Friday, December 27, 2013
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
India Post plans national ATM network
India Post plans to launch 1,000 ATMs in next six months, to bring all branches on single technology platform
The
state-run postal service is among the 25 applicants that have sought a
banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India. Photo: Madhu
Kapparath/Mint
Mumbai: India Post is
going ahead with the rollout of a nationwide network of automated
teller machines (ATMs) and bringing all its branches on a single
technology platform, notwithstanding the reservations of the finance
ministry and the Planning Commission over its proposal to venture into
commercial banking.
The
state-run postal service is among the 25 applicants that have sought a
banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). A four-member
panel, headed by former RBI governorBimal Jalan, will scrutinize the applications to pave the way for the entry of a third set of private banks into India’s Rs.81 trillion banking sector in two decades.
India Post will use Infosys Ltd’s Finacle software
to cover all post offices under the so-called core banking solution
(CBS) over the next 14-18 months. It also plans to launch 1,000 ATMs
nationwide in the next six months in the first phase, according to a
senior official at the postal department who requested anonymity because
he is not authorized to talk to the media.
The
CBS process, which would allow India Post customers to access their
accounts and perform transactions from any branch of the postal network,
has already begun with the Greams Road Post Office in Chennai on a
pilot basis. “The idea is to cover all offices as soon as possible,”
said the official.
India
Post has also begun work to set up 5,000 ATMs in select post offices
across the country in two phases. The first two ATMs will come up in T
Nagar in Chennai and Gole Dak Khana in Delhi by March, the official
said.
As of 31 March, commercial banks in India had an ATM network of 114,014 machines, led by State Bank of India (SBI) with 27,175 ATMs, followed by Axis Bank Ltd (11,245), HDFC Bank Ltd (10,743), ICICI Bank Ltd (10,481) and Punjab National Bank (6,312).
The plan is to issue ATM cards to all savings deposit holders at India Post. As on 31 March, the department was managing Rs.6.05
trillion of deposits, nearly half the deposit base of government-owned
SBI, the country’s largest commercial bank, and double that of the
largest private sector lender ICICI Bank. Of this, about Rs.2 trillion is under the savings scheme in 280 million accounts.
Out
of the total 155,000 post offices, 139,040 are in rural areas. About
6,000 people are covered on average by a post office in rural areas and
about 24,000 in urban areas, according to a 2011 estimate by the postal
department. Once the ATMs are in place, the post office savings bank
account customers will be able to access their deposits through ATMs.
“Like every other aspirant for the banking licence, India Post is building up their capacity for banking services," said Abizer Diwanji, a partner and head of financial services at the consulting firm EY, formerly known as Ernst and Young.
“Building
a unified nationwide network for financial services makes sense for the
department to develop their financial service offerings, even if they
do not get the banking licence,” Diwanji said.
India
Post’s plan to venture into commercial banking has been opposed by both
the finance ministry and the Planning Commission, which have
reservations about the postal service’s ability to take up the role of a
bank. The proposal is yet to get funding clearances from the
Expenditure Finance Committee. The finance ministry has been opposing
the plan arguing that the postal service doesn’t have the expertise
needed in relevant areas, such as handling credit.
The Expenditure Finance Committee’s approval is required for proposals involving spending of more than Rs.300
crore and the setting up of new autonomous organizations, regardless of
the amount. A new bank needs to have equity of at least Rs.500 crore.
The
Planning Commission, too, has reservations on the banking plan, though
the panel hasn’t overtly and officially spelled out its stand.
According to people familiar with the development, Montek Singh Ahluwalia,
deputy chairman of the Planning Commissions, said in an internal note
recently that arguments raised against India Post’s banking plan were
strong and the proposal could be a bad idea.
An email sent to Ahluwalia on 3 December did not receive any response.
“There
is a strong feeling in RBI that India Post doesn’t have the expertise
to manage a bank,” said a financial services expert with a consultancy
firm, requesting anonymity.
“While
technology and reach are positives for the postal department, their
lack of experience in dealing with credit is a big negative,” the expert
said.
India
Post is keen to set up a commercial bank under the name Post Bank of
India, arguing that it can significantly boost financial inclusion in
Asia’s third largest economy through its nationwide network of post
offices. This will also enable India Post, which posted a loss of Rs.6,346 crore in fiscal year 2012, to make up for business lost over the years to private couriers and email services.
Losses have significantly increased in recent years on account of higher expenses.
While
India Post’s banking plan is nearly two-decades-old, the department
stepped up efforts towards it in 2006, conducting internal viability
studies and seeking the opinion of consultancy firms. The move gathered
momentum when RBI unveiled its final licensing norms for new banks in
February.
The
postal department, which had appointed EY to advise it on the plan,
wants to open 300-400 branches after starting the proposed bank, with
each branch managing a specific number of postal outlets.
Source : http://www.livemint.com
SMS to be accepted soon by Govt deptarments as official document
People may soon be able to use SMS communication with government
departments as a documentary proof while utilising citizen-services for
making payments, registrations and various other schemes.
The Centre on Monday launched a platform with about 241 applications for
the public after completing pilot project of mobile governance with
about 100 departments and testing proof of concepts.
The applications relate to services covering areas such as Right to
Information (RTI), health, Aadhaar, education, directory services and so
on.
Launching the 'Mobile Seva' service, department of electronics and IT
secretary J Satyanarayana said: "Like Railways, we have to bring in a
system wherein by showing (transaction) SMS or, whatever be the case
(like e-mail), the proof on mobile is accepted as valid document.
"To increase our reach we need to bring this kind of practice in mobile and e-governance."
India has around 90 crore mobile phone subscribers. Satyanarayana said
that at present digitally signed certificates are accepted as valid
document but similar rule has to be made for mobile phone users where
SMS or a communication available on mobile phone can be accepted as
valid proof.
Joint secretary at DEITY Rajendra Kumar said the department is ready
with digital signature for mobile phones which the government can use in
messages that are to be sent to the citizens applying for a service.
"We will start allocating digital signature (Public Key Infrastructure)
to all government department on board in first quarter of 2014.
Government departments can send communication on mobile of citizen
seeking service," Kumar said.
He said any communication with PKI, say SMS, can be shown instead of a paper receipt or document.
At present, most of the mobile applications work on Android mobile phones and Java enabled phones.
Kumar said that in six months the government will bring all applications
to HTML5 standard which will make them compatible with all mobile
platforms.
DEITY additional secretary Rajiv Gauba said about 830 departments from
the Centre, state and local authorities have come on board, and the
department is working on the third phase to further scale up the mobile
governance platform and bring more services under its ambit.
"We have to go through inter-ministerial consultations to scale this
m-governance store for launch of third phase. The third phase will have
many more departments and capacity to add more services application on
this store. Final shape of third phase can be known only after
consultation process is complete," he said.
Source : The Times of India
Calendar of Departmental Examinations 2014 ( IndiaPost )
|
Sl No.
|
Name of the Examination
|
Proposed Schedule tentatively
|
|
(A)Centralised
Examination
|
||
|
1
|
Inspector of Posts Examination
|
23rd and 24th August
2014
|
|
2
|
Ps Gr ‘B’ Examination
|
15-06-2014
|
|
3
|
Postmaster Grade – I Exam
|
15-06-2014
|
|
4
|
LGO Examination for PAs/SAs in Circle
|
24th August 2014 Sunday
|
|
5
|
Junior Engineer( C&E)Examination
|
Will be notified after receipt of Question Banks and
syllabus revised . For the vacancies of previous years.
|
|
6
|
Assistant Engineer ( C&E)Examination
|
Same as Above
|
|
7
|
Sr Postmaster Examination
|
Tentatively proposed to be held on October 2014, by
which time it is expected that court verdicts will be pronounced.
|
|
8
|
PAs/SAs Direct Recruitment Examination
|
March 2014 for 2013 vacancies. Another recruitment in
November 2014 for 2014 vacancies.
|
|
9
|
Assistant Manager ( MMS)
|
Will be notified after receipt of revised Recruitment
rules /question Banks and syllabus revised.
|
|
10
|
Assistant accounts Officer (AAO)
|
As Above.
|
|
Sl No.
|
Name of the Examination
|
Proposed Schedule tentatively
|
|
(B) Decentralised
Examination
|
||
|
1
|
Confirmation Examination for direct recruit Jr
Accountants in PAO
|
17th & 18th may
2014
|
|
2
|
LDCs to Junior Accountants in PAOs
|
14th &15th June
2014
|
|
3
|
LGO Examination for promotion to Assistants of other
wings i.e. MMS , Foreign Post, RLO, Stores Depot and CO/RO
|
20th July 2014
|
|
4
|
Postman Examination
Direct Recruitment to Multi tasking Staff
|
To be held in October for 2014 vcancies.
|
|
5
|
PO&RMS Accountant Examination
|
25th May,2014
|
|
6
|
Departmental Examination for promotion to LDCs in PAOs
from Sorters and MTS.
|
27.7.2014
|
|
7
|
Departmental Examination for promotion to LDCs in PAOs
from MTS qualified in matriculation
|
17.08.2014
|
Monday, December 23, 2013
Sunday, December 22, 2013
DA Rates from 01/01/2006 ( for Information)
From - 2006
01-01-2006 -- NIL
01-07-2006 -- 2%
01-01-2007 -- 6%
01-07-2007 -- 9%
01-01-2008 -- 12%
01-07-2008 -- 16%
01-01-2009 -- 22%
01-07-2009 -- 27%
01-01-2010 -- 35%
01-07-2010 -- 45%
01-01-2011 -- 51%
01-07-2011 -- 58%
01-01-2012 -- 65%
01-07-2012 -- 72%
01-01-2013 -- 80%
01-07-2013 -- 90%
01-01-2014 -- 100%
നമ്മുടെ പാവം കറിവേപ്പില…!!
കറിവേപ്പിന്റെ ഔഷധ ഗുണത്തെ കുറിച്ച്
വേണ്ടത്ര അറിവ് ഉള്ളവരല്ല നമ്മളില് പലരും. കറിവേപ്പില നിത്യേന ഉപയോഗിക്കുന്നു
എങ്കിലും ഒരു സിദ്ധ ഔഷധം ആണ് കറിവേപ്പില എന്ന് പലര്ക്കും അറിയില്ല. കറിയില്
ഇട്ടതിനു ശേഷം എടുത്തു കളയാന് മാത്രമല്ല കറിവേപ്പില ഉപയോഗിക്കുന്നത്.
·
കറിവേപ്പില മോരില്
അരച്ചു കലക്കി രാത്രി ആഹാരത്തിനു ശേഷം കുടിച്ചാല് ദഹനകേട് മാറി കിട്ടും. 10 ഇല ഒരു ഗ്ലാസ് മോരില്.
·
ശരീര പുഷ്ടിക്കു ഒരു
തണ്ട് കറിവേപ്പില 50 ഗ്രാം നെയ്യ് ചേര്ത്ത് കാച്ചി ദിവസേന രണ്ടു നേരം ഉപയോഗിക്കുക.
·
പൂച്ച കടിച്ചാലും
കറിവേപ്പില ഉപയോഗിക്കാം. മഞ്ഞളും കറിവേപ്പിലയും അരച്ച് മൂന്ന് നേരം പുരട്ടുക.
·
അതിസാരം വന്നാല്
അരച്ച ഇലയില് കോഴി മുട്ട അടിച്ചു ചേര്ത്ത് രണ്ടു നേരം പച്ചക്കോ, പൊരിച്ചോ കഴിക്കുക. ഒരു മുട്ടയ്ക്ക് രണ്ടു തണ്ട് കറിവേപ്പില വീതം
ഉപയോഗിക്കണം.
·
കാല് വിണ്ടു
കീറിയാലും കറിവേപ്പില ഉപയോഗിക്കാം. കറിവേപ്പിലയും പച്ച മഞ്ഞളും രണ്ടു നേരം അരച്ച്
പുരട്ടുക. രണ്ടു കഷ്ണം മഞ്ഞളിന് ഒരു തണ്ട് കറിവേപ്പില ഉപയോഗിച്ചാല് മതി.
ഇതൊക്കെ നമ്മുടെ നാട്ടില് പണ്ട് മുതലേ
ഉപയോഗിച്ച് കൊണ്ടിരുന്ന നാടന് ചികിത്സ രീതി ആണ്. ഇന്നുള്ള ആര്ക്കും ഇതിനെ
കുറിച്ച് വലിയ അറിവില്ല. കറിവേപ്പില വീട്ടില് തന്നെ നട്ടു വളര്ത്തിയത്
ഉപയോഗിക്കണം.
ഒരു പുസ്തകത്തില് നിന്നും കിട്ടിയ
അറിവ് ഇവിടെ പകര്ന്നു എന്ന് മാത്രം.
CEPT NEWS - SpeedNet Automatic Upgradation
SOFTWARE UPDATION AUTOMATED IN SPEEDNET 4.1.
The Center for
Excellence in Postal Technology (CEPT), Mysore is making constant
efforts to improve the quality of software to provide best services. As
part of this activity, CEPT will now be pushing Speednet updates from
the Data centre directly to the field offices, which have implemented
Speednet Version 4.1.
At present,
whenever an update is released for Speednet, the System Administrator
has to go round all the offices under his control and to update software
manually. Now this process is automated. The software at the local
office gets updated automatically whenever CEPT releases update.
SpeedNet communication will do the miracle.
Prerequisite:
a) SpeedNet Update 4.1 should be available in the system.
b) In respect of computers running XP SP1 or SP2, DotNetframework 2.0 or higher to be installed.
How it happens:
a) If the updates are limited to database upgration the same will happen silently in the background.
b) If the updates includes application level changes
i). the operator will be shown a message indicating availability of New update, at the time of login. (Fig.1 may be seen) and follow the instructions displayed. (This activity can be done by any operator)
ii). Software will not allow login, unless the upgradation process is completed.
Action to be taken by Offices running much older versions:
Offices not
implementing Speednet Version 4.1, will have to upgrade manually by
downloading the SpeedOne Updater.exe file available in the CEPT FTP site
(at ftp://cept.gov.in/SpeedNet/
Challenges:
During
automatic transmission, files may get damaged due to various Network or
other problems. In such cases errors will be displayed while updating
the application. When such errors are encountered, please download the
update directly fromftp://cept.gov.in/SpeedNet/
Support:
For any further support please send mail to support@ceptmysore.net with subject as :SPEEDNET AUTOMATI UPGRADATION – OFFICENAME - PINCODE
Phone: 91-821-2449015; 91-821-2440092;
09449865961; 9480809728; 9480809707
Fax: 91-821-2440526
Friday, December 20, 2013
Everything You Need to Know About Leave Travel Allowance (LTA)
With the Financial Year winding to a close by
end of March and Summary Vacations on the horizon in April-May, many of us are
planning our vacations during the time when our kids don't have School. Many of
us go on yearly outings with family but most people don’t know or don’t use
their Leave Travel Allowance. In fact, many of us would have heard the term LTA
at some point during their careers but don’t bother to use it (including me)
because we fail to appreciate its use and tax benefits.
The purpose of this article is to help you
understand what LTA is and how to use it to reduce your tax liability.
What is Leave Travel Allowance?
Leave Travel Allowance is an allowance that is
usually paid as part of Salary (Annual CTC to be specific) by employers to
their employees. The original idea behind the LTA component was to help the
employee meet his travel expenses. However, of late it has become yet another
component of the CTC and no one cares much about it except how much is paid out
as LTA every year by the employer.
LTA is usually decided for a year and then paid
out on a monthly basis. For ex: If your LTA is Rs. 12,000/- every year, you
will get Rs. 1,000/- every month as LTA.
Many Employers club
together the allowances like House Rent Allowance (HRA), LTA, Medical Allowance
etc. and come up with a final number that is added to the CTC. The employee is
given the flexibility to decide how much of the total Allowance is allocated to
each of the individual components. As LTA isn’t that popular with people, most
of them usually enter a small number there and fail to utilize it properly. In
other cases, company's themselves decide the LTA based on the employee's
designation/experience etc.
Does the LTA Have Tax Benefits?
Of Course YES. Do you think, I will be writing
an entire article if it weren’t important?
How does LTA Affect My Tax Liability?
Let us say your annual Salary is Rs. 6,00,000/-
After all your deductions like House Rent,
Medical bills, Section 80C Tax Savings etc., your Taxable Income is Rs.
3,50,000/-
Let us assume, your annual salary includes a
Rs. 25,000/- LTA component and if you satisfy all the criteria laid down by the
Tax Authorities to utilize the LTA Tax benefits, your Taxable Income will come
down to Rs. 3,25,000/-
Effectively, the entire LTA component of your
Salary became Tax Free!!!
However, Did you read the Sentence "If you
satisfy all the criteria laid down by the Tax Authorities to utilize the LTA
Tax benefits" that I just used above?
Yes, the Tax Benefits aren’t available to
everyone. You need to satisfy the following conditions in order to be eligible
to avail this tax benefit.
Condition No. 1: The Amount should be
spent only on Self and Immediate Family Who is totally dependent on you
By Family we are talking about - Spouse, A
Maximum of two children, Parents, Brothers & Sisters Who are not employed
and are dependent on your income
Condition No. 2: The Travelling Group
should Include the person who is going to claim LTA
If you are not travelling with your family, you
cannot claim LTA for that trip. For ex If my wife, two children and parents
went to Delhi from Chennai, and I stayed back at work, I cannot claim LTA on
that trip.
Condition No. 3: The Amount Claimed should
be for Travelling Expenses Only via the Primary Mode of Travel
By Travelling Expenses, we are talking about
the expenses incurred for the actual travelling part like Train Tickets, Air
Tickets, Bus Tickets etc. Supplementary Travel expenses like Auto Fare, Taxi
Fare etc. are not covered. All other expenses like Food, Accommodation,
Sightseeing etc. are not covered as well.
Condition No. 4: Foreign Travel is not
eligible for LTA
All Trips and Travels within the country of
India only are eligible for LTA Exemption under the Indian Tax Laws
Condition No. 5: Travel Expenses are
Considered only for the Shortest Route Possible
LTA Exemption can be claimed only corresponding
to the fare that will be incurred if you take the shortest possible route. If
you are travelling from Chennai to Bangalore, the amount you can claim is for a
train/bus/flight that goes directly from Chennai to Bangalore. If you go from
Chennai -> Hyderabad -> Bangalore for some strange reason and try to
claim the two-trip expenses, it will not be approved. You have to either submit
expenses for the Chennai -> Hyderabad -> Chennai trip or book tickets in
a direct trip from Chennai to Bangalore
Condition No. 6: You can claim LTA only
Twice in a Block of Four Years
You could claim LTA exemption in respect of any
two journeys in a block of four years. The current block is 2010 to 2013. Say
for example, you claim LTA exemption in 2010, then you could claim just one
more till 2013. Remember - You cannot Claim LTA Every year.
There is some confusion about whether LTA
follows the financial year or the calendar year. LTA Year blocks are always
based on calendar year. So, it goes from Jan 2010 to Dec 2013 for the current
block. The claim can be done in the financial year that the travel actually
happened. If you traveled between April to Dec 2013 you can claim it in the tax
returns you will be filing in 2014 for the financial year Apr'13 to
Mar'14.
Condition No. 7: If Husband and Wife both
receive LTA, They cannot claim the same Trip
If Husband and Wife both receive LTA as part of
their salary, both of them could claim LTA individually as the rules of LTA
apply individually to each of them. So in a block of four years, each spouse
can claim LTA twice. The only restriction is that both spouses cannot claim an
LTA exemption for the same journey. In other words, LTA cannot be claimed twice
for the same journey.
Condition No. 8: You must have been on
earned/annual leave on the dates for which you are claiming the LTA. You cannot
claim LTA for days when you were working. You must have applied for annual or
earned or paid leave (whatever you may wanna call it) and got it approved in
order to claim LTA. There is actually no limit on the minimum or maximum number
of days you need to apply for leave to claim LTA. But, for easier
claims/processing try to utilize at least 3 consecutive days of annual leave
for LTA purposes.
As you can see, though LTA can be pretty useful
in reducing your tax liability twice in a block of four years, it isn’t
straightforward and involves a lot of Conditions. If you intend on claiming
LTA, make sure that you Remember these 7 conditions above.
After reading the above conditions, you would
definitely have a few questions that are lingering in your mind. I have tried
to answer a few of them below. If you have any more questions, please feel free
to leave a comment and I will do my best to answer them.
1. Can I fly Business Class and claim
LTA?
No. For air travel, the maximum amount that can
be claimed as exemption is the economy class air fare.
2. What is the Maximum Fare I can claim as LTA
while travelling by Road or Rail?
For rail or road, the maximum amount that can
be claimed as exempt is the air conditioned first class rail fare to your
destination by the shortest route.
3. What happens if I did not make a claim in
the current block? Do I get any benefits for the next block?
In case you don’t avail of the LTA exemption in
a particular block, whether for both the journeys or for just one journey, you
could carry forward one journey to the first calendar year in the next
succeeding block of four years. Thus, in the next block of four years, you
could claim the carried forward travel, plus, two journeys of that particular
block i.e. a total of 3 exemptions!
For ex: Let us say you are entitled to an LTA
of Rs.10, 000 per year and you do not utilize it in the block 2010-2013. This
amount could be carried forward in the next block of four years. You must
therefore claim this amount in 2014 and then you can further more claim your
LTA entitlement of that particular block (2 more times i.e. 10,000+10,000) as
well.
4. How does One claim an Exemption?
As most of us are salaried employees, you can
submit evidence for the travel (tickets/bills etc.) to your employer and they
will include it in your form 16. If you are self-employed or missed submitting
LTA to your company, you can avail the services of any chartered account who
helps file Tax Returns for people and they will be more than happy to include
this along with your tax calculations.
5. What happens if I spend more than my LTA
amount?
In case your travel expenses exceed your actual
Leave Travel Allowance amount, the exemption you can claim is limited to your
LTA Amount. For ex: If your LTA is Rs. 25,000/- this year and you incurred Rs.
40,000/- in air fares for a family trip, your LTA Exemption will be limited to
Rs. 25,000/- and the remaining Rs. 15,000/- will not give you any tax benefits.
6. What happens if I don’t exhaust my LTA
amount?
In case your travel expenses are lesser than
your actual Leave Travel Allowance amount, the exemption is limited to the
actual amount spent. For ex: If your LTA is Rs. 25,000/- this year and you
incurred Rs. 15,000/- in rail fares for a family trip, your LTA Exemption will
be limited to Rs. 15,000/- and the remaining Rs. 10,000/- will not give you any
tax benefits.
7. I Traveled more than once in a single
financial year. Can I claim both for LTA?
Yes.
8. I booked a tour via a travel operator as a
Package. Can I claim the entire amount as LTA?
No. Only the actual amounts spent on
Road/Air/Rail transport can be claimed. Other expenses cannot be claimed as
LTA.
The idea here is - We will go on vacations with
our families irrespective of the Tax Benefits we get out of it. However, if we
can get tax benefits, why waste it.
Happy
Vacations!!!
Source : http://anandvijayakumar.blogspot.in/2013/02/everything-you-need-to-know-about-leave.html
Source : http://anandvijayakumar.blogspot.in/2013/02/everything-you-need-to-know-about-leave.html
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