing a standards-based framework, DMARC has defined a more comprehensive and integrated way for email senders to introduce email authentication technologies into their infrastructure, it said.

For example, a sender could set policies to easily request a provider to discard unauthenticated email in order to block phishing attacks.

The specification also creates a mechanism for email providers to send detailed reports back to email senders to help catch any gaps in the authentication system.

This feedback loop raises the trust level within the email ecosystem and makes it easier to detect and stop phishing attempts, it said.

“BITS has been committed to defining and improving email authentication standards and practices to meet the financial services industry’s needs.

“DMARC’s evolutionary approach is critical in assuring these needs are met for years to come,” said Paul Smocer, president of BITS, the technology policy division of The Financial Services Roundtable.

After gathering data and input from field usage of the technology, DMARC.org intends to submit its DMARC specification to the IETF for standardisation.

Source : www.thehindu.com dtd 31/01/2012

Green Banking

This is with reference to the news report “Bye-bye cheques, hello electronic payments” (Business Line, January 23). It was indeed commendable that banks launched a “green banking” movement and encouraged paperless banking.

This is more efficient, faster and safer. However, the RBI, in its wisdom, permitted the banks to charge Rs 6 per NEFT transaction; which the banks were very prompt to implement. This defeats the whole purpose of the “green banking” campaign. Customers in the high net-worth or wealth management category aren't charged for cheques.

In any case, even those who are charged for additional cheque books would find it more economical to use cheques rather than NEFT services, where they are charged for each transaction.

The only benefit of electronic banking is greater safety, when compared to outstation cheques sent by post and subjected to the vagaries of the postal system.

It would be interesting to see if the imposition of the service charge for NEFT transactions has dampened the initial enthusiasm for electronic banking.

The banks would do well to render this service free, or at a small one-off annual fee, if the spirit of electronic banking is to continue its rise in popularity.

Source : www.thehindubusinessline.com dtd 31/01/2012

MEMBER (P) ADDRESSED TO ALL HEADS OF CIRCLES

MEMBER (P) ADDRESSED TO ALL HEADS OF CIRCLES FOR TIMELY HOLDING OF JCM REGIONAL COUNCIL AND OTHER PERIODICAL MEETINGS

How Postal Services try to have stamp of modernity

Senior citizens are lifeline of the department; virtual post offices or e-post offices are the future which will attract youngsters

His relationship with the post office started when he was barely 10. S. Sampath, a septuagenarian, continues to correspond through what many people call the “snail mail service” despite all odds and dissuasion from his family.

For over 60 years, Mr. Sampath has seen the service attain enviable heights of repute, success and efficiency, and then rapidly lose its traditional relevance in the face of modern technology. His son often teases him for posting cards, but nothing stops the septuagenarian from using the Department's services.

“There is no one to pass on my stamp collection in my family. I have stopped writing long letters to my relatives in the village,” said the retired teacher from Kalaivanar Colony, Anna Nagar West.

With the digital world expanding by the day, the idea of a simple hand-written letter seems to be on its way into history. The virtual extinction of hand-written letters is also impacting sale of inland letters and post cards. Individual mails have shrunk to less than 20 per cent of the Postal Department's deliveries.

Bhanurekha Sundar, a resident of Ashok Nagar, said: “When I was young, I used to post 20 to 30 greeting cards. Now, I send and receive greetings through text messages and e-mails. I miss the excitement. I realise that none of us has much time anymore for such niceties.”

Today, if you see customers walking into a post office, they are most likely to despatch something by speed post, to remit bills, send parcels or use its banking services. Launch of more parcel packaging centres and success of retail services and savings schemes, however, are signs of possible demand for its newer services.

Shrinking numbers

Corporates and government departments keep its services going, but the Postal Department is clearly losing its individual customers. A postmaster who did not want to be named said: “The number of individual customers has reduced to 50 per cent compared to two decades ago. There were days when sub-post offices dealt with 10,000 individual mails daily.”

Mergers have brought down the number of post offices as well. Currently there are only around 200 post offices in Chennai and its suburbs and nearly 75 per cent of these are in rented buildings that are under threat of either being moved or closed down.

Sources in the All India Postal Employees Union said that of the 273 post offices in the city only 170 are presently functioning. Many one-man post offices had to be closed as the revenue generated was low.

Officials said the department was on the look out for rented accommodation at affordable rates for post offices. “We have been asking the Chennai Corporation for space. But they are yet to give us concrete replies. Private persons are not willing to rent buildings to us.”

Exploring new avenues

To cope with the mounting expenditure and the heavy subsidising of its primary services, the postal department is morphing into a multi-service provider. The annual growth rate varied between 10 to 15 per cent. The total monthly revenue generated by Chennai city is around Rs.6 crore of which Speed Post alone contributes Rs.2.40 crore. There are also customers who give business worth Rs.25 lakh per month.

“We are taking steps to make post offices more customer friendly by improving the quality of services in areas, including Adyar, Tambaram and T. Nagar. We have authorised 25 franchisees that do all our operations excluding banking and insurance,” said an official.

However, computerisation has not spread to all post offices. “Though a portion of the 2,500 employees in Chennai still find it difficult to adapt to technology, the department also has not been able to implement computerisation universally, which leads to delay in processing time,” admitted a postal official.

‘Sell stamp paper'

J. Srivenkatesh, State president, All India Postal Employees Union, said there was no separate cadre for system operations support. “If there is a problem in the system, nobody knows how to set it right,” he said.

Questioning the rationale behind closing post offices and offering more retail products to customers, he said that in the last two years around 60 post offices have been closed in Chennai. “We have been suggesting that post offices sell stamp paper… we sell revenue stamps anyway. It would be a profit spinning enterprise,” he said.

The Union has been campaigning for removing the system of hubs in Speed Post services as it would only lead to slowing down of deliveries.

“We ensure that 95 per cent Speed Post is delivered on time. Sometimes there is a delay due to non-availability of the person or address being unclear. Parcel services too are very popular with customers. T. Nagar and Mylapore post offices do business up to Rs.1 crore a month at times,” said Postmaster General (Chennai City Region) M.S. Ramanujan.

Shanthi Srinivasan, marketing executive, said proof of address cards, sale of gold coins and parcel services were top of the retail services. “We have good response from customers for services including sale of application forms for universities, HMT watches and solar lamps.”

The expansion of services has led to an increase in work load. A postal assistant who joined recently said: “We work for nearly 12 hours to beat the competition from courier companies. We collect bulk letters from corporate clients. We also have to canvass customers to purchase our retail products.”

Admitting that the senior citizens are the lifeline of the department, the official said virtual post offices or e-post offices are the future of the department to attract youngsters to use the services.

What they say

M.S.Ramanujan, Postmaster General, Chennai City Region

We are repositioning and re-engineering ourselves to be relevant to the changing needs of the customers. The launch of retail services and parcel packaging centres and strengthening of banking services are the recent moves to stay in touch with customers. We are focussing on relocation of post offices instead of closure. There are also plans for a massive technological upgradation in the next two years.

Elizabeth Sam, homemaker from Madipakkam

The habit of writing letters had many incentives. We had pen friends across the world, and more than the letter, we valued the stamps. Collecting stamps and knowing about them has helped me to de-stress myself throughout the 50 years that I have been collecting them. I like collecting thematic stamps, mainly on flora and fauna, and now, I collect a lot of Sri Lankan stamps. My sustained interest in stamps has not only helped me as a teacher, but also ensured that I had interesting things to do, even after retirement.

G. Kaliasundaram, Investor, post office scheme

Being a senior citizen, I find the services of the postal agents very satisfactory. Even at odd hours in the day, we can call them up and speak. We invest in the postal scheme because it is convenient for us, and we do not have to go to the office personally for every need. However, if their business is affected, it will in turn affect us.


Source : The Hindu

Difference between NRE and NRO Accounts

Difference between NRE and NRO Accounts

The Government of India has permitted NRIs to open rupee accounts in India in order to repatriate funds from their home countries. The two most common accounts are the NRE and NRO accounts. Let’s take a closer look at them.

What’s an NRE account?

A Non-Resident External (NRE) account is a bank account that’s opened by depositing foreign currency at the time of opening a bank account. This currency can be tendered in the form of traveler’s checks or notes.

What’s an NRO account?

A Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) account is the normal bank account opened by an Indian going abroad with the intention of becoming an NRI. An NRI can also open this account by sending remittances from his home country or by transferring funds from his other NRO account. It offers the same facilities as an NRE account, except that any repatriation done through this account should be reported to RBI by filling up prescribed forms.

How do NRE and NRO accounts differ?

Funds remitted from overseas sources or local funds that would otherwise have been sent to the accountholder abroad can instead be transferred to NRE Accounts. On the other hand, local funds that aren’t eligible to be remitted abroad must be credited to an NRO account.

Can you transfer funds from an NRE to anNROaccount and vice versa?

It’s easy to transfer funds fromanNREto an NRO account. But it’s not possible to transfer funds from an NRO account to an NRE account. Once you transfer funds fromanNREtoanNRO account, the amount is non-repatriable. Consequently, you cannot transfer it back.

What’s the difference in the tax treatment for interest earned on an NRE and an NRO account?

The interest earned on any type of NRO bank as well as the credit balances in this kind of account are taxed under the account holder’s tax bracket. On the other hand, interest earned on the NRE account is totally exempted from income tax, and the credit balances in the account don’t attract any wealth tax. Any gift given to a close relative doesn’t attract gift tax.

Source: window2india.com &  investmentkit.com